Diogi, Mouse Hunter

I'm home today, partly for vacation and partly to meet with another electrician for an estimate. My son came upstairs this morning and looked really groggy for someone who went to bed before I did. Seems he didn't sleep much at all last night. He fell asleep for a few hours only to be awakened by Diogi meowing and jumping on his bed. Jumping off to chase a mouse and then back up again. So he sat up and petted her, read for a bit and drifted off to sleep only to be awakened by her again, meowing, jumping up on his bed....with a MOUSE! A mouse that she was just toying with. My son took the mouse and tossed it outside. Wide awake...it took hours for him to get back to sleep. And then I woke him up by gathering up the garbage for trash day.

If it had been me and a cat jumped up on MY bed with a MOUSE in its mouth.......I suspect everything within five feet of my reach would have been dead. Or me, from fright. I don't like pets in my bed and keep the door closed night and day. I wonder why?

But it did inspire me to tat this cat and mouse to preserve this moment in our personal history. (BIG SMILE) The cat pattern is from Nancy Tracy. Sign up for her newsletter and you get a free pattern every month. This is one of the first ones I got and one of my favorite kitty patterns. Diogi IS a fat cat and looks just like this when she is sitting except she is short haired so there is nothing fluffy about her.

The mouse pattern is on the blog Suzann Does It All, but she says it is really from Brenda Bonilla who has the copyright. The pattern is written for needle tatters but I used the shuttle. I did change the head slightly because I wanted to use beads for the eyes so one stitch after the ear picot, I slid a bead from the shuttle thread on and then tatted 6 stitches, adding another eye bead on the other side at the appropriate spot. Aren't they a cute pair??? And exactly where I like to see them the most. On the screen, not in my house!

The thread is Star Tatting Cotton. I would guess it's either size 70 or 80 because it does NOT say anywhere on the label. It DOES say "60 yards" which many people, including me, mistake for size 60, ignoring the "yds" right after it. An example I found on Ravelry says size 70. The cat is about 1 1/2 inches tall and 1 inch wide. The mouse is 1/2 inch long not counting the beaded nose. The beads are a pale pink which don't show well in the scan.