peep peep peep

By now you all know Charlie. If he were to have a nickname, it would be something like Charlie the Lethargic or Charlie-Sleeps-a-lot or The King of Z's. The only things he excels at are sleeping and eating.

The only things he's ever caught have been a lizard's tail and june bugs (lying on their backs, wiggling their feet in the air.)

Charlie can be relied upon to do nothing involving an expenditure of energy...until this week.

On Tuesday, he came running into the backyard with a "pom pom" in his mouth. When I asked him what it was, he meowed, and the pom pom unfolded into a duckling that ran away as fast as his little webbed feet could carry him.

He ran around the side of the house and under the fence.

By the time Charlie made it over the fence and I made it through the house to the front, the duckling was nowhere to be seen. Charlie was panting. Seriously. Have you ever seen a cat pant? He was whooped.

I could hear the duckling, and spotted it across the street at the neighbor's house. It then ran across the other street, to another neighbor's house. I felt it was safer there than here, so I brought Charlie into the house and marveled at his lack of killer instinct. Lucky duck!!

Last night, as we were eating dinner, Charlie appeared at the sliding door. Again, he had a "pom pom" in his mouth. This time, when he released it, I caught it.

There was no way I was going to let that cat eat this little duck.

The duck slept in the bathroom overnight, and this morning I took him across town to the SPCA. They have someone who picks up waterfowl for relocation quite frequently. Good. Lucky Duck's chances just increased 100-fold, since Charlie seems to know where he lives.

When I returned from my duck-saving excursion I walked into my Studio and saw my Hoffman sitting on the sewing table. I love the way the lack of lighting highlights the quilting. I wasn't going to show you the quilt until it was finished, but now I can't help myself.

This is one quarter of the quilt, which measures approximately 30" square. I have about 5 more hours of quilting to do, then binding. When that's done, "Let the beading commence!"