It's a Boy!

Don't freak out. I'm not pregnant. But our new doggie was born on January 7th. I don't have any pics of him yet, but I'll post them when I do. His name is Gir and he has a tail. The breeder was nice enough to ask us if we wanted his tail docked or not and of course we said "NOT!". He'll come out to his new home sometime in mid-March. We can't wait. It's been pretty quiet around here since we lost Loki and Spike has been pulling out his fur in clumps. Hopefully the new pup will perk Spike up again.
There's been the usual amount of knitting going on:


The Digitessa socks are done and ready to go to their new home. They're STR lightweight in Pond Scum, which I find ucky, but she loves.
The scarf is just a simple cable done in LL Butterflies and Bullfrogs periwinkle. It was quick, mindless and not knit on a 2mm needle. All things that felt pretty necessary after the holidays.



I got tired of my plain black techie toys, so I got some skins for them. They look kinda neat now. And I can tell at a glance which ones are mine.

*Soapbox Warning* feel free to skip this...
As I was cruising the breeder's message board for baby photos, I came across this. I've never been a big fan of Peta. Any group that thinks exploiting women is an acceptable way of getting their point across, doesn't rate well with me. Combine that with appalling and frequently abhorrent advertising campaigns and protests, and you've totally lost me. But the numbers on that post are very troubling. Peta says it's members won't wear animals or eat them, but apparently, it's quite alright with killing animals.
We are a very animal friendly household. We feed birds and squirrels (and yes, I like squirrels), the odd raccoon and have a couple of big furry cats. And we eat meat. Not a lot, but still we eat meat. And wear leather. But not fur. In case anyone out there cares.
I also give money to strangers when I go downtown. Especially if they look cold and hungry. I think that charity starts where you live. If you help the people around you, everyone is better for it.
We made the mistake (this is going to sound awful initially, but bear with me) of giving money to the Red Cross to help victims of the tsunami. The monkey's work and the Canadian government were matching donations, so the $100 we gave became $300. It seemed like a good thing to do.
Less than six weeks after we made the donation, I got a call from the Red Cross. This was troubling for two reasons: the donation was supposed to be anonymous; and they wanted more money. The woman who called was very aggressive, to the point of being insulting. She told me that people like me were part of the problem. Only giving in times of crisis, never any other time.
I let her have it with both guns. I've never heard from the Red Cross again. I never plan to give them money again. I know where that $300 went and it sure wasn't to people who needed it. It went to pay staff at their call centres and to pay for the tons of mailing they do to solicit more donations.
Better to give food to your local food bank. It's more likely to go directly where it's needed. Or volunteer.
Stepping down of the soapbox now. Carry on.