I was calling Pona The Bionic Dog until today. Today Pona decided to remove his bandages, and I finally got a look at the hardware. Now he’s FrankenSenji.

I knew what was under there, but I am shocked at how it actually looks! Bolts! Rods! Pins! Surprisingly his skin looks fine and healthy, as if the hardware has always been part of his leg.

Sorry this photo is crap, but Pona is afraid of the camera. That’s right. The only Basenji in the house who doesn’t come running towards me when I pull out the ol’ Canon.

Today wasn’t supposed to be goin’-to-the-vet day, but I guess it is now…

Pona has become sort of a favorite at the vet’s office, and this is his best friend there. Her name is Laurie, and she’s the vet tech who does Pona’s bandage changes every week.

Every time we get out of the car to go into the vet’s office, Pona does his DO NOT WANT routine, and refuses to walk in the door. That’s until he sees Laurie. Then his ears perk up and he wags his tail. He willingly walks through to the back with her, because he’ll follow her anywhere.

Pona’s doing well. Another few weeks in the hardware, and his leg should be healed. He feels so good lately. He’s completely off meds and gets himself around pain-free. We should be able to start heartworm treatment soon.

Pona’s been at my house for just over a month now. He’s come a long way, and I’m so proud of him.

In case you were wondering why there hasn’t been much knitting on verypink lately…it’s because it’s all about secret Christmas knitting right now.

I just got home from walking the dogs, and my heart is still racing. While walking down the sidewalk, FOUR little dogs ran up to us from a few houses away and attacked. The biggest of the four was a Shiba Inu (Basenji-sized), a Chinese Crested (rat-sized), and two little fuzzy dogs (loaf-of-bread-sized). Do I have to even say that my four were leashed? Nah, you knew that already.

The Shiba ran to Ike and immediately started fighting, while the other three tried to get in on the action. My neighbor was right behind them, so I yelled, “GET YOUR DOGS!” over the sounds of Ike and the Shiba trying to kill each other. My neighbor had the balls to walk up to me, stop, and tell me to calm down while I was trying to separate Ike and the Shiba. I yelled again, “GET YOUR DOGS!” He shoo-ed away the Shiba then picked up one of the terriers. He apologized, and I told him that he can’t let his dogs run off-leash, even if the thinks they’re going to stay in his yard. He said, “I was only walking from the front door to the car!” I said, “Your dogs can never be out of your control! Clearly you don’t have control of these dogs!”

Once things calmed down and I saw that no one was hurt, I started to detangle my legs (and the dogs’ legs) from the four leashes that had us bound together. This guy had the nerve to say, “Ma’am! Move it along now!” I stopped, looked him in the eye, and said, “Dude. Do NOT tell me what to do. I’m trying to straighten out this mess you caused.” Again, “Ma’am! Move it along!” I said, “Do not say another single word until I can get myself detangled. Shut the f*ck up for 30 more seconds.”

He could not shut the eff up, and he continued to tell me to “move it along”. I did my best to ignore him, finished detangling, and finally got moving. He yelled, “God bless you, ma’am! God bless you! Have a nice day!” Really?

Luckily, my dogs are fine. Even three-legged Pona is fine after being totally tangled in the leashes.

You might be wondering why, as a single woman walking dogs, I’m so brave with my hollerin’. Four reasons:
1. pepper spray at the ready
2. I towered over this man in height
3. I knew I was in-the-right
4. I have a secret weapon named Ike, who can be scary and protective

Whew. I need to finish my coffee and calm down. The day can only get better from here.

I used this random title generator for the title of today’s post. Very silly. Now on to business –

	This gentleman and his random number generator helped me pick the three winners for the pattern giveaway that I announced on Friday. The winners are Merrie, Reagan, and Karo. Send me your email, ladies, and get your prize!
	O lovely Lofthouse Cookie or cupcake? Which one? My fondness is strong.

I’ll leave you today with a Pona story…I walked past the spare bedroom to see this. What? I didn’t put him up there! Pona can jump now! (left to right: Tippy, Pona, Ike. Abe was in the other room.)

Remember the Krofft Supershow on tv in the ’70s? With shows like Land of the Lost and Bugaloos? While putting this post together this morning I thought about one of those shows called Far Out Space Nuts. The title to this post is a line from that show. I remember Gilligan was in it. Anyway…

3…2…1…Blast off! It’s a launch! And a giveaway! Stuff that has been in the works for months is finally ready to go today. Back in June, Parker and I were busy shooting video –

Here is a sample of the results by way of a short promo –

So far, I have videos in Knitting Basics, Increases & Decreases, and Tips & Tricks. We’ve already been talking about what to do next, which is very exciting.

I’ve also released several new patterns, including Learn to Knit Socks, which includes six instructional videos to get you through the rough spots. I just counted, and I’ve taught over 80 people to knit socks at The Knitting Nest. I’ve used what I know about what trips people up in a basic sock pattern, and hopefully made sock knitting easy as pie.

If you take a look over on my patterns page, you’ll see other new designs I’ve just released – including a hat, socks, and trick-or-treat bag. I’ve also updated my About Me page, so now it FINALLY includes Tippy as one of my dogs.

You might be wondering why everything is ready to go today, and not sooner? Well, remember my post about Spam Monsters? I had to get verypink updated to the newest version of WordPress to keep it from getting hacked several times a day. I didn’t want to add a bunch of stuff to verypink only to have it spammed and cluttered by the Monsters.

Giveaway! I will randomly pick three comments to this post on Tuesday, Oct 6 to win a copy of any one of my patterns.

And because I know you’re going to ask, Pona is doing fine. He’s still unable to jump on the furniture by himself, but he is getting around really well. He will sometimes put some weight on his broken leg, but he really wants to move, he just picks it up and goes “tripod” without any difficulty.

Seriously, I’m waiting for the real Pona to show himself. The real Basenji. The one who challenges me and pushes limits and gets into things and eats sofas and puts the toilet brush in my bed and…well, you get the picture. But that Pona doesn’t exist! He’s just 100% sweetness and such a good boy. Aww.

Have a great weekend!