I just recently had a chance to read your book. It's absolutely awesome! It just touched my heart.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
:)

Pray tell, how do you pronounce the name of the great and awesome Sabokowa? I can't quite figure it out. And I need to know this particular bit of important information why? How can I tune in to her awesomeness if I don't know how to pronounce her name.

SO-buh-cow-uh ... it's the Japanese word for "buckwheat" (!!!)

"Buckwheat?" That's hilarious. I don't know why, but it is. I laugh at the name "Buckwheat." But not at Sobakowa. Never NEVER would I laugh at the Great Sobakowa.

As Tyra would say, that is a FIERCE photo!

Could you not purchase 2 or 3 great cardboard toys next time you see them? I feel so sad for Bob-o and the lovely Frankie.

If she's anything like my cat, she'd find a way to hog all 3 of them.

I'm laughing because you keep saying VD. Which makes me think of the commercial for that herpes drug. Which also makes me wonder if one VD could lead to another.
I should probably go take more cold medicine...

I need to get one of those cat scratcher things.

Also - I'm glad someone finally asked how to pronounce Sobakowa. In my head, I was saying "So Buh Koh Uh." I am so Southern.

Great contest...my post didn't post because I'm a klutz, so I will wait with baited breath (all of a sudden I'm thinking of fish bait, kitty breath...YUK) for the next one. I love all those trippy titles and the wisdom inside. My sister and I love your book and this column. And I send pets and behind the ear scratches to Sobakowa.

Hee hee - I work in a medical lab - and a few years ago we found a great set of heart shaped stickers that said "Happy VD" (Especially loved by the staff that did the testing for the other kind of VD).

Sobakawa looks awfully Dictator Like in that pose. Very regal - and ready to attack!
Poor Bob and Frankie..... they need a toy of their own.
Is the crinkly cat tent/cave still popular?

*
your helpy books post was so funny and I just love you.

*

Dear Laurie,

Every time I go to bloglines and see a new post from you, I see the post The official and likely incomplete rules to my family's version of "Thirty-One" at the top. Did you make it a sticky.
Enquiring minds want to know!
That is some scarey cat you have.

All the best,
Dawn

the mighty sobakowa rules all she surveys!

bow down in abject fear to her majesty!

I second grace's comment; bob and frankie don't have a chance against the warrior sobakowa.

sorry, I don't know anything about bloglines! I just write.

Soba appears to be quoting Hepburn from "A Lion In Winter"....

"Squint as you approach lest my beauty blind thee."

All hail The Sobakowa!

Will Soba be my Valentine? I'd be happy to provide the necessary kitty treats to 'buy' her affection!

I think if a book about PDI cats entered Chez Purl, the Mighty Soba would shred it all to he**!

I was looking around the internets looking at yarn and found some Patons Up Country!

http://www.pagelinx.com/cgi-shopper/loadpage.cgi/smileysyarns/ezshopper?user_id=&file=iriot.htm

Yeah for the internets!

PS I love your cats so much I am trying to talk my husband into letting me adopt!

Soba's Dictator-Stare-Of-Death is giving me the booboojeebees!!

Are the cats going to leave their VD gifts for you in your shoes again this year??

I found size 13 dpn on Yarn Market.com. My local stores (OC, CA)didn't have them. I think everyone is making the CAP beret. Thank you all for your help!

'Cats who Love Too Much'
a best seller for sure.
I love that her name is Buckwheat. I would have to supress the urge to talk in the Buckwheat voice all the time.

I'm also wondering what would happen in the cat household if there was more than one cardboard thingy. Would they all go for the same one or each take one?

My long-haired chihuahua, aka the Bit@# Queen, would lay all of the cardboard thingys, or dog treats most usually, around her in a circle, chew on one, and bit@# out all other approaching dogs. She's good at it, too. She screams!

Love your kitties...love most all animals. Sigh.

I went out and spent $30 on two cardboard things (7 cats, after all), and they totally ignore them...except, of course the one cat who wears "Soft Paws" caps on his claws (so he wouldn't rip into the other cats). He tries to scratch away on the wave scratcher like crazy! Maybe I need to put more catnip on them?

Check out this Wiggle stool at the MOMA design store. It's also made of cardboard slices, designed by Frank Gehry and only costs $498!

http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Wiggle%20Stool_10451_10001_43863_-1_11461_11467_null__6H100

Check out this Wiggle stool at the MOMA design store. It's also made of cardboard slices, designed by Frank Gehry and only costs $498! I think Soba would OWN it.

http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Wiggle%20Stool_10451_10001_43863_-1_11461_11467_null__6H100

Soba sure is on top of things! Important toy-like things are the best things to stay on top of. Especially when one has siblings!

