Approach it with the angry vigor of a cat whose mama has dared to put medicine on his ear.

Wow, was it a rough end to a rough week: Toby ended up at the vet Saturday because his ear was swelling with a lump (cue PANIC).

He’s fine–the vet thinks he bumped it somehow, but it’s been drained and the fluid wasn’t alarming and the swelling’s going down–but we took it easy on Sunday. No hikes, no socializing, just lots of naps and sewing.

When I said last week that our particular brand of illness at Chez Plague lingers, I wasn’t joking–I had a mid-week relapse and Doc is still getting everything cleared up, so we didn’t do much of anything over the weekend.

However, Toby would beg to differ about the lack of adventure: Doc’s mom made me an afghan for my birthday and Toby was very excited to have a new blanket to sniff and claim and burrow under.

My two friends and I send a lot of cat pictures around our group text. I snapped this one of Toby posing in front of a background earlier this week and sent it to them with the caption of “Sears Portrait Studio.”  

My friend took it to DELUXE PORTRAIT PACKAGE and just LOOK at this:

Yes, this IS the best use of Photoshop in the history of Photoshop. Yes, I DO have 8×10 glossies of this on order at Costco.

Doc caught whatever I was sick with–and this crud lingers–so we took it easy for the weekend.

Highlights included spending an hour shopping for fabric online and then raiding my stash and realizing I already had even better fabric (metaphor!), eating a lot of cookies, and celebrating my birthday with my family, who gave me a punching bag. I love it and felt so understood!

Toby demonstrates:

Way 1: Basking

Way 2: BITING

Toby says, “What? You’re not going to be home with me today putting out blankets for me to sit on? I don’t think I like that, Mom. I’d better stick my tongue out.”