I had a hard time getting any response from Giggle Moon, but was told in two emails over the past seven months that there were reasons the work couldn’t be done, even though I continued to see photo sessions posted, throughout the same time period, on the Giggle Moon Facebook page. I’ve reported the incident to Etsy, and asked Giggle Moon to reimburse me for the toys.

I’d like to warn anyone on Etsy about participating in trades. I know I won’t be doing any more trades. Everything looked legitimate, and I’d had a good experience with sending my toys to be photographed for a TV show, with another Etsy member, who returned them in perfect condition, in short order. So, I thought this would be a similar experience, and am very displeased over the situation. This is my business. Even though it is pleasant to make toys, most of the time, I don’t do it for entertainment. I do it to make a living. I would never expect to walk into a store, take something, and not pay for it. I don’t expect anyone to do that with my shop either. If anyone else has had a similar experience, please report it to trust@etsy.com. Etsy doesn’t mediate in trades, but they do investigate suspected scammers.

I am continuing to make my toys, and trying not to be angry. This is what my workroom looks like right now, filled with fabric and projects, with hardly any room for me. As you can see, I am not some big toy company, but one person, working from home, making toys by hand. I don’t wholesale, and I don’t send out free samples. I send toys directly to their new homes, where I hope they will be appreciated and loved.

I was curious to see what would happen if I modified my Hug Me Kitten pattern to make a sock kitten, and they came out pretty cute.

I also finished some more 12-inch fleece Hug Me Slugs, and I’ve got everyone over in my Etsy toy shop.

I’ve been sewing whatever I feel like sewing, while watching movies. Today, I reactivated a few custom toy listings, since the holiday rush is no longer a worry.

It was strange to have some free time around the holidays, after the past two years. It was much easier to handle just making the custom tags for the toys, without having the time crunch to finish any custom colors.

This is my workroom, without me sitting at my table. We came back from a walk the other night and this looked cozy and inviting. So, I took a photo.

Bertie and Phoebe are sprouting up. These are the two of them birdwatching, from yesterday.

Sunbathing is also popular here.

These are a couple of the cats from the feral colony near the area where I picked Phoebe and Bertie up, sunbathing outdoors. I think the one on the right may be a sister of theirs. We looked for the injured kitten, but couldn’t find her. Marie picked up three other cats to be spayed and vaccinated. I haven’t heard back if this is one of them, but I hope so. She said she picked up a kitten too, that may be tamable, but I haven’t heard if it was one I saw, or a new one. It’s been so upsetting thinking about the kitten out there, and the others that will likely be born there too. I kept checking, but didn’t see her.

I photographed some of the other cats while I was there. I wondered if this girl is a relative of Phoebe and Bertie too. She has eyes a bit like Bertie’s. There are so many cats there with a family resemblance. I hope they can be helped out, and that they can get spayed/neutered and vaccinated soon. There is so much demand everywhere.

This nice tom cat sits with me when I change the water bowls. I think he must have wandered into the colony looking for girl cats, since he seems tame. The past couple of times I have gone down to check, someone has thrown the feeders’ bowls and my water bowls into the ravine. Having food in bowls, and fresh water helps prevent sickness in the cats. Eating off the ground and drinking filthy water is very unhealthy. That is probably how Phoebe and Bertie got giardia, which needed to be treated. It’s so disheartening when people are uncaring. The manager at this location, another restaurant not far from the steakhouse where our kittens were, had seemed fine about the cats being there, when we talked to him, but maybe there is someone else there at a different time of day, who feels differently. It is very frustrating when you are trying to help animals in need, and it really is beneficial to everyone to have the cats healthy and fixed, instead of scrounging in dumpsters, etc. I hope things will get straightened out for everyone’s sake. It makes no sense to interfere with a rescue trying to help you with your problem. The cats are there because there are multiple restaurants with open dumpsters, not because of a couple of bowls of clean food and water.

I’ve been playing with my pattern, experimenting with the size, making them just a little taller. This one is up in my Etsy toy shop.

Bertie’s cold is still bad. She looks weepy and sounds snuffly. I hope she feels better soon.

Yesterday, I came across another kitten, orange and white, from the same general location where I picked up our tabby girls. Then today, I found another, the tabby pictured below, in the same spot. She has a serious tail injury. She was circling me, within close range, and meowing at me. She looked like she wanted me to help her, but I couldn’t get my hands on her. I’m hoping she can be trapped, and taken to the vet, but I don’t want to try to catch her myself. I have no safe place to hold her, and I could end up with any number of random cats there, since there are so many, with no clinic appointments for them. The tabby kitten may have to be quarantined if it looks like the injury is the result of a bite wound, as a precaution against rabies. I hope both kittens can be helped.

I feel so terrible every time I visit that location, because there are always more cats or kittens there, living under crummy conditions. Some were TNR’d (trapped, neