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Rachael Herron

(R.H. Herron)

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Archives for June 2007

OH MY GOD

June 30, 2007

Okay, you people. PEOPLE!

I am overwhelmed. In one day (ONE DAY) you gave enough to cover Digit’s vet bills already incurred and those that are planned for the near future. We don’t have to put any of the bills on the charge card. NONE OF THEM.

How did you do it? The majority of you gave $10 and $20, and it just added up! A few people gave more, and made me literally gasp, looking at the screen.

And the thought occurred to me that I could just keep it going. You could keep pouring your hard-earned dollars into my paypal account, and Lala and I could eat sushi every night. I could get a bicycle! She could buy a windmill!

BUT. I believe you all took care of Digit because you are good, and kind, and sweet, and wonderful, and it would be wrong to take advantage of even one dollar that has been sent. Even though I really like to eat sushi. {Shoot.} 

So I was going to just shut down the whole drawing today and while jumping up and down and squealing like one of our kittens, tell you that WE HAVE THE MONEY OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!! But Lala mentioned that some of you who have yet to read this site this week might still want to get in on the raffle action, so here’s what I think.

If you still want to get in on the sweater drawing (see below for details), please do so. But from here on out, all monies raised will go to the Milo Foundation and Best Friends Animal Society. Harriet came from Milo, and I’ve been to Best Friends and I think it’s one of the best places in the whole wide world. I’ll do the drawing next week (probably next weekend, Saturday?), and I’ll let you know then how much we’ll be donating.

Dude.

I’ve been at work the last few days, and my coworkers can’t get over all this. First they couldn’t believe the Digit-man story, and then, as I posted the drawing idea, they could NOT believe that you, my internet friends, were giving so sweetly, so generously, so quickly.  I could believe it, because I know the power of the knitters, but just barely, and I am still head-flappingly astounded.

So here, if you want in on the drawing, click here. $10/chance (so 5 chances for $50, etc.), as many chances as you’d like. You wonderful people, you.




Update: Digit came home today! Woot! He did very well during his small surgery (just to patch up his rear end), and is recovering well. We expect him to be strong enough for a second, bigger surgery in about two weeks. Sadly, I am at work, and I haven’t seen him yet, but I know Lala tucked him up in the front room with his new kitty bed (I’ve been sleeping with the interior cushion for the last three nights, so it will smell like me), and by now he’s seen the kittens (oh, how I wish I’d been there for that). He’s in the front glassed-in porch while he recovers — from there he’ll be able to look into the house and keep an eye on us at all times, but he’ll be safe from irritating dogs AND kittens. And he’ll be able to keep an eye on the neighborhood, as well. Should work. I hope. I’m a little scared of the patented YOWL if he doesn’t like it, but we’ll find out tonight.

Oh, you blessed people.

Thank you. 

Posted by Rachael 64 Comments

Digit Drawing!

June 29, 2007

Digittall_2

HE LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER. Really, Lala told me that the reason she had yelled and called me in to the kitchen that night was that she didn’t think that he would live until I got out of bed to see him. Now he just looks like a weak little Digit with a too-big fur suit.  They took a 2inch foxtail out of his eye, poor thing, and he’ll be having surgery this afternoon to further clean out his back-end wound, but the major surgery will be put off until he’s gone home and gotten stronger. He has several bladder stones the size of peach pits, and a possible GI bleed, but I’m happy to say they’ve located his heart, and it is, indeed, beating. He is not a zombie!

And because several (more than several, you sweet things) people have mentioned to me that I should ask for help if needed, or offer a pattern for sale, to help with Digit-costs, I have been thinking about proposing something. At first, it made me feel funny to think about. And I don’t want to write a pattern, just don’t have time right now, although a pattern for a CalTrans vest for kitties was suggested…..

But honestly, we’re broker than broke right now. Digit is going to cost in the thousands by the time this is all done, and we just ain’t got it. We’ll charge it, of course, because pet injuries are what plastic was made for (that and trips to Europe, but I’ve curtailed that habit in recent years…..).

But hey. What about this?

I’ve got some sweaters I don’t wear, even though they’re kinda nice.

Maybe you’d like to enter a wee drawing to help defray vet bills?

Let’s say every $10 gets your name in the hat, so $40 would get you four entries. Although, to be honest, $2 would be appreciated at this point.

Let’s see what we’re offering:

The Rowan Bomber, from Denim People

Bomber2

Bomber

Soft, in Paton’s Classic Merino, it’s only been worn once. It WILL pill, because it’s Classic Merino, but it will just get softer.

Artfibers Alpaca

Artfibersalp1

 

Artfibersalp2

This is my own design, in alpaca yarn, Jadis, from Artfibers. It’s sexy and fun, but it’s a little too warm for very, very hot-blooded me. I get grumpy wearing it, because I get too hot, and then no one likes being around me, so it’s better if a cool-blooded person wears it, I think. Worn once at Stitches and OHMYGOD was it hot in that convention center.

Philosopher’s Wool Kilim Jacket

Kilim

I know, right? But doodles, it’s just too hot for me. And honestly, it’s not that soft, and I made it to LEARN two-handed stranded knitting, so if you win this, you will see its flaws. But it IS nice and I’m proud of it. But I don’t live in the snow. You should have it. Worn once out, and once when it was REALLY cold in the house.

So, that’s what I’m thinking. Make a donation by clicking the button below, and earn my undying love. No, wait, you already have that. You might win a sweater? Maybe? And you’ll know that you’re helping us, and more importantly, Digit-man. Otherwise known as Ole Winky.




Digiteye

Posted by Rachael 102 Comments

We Are Overwhelmed

June 28, 2007

By your kindnesses, by your responses, by one darling Paypal donor who shall remain anonymous, by the huge amount of love you’ve sent our way. I have a theory that Digit can only be helped and boosted by what you’re sending his way (if you’re late joining us, yes, THAT Digit).

Because updates have been requested, I just talked to the doctor — Digit’s resting today, still on IV fluids and antibiotics. He ate a little bit, which is huge, and they’re syringe feeding him, as well. He has bladder stones as big as peach pits which will have to be removed when he’s strong enough for surgery, which he isn’t yet, and he has something wrong with his stomach, perhaps a GI bleed, possibly from ulcers.

Add to that the massive wound in his tail end, it sounds like a lot, and sounds like very little, after having made his way home.

Mom has a theory that I like the best. It was early March when he disappeared — it was cold then. Perhaps he was out one chilly evening, and jumped into the back of a moving truck, or a pickup, or an open window of a warm-looking sedan, and hitched an accidental ride to who-knows-where. That makes more sense than someone picking him up and dumping him far away….. Who knows where he went? I doubt he went over one of our bridges, but I think he went far. Very far.

But now I know where he is. And I get to see him when I get off work! Can’t WAIT.

Also, Erika made me a lolcat. (And you should go see hers….)

Walks

HAAA! (This was taken when he was big and tough. Will take pics of him soon, and then we’ll watch him get better together, shall we?)

You all are darlings, and I love you. Really.

Posted by Rachael 47 Comments

Look What Dragged The Cat In

June 27, 2007

You should sit down.

No, really, you should.

Last night, at 11:37, Lala burst into our room. I was sound asleep. She yelled, “Rachael! GET UP NOW! You need to come out here!”

My reaction was “WE DON’T HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER!” but I was still sleep-unverbal, so I think I said something more like, “Wha? The hell?”

She said, still dragging me, that nothing was wrong but that I had to come RIGHT NOW. I decided if she was going to show me something on the internet I would f*&king kill her.

But no. She led me into the kitchen and showed me what was on the floor.

Digit.

My boy. My beloved man-cat, who disappeared FOUR MONTHS ago. End of February, beginning of March. Fifteen WEEKS ago. Eulogized here. Love of my life, huge piece of my heart, part of ME, one of the best parts of me, my crotchety cranky baby-cat who was BACK.