Congratulations to Jan!!!! And to you for being on top of things. :O) I'm usually at the bottom, under stuff myself. Sobakowa is such a pretty cat, and so determined! Love that in a cat. We have a box that came from Florida, carrying a layer of oranges in a bigger box. It has a top edge of a couple of inches all around. I put one by the heat vent, after we ate the oranges of course, and the cats have just loved it. There are occasional scuffles as to who will lie in the box, with Moo the victor most times. This morning the sisters Clementine and Eloise were both in it! Well, Clemmie just fits, so Elly was all four paws in, but barely, and perching precariously like she was on a high wire, tail up and head balancing over the edge. But she was in the box too!!! We gave them a second box, but they all still want the first on. Weird.

Congrats to Jan! I too have been pronouncing it So-bu-KO-uh, and I am so Yankee it's pathetic. (Just ask Laurie. She'll tell you.)

It is fine with me if the Great Soba guards the cardboard thingie. Just don't let her have any throwing stars.

Speaking of on top of things.... I am going to school to be an Elementary school teacher and wow! talk about having to have good organizational skills. After just 2 days of observing in my host classroom, I wonder how my host teacher keeps it together. SO much stuff to cover in a day, SO many interruptions, and all those little people with wiggly energy to spare. I'm only there two hours twice a week and I leave feeling exhausted. I wonder if there is a self help book for that?

The look on Soba's face - "Don't touch my scratcher, puny human, or I will cut you to pieces". Tremble and obey!

I won!!! I'm so shocked...since I never win ANYTHING!! Thanks so much for a fun contest. I'm now going to buy one lottery ticket ... perhaps my luck will continue!

Wasn't Soba named after the Sobakawa Pillow that was all the rage back in the day?

Soba is the boss o' dat house!
Period.

Favorite VD candy...........those cherry flavored jelled hearts. Juju hearts I think they're called.

yummo

Jan, Jan, Jan, everyone loves Jan.

Eat your heart out Marsha!

I just read your book, too, and have also tackled learning to knit (again). My mom was an expert knitter - I tried when I was younger, but she said I knitted "too tight," got frustrated with me, and I gave up! Now, with your inspiration, 3 decades later, I finished a lovely and easy scarf! Hooray!
Your book made me laugh and also almost cry. My husband left me - not with 4 cats, but with 4 kids. Some of the stuff I went through was exactly what you went through - emotionally, I mean. I found the book in the knitting section in the local chain-store bookstore. I think it needs to be in other sections, too.....
And by the way, VD is suddenly okay when you find someone you REALLY love who loves you, too. (And loves cats! Wow!) Especially after years of dating Mr.Wrongs!

I've been trying to let you know for almost a week about a show you NEED to watch this Saturday.

It was on last Saturday, too, but it's too late for that.

After all your comments about the traffic in California, I knew you just HAD to see this.

I hope you have access to the BBC in America. On Saturday (and possibly Sunday) they'll be repeating an episode of Doctor Who that they ran last weekend. The particular episode you want is called "Gridlock," and it's about a traffic jam that's even bigger than anything you've run into.

I particularly enjoyed the part where people who had been in the traffic jam for years got on their futuristic versions of CBs and sang "The Old Rugged Cross."

You have to see this!

I know I am a few days late but I can't resist.

There is absolutely nothing better than pre-crackho Whitney Houston. She was dead on gorgeous. She could sing. She could totally cover a Dolly song.

Dang! I honestly thought I actually had a shot at winning something for once. :)

I bought my kitties an early VD gift of a cardboard scratcher thingy. They loved it for the first night, but then the catnip wore off, and they haven't touched it since.
Also, I have been Crock-Potting and knitting ribbed scarves. What's the "Next Thing"? I look goofy in a beret.

Is it my imagination, or has the catnip from the cardboard scratcher mellowed out the Great Dictator? Her manifesto hasn't been mentioned in days! You're lucky you'll have 2 very sweet Valentines(Bob and Frankie)for VD. La Soba could never mellow out enough to be anyone's Valentine, although she may allow you to adore and worship her!

Do you not recall the true and noble purpose of La Sobakawa? Complete and utter contoured scratching pad domination! I would be afraid of the relaxed pose, too -- it's a ruse to get *you* to let your guard down. (Trust me, I lived with a demonic calico for 18 years, I know from what. Oy, how I miss her.) Happy VD!

Hey Laurie!
Be my Valentine?

xo.

Did someone miss the day in kitty-garden when they learned how to share?