Sitting, no, swaying on the kitchen floor.

Lala said she’d heard him crying at the back door, as he always did, just as she was getting ready to turn in. She’d had to check his feet for the extra toes before she believed it was really him.

I dropped to my knees, and he started to purr, even though he could barely raise his head. I was crying the second I saw him, and shaking seconds after that. I’ve had six or seven dreams since he “died” in which he showed up, was just there, and I looked up at Lala and told her to tell me I wasn’t dreaming. She said I wasn’t.

She ran around and did all the things I couldn’t do, got water, got two kinds of food, got towels…. I couldn’t let him go, couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t stop touching him everywhere, trying to figure out what the hell had happened to him.

See, that cat and me, well, we’re a pair. I’m his heart, and he’s mine. He always comes back, always makes his way back. I knew he hadn’t run away, because he’s a one-man cat, and I’m that one man. We sleep paw-in-hand. I might be the only thing he loves besides his freedom.

I felt him everywhere — no immediate signs of trauma or a car accident — he could support weight on all four legs, although he had no strength. One eye was gummed shut, but I could see the eye was still there, and when pried open, looked like it had vision. His back end, always a problem for a cat with crystal issues, was a horrible stinking horror that I won’t describe for the sake of your fair sensibilities.

It was midnight, and I had two choices — I could take him to the emergency vet, an automatic four hundred bucks just to enter the doors, and they’d transfer him to our vet when they opened at 7:30am. Or I could let him sleep, at home, where he’d finally made it. I chose the latter, and made him a bed on the couch, where he seemed to be content to rest. But when I got up to check on him half-an-hour later, he was in the hall, as close as he could get to me without coming in the bedroom. I spent hours out there in the night, just holding his paw and trying to figure out what had happened.

We were at the vet at 7:30 this morning, and the best we can figure is one of two things: He got caught in someone’s basement, someplace with water and an occasional mouse, but that wouldn’t explain the pads on his feet being so worn. What I think is more likely is that someone “humanely” trapped him as a seeming stray (O Digit who broke out of a collar in two days or less, every time)  and took him far, far away and released him (a kindness, sometimes, when the only shelters around are kill-zones). And he’s been wandering, trying to get home for almost four months.

He’s lost half his weight, from sixteen pounds to eight. He weighs less that Miss Idaho. His rear end is a nightmare and needs surgery (partly because he hasn’t been eating his expensive prescription cat food for months, and partly because flies are a bad, bad thing). His bladder is hard, as if it’s full of stones, and the doctor can’t hear his heart, which he and I both found strange. (It is possibly that I love him so much that I got his zombie back instead). He is severely dehydrated, and can’t have surgery until he’s stabilized, and I feel like such an asshole for taking him right to the vet, where he’ll have to stay for days, when all he wanted was to come home. Makes me feel like I made the right decision to keep him at home last night.

But the doc thinks we might get him to a place where he can fight back, and if anyone can, my Digit can. Of course, he’s gonna be PISSED when he finds out about the kittens I saved in his name. And even though this might be overkill, when he gets better (I hope I hope I hope I wish I wish I pray he gets better), he will be kept inside. And if he turns into the cat from hell, which he will, demanding to get out, he will be chipped (already in the works), and he will wear two collars at all times. I’m not kidding. The other cats will make fun, but he will wear two collars. And maybe an orange CalTrans vest.

I’m beside myself with joy. And worry. I can’t lose him again, not just yet.  I had JUST gotten to the point where I could say his name without breaking down. But mostly joy.

Also, I went to Long’s after the vet, and bought not one, but two fire extinguishers.

Yep.

O, joy. My heart lives.

Posted by Rachael 235 Comments

Dykes on Bikes

June 25, 2007

DUDE. Know what I did on Saturday? I rode on a motorcycle. In Dykes on Bikes, in the Dyke March.

Img_70361

I’ve been trying to hitch a ride for YEARS.

It was seriously one of those dreams come true — the dream that seems silly, and IS silly, but it’s still a dream, and then it happens and it’s BETTER than you thought.

Menggeena

My friend Geena’s girlfriend was at a wedding, so I asked if I could be on the back of her motorcycle. Actually, I don’t even think I asked. Geena just knew that I would desperately want to ride with her, so she told me it was going to happen. I didn’t even trust it would, until that day. It seemed too good to be true.

The best part of Pride, for me, is Pink Saturday. That’s the day that thousands and thousands of women meet in Dolores Park, and listen to bands, and raise money for good things, and then walk through the city streets, smiling, and dancing, or just walking. You get everyone, the girls from out of town, out of state, who have never seen a group of lesbians like this, to the mothers who bring their kids and march with them, to the older women, who might be grandmas but ain’t out of the running, no way.

And that’s a CRAPload of people, all in one place, and it raises Lala’s Group Of People I Don’t Know hackles, so it was big of her to go with me. I treated her nicely and sat her in a cafe in the far corner, so she could sing along to Thriller (and dance, too):

Thriller

and we got ice cream (Mariko, it’s the salted caramel with chocolate salty Fleur de Sel topping, from BiRite Creamery):

Img_70291

Then we met up with Geena and friends, and I got on the bike, we sat there, the engines roaring, deafeningly loud against the walls and sidewalks, and then we sat some more while hundreds of people lined the route and cheered, and then we were off and sailing through the city streets (okay, it took a while to get any speed while the cops cleared traffic ahead of us, but it FELT like we were going fast sometimes), and I had those incredible moments when you meet someone’s eyes and you have a moment. But I had a lot of them, people standing on the side, smiling right into my eyes as I grinned at them, and it was the best feeling, that.*  And then we cruised around the turn at 16th and Mission, and confetti streamed down on us from a high apartment, and my eyes went up into the sky, and I realized that this was one of the best feelings EVER.

Lala and I had walked past the Women’s Building earlier in the day — the murals are incredible, and Lala’s friend Moira is listed as one of the people responsible for its beauty.

Img_70481

We rode past it on the bike, and suddenly I knew where I was, and then we were turning around on Mission and coming back to the truck (every year we set up a dance area, and dance with the crowd as it comes marching by). (This is way more fun and less work than walking all that way. Plus if you throw Hershey kisses, you tend to GET kisses. Not that I’ve done that since I’ve been married, no. Uh-uh.)

Then we had sushi, and then we went home, and it was a completely wonderful Pink Saturday. My favorite ever. Yay.

*The most incredible time I ever had that moment of connection with someone I didn’t know, Lala and I were at a march in the city. The march itself was a very large group of Pro-Life people who had come into the city on buses from all over the state. They were marching in protest against abortion. In answer, thousands of us Pro-Choicers met them, and lined their route in protest. We raised our signs, and they marched past us, with their signs, the always-charming bloody fetus kind of signs, you know the type. Lots of sinners going to hell signs. The anger low in my guts was awful, but we stood there silently, as people passed just inches from us. Then a small old lady with white hair under her baseball cap, who was marching with Them, looked at Lala and me and smiled the sweetest smile and raised her fingers in the vee for peace. Lala and I lifted our hands at the same time, and we gave her the peace sign back, and there was real compassion between the three of us, and it was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever witnessed.

Posted by Rachael 24 Comments

Harry Potter Fans in the Bay Area

June 22, 2007

WIZARD ROCK!

Knitters converge!

You already know you’re getting the book on the day it’s released, July 20th. Of course.

But you know what’s more fun than THAT? Can you IMAGINE?

Seeing my sister’s band, Deadpan Alley, play their Harry Potter songs at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco on the release day. That day, they will be known as Knockturn Alley, and I say we knitters converge in honor of Mrs. Weasley and watch the show. Leave her a comment to get on the evite list, or just show up. DETAILS HERE.

Dude. So cool.

Posted by Rachael 6 Comments

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