I love reading about your life. I bought your book and just finished reading it a while ago.

I'm also knitting again and loving it! I was taught by my mother who hated to knit. Not a wonderful beginning, huh?

I just bought The Knitter's Handbook and hope that I'll be able to get good at it. I'm going to try knitting the tam you just put the recipe up for. :)

"Do you think they have a book about PDI cats?"

Uhm....isn't PDI cats redundant? :-)

"How to Live With a Neurotic Cat" by Stephen Baker

Here's the amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517207346/braincandy0f

I've read it and enjoyed it...although my cats are ALL still neurotic.
The Great Sobakowa is so majestic.
=]

aw! she looks like my old cat Serious.

Tuesday, a friend & I had a playday beginning with attending an annual event called "Death by Chocolate". We spent an hour blisssfully drinking Alakef (locally roasted) Italian Roast coffee & sampling eleventy plus chocolate creations by area chefs. Bliss.
Later at Barnes & Noble (bookstore browsing is always on our road trip schedule), I was in the knitting book aisle when your book jumped into my hand & I had to have it. The cover is irresistible. As I was wandering in the B&N with your book in my paws, a woman (with much better eyesight than mine) about 10 feet away from me started laughing quite hard. She had read the title & a cat discussion followed.
Last night I read your book & loved it. I hope you are inspired to write more. I would knit the cat tunnel but our remaining kitty is almost 19 & playing is now something she just dreams of while she is naps 90% of the day in the warmest place in the house. That place happens to be directly in front of a toilet next to a heat register so we humans using the facility have to navigate around a cat that doesn't budge.
With the bazillion amazing knitting websites out there, I can't imagine how I missed yours. I am now definitely a fan.

Hey Laurie,
Happy VD to you and all!
I found the blog last week, read it through and have been totally inspired to 1) start knitting again 2) take more pictures of my cats 3) laugh more
I bought your book as a VD gift to myself.
Thanks!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from me and my kitties to you and yours! =]

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetie!! Cheap chocolate for the weekend.....woo hoo!!

Happy Valentine's Day to Soba and crew!!

Soba looks SO innocent in that photo!

Happy Half-priced Chocolate Eve, Laurie! Snuggle your cats for me!

Our Soba-looking kitty stands guard over the kitty bed and the scratching post. She won't use the post but little kitty isn't allowed to either unless she gives him her permission. And never allowed a long affair with it. Five or six scratches and she evicts him. Nothing like proprietary kitties.

Cindi

Found you through "YarnAGoGo" or "Road Blog Ahead"
I think.... anyway, permanently hooked....buying the book this weekend, thanking you for keeping the lights burning on the planet and reminding me that being a knitting, 59 year old , divorced woman with 4 dogs and stuck in RENO, NV is actually a pretty laughable situation!
Amen........

I've just become aware of you from a little article in RT Bookreviews. I've grown weary of having to explain the reasons that I'm always covered in fuzz and hair, but when you have three cats and your hobby is knitting, this is a permanent condition!

Oh, your kitty looks a lot like my Spooky! We found Spooky...we think she ran away from a motorhome when someone was on holidays. Now she's ours and she also loves to lie on her cardboard scratchy thing. Maybe they're related! Lol!

Laurie, this a note on a different subject. As I was googling for audiobook downloads, your 5/14/2007 posting about audiobooks from the library popped up. There are some sites on the internet where you can download free audiobooks. One of these is librivox.org. These, of course, are usually books which are in the public domain, so there are no copyright issues. I'm just passing this info along because I have used it when my library priviledges were blocked due to well-overdue recorded books and other materials. Anyway, just thought this might be of help to you or your readers like me.

Happy Belated VD Day!! I'm the lucky winner of the contest and Laurie, the package came yesterday on VALENTINES DAY!!! How amazing is that?! In addition to the wonderful books (I was up half the night last night reading yours...which is fabulous)...I just want everyone to know that there was something included in this package that is even better than yarn....chocolate!! So these contests are definitely worth entering! Have a wonderful long weekend! Jan

Whatever you are doing, Laurie, and wherever you are doing it, we all hope you're having a grand time. We miss you here!!!

Laurie, where are you? I miss reading your fun blog.

Laurie, would you please come to Philadelphia on your book tour? There are three great yarn shops here (unfortunately, I don't own one - actually it's just as well)! Your book is great. I have your beret pattern tucked into the back of it.

Where's all the wild and crazy spam coming from?

Have I mentioned lately how much I love your cats and their related posts and pictures?

*knocks* Anyone home?

Just dropping by to say hi! Hope you're having a good week. You're probably busy. Boy, I am, too!

k, bye!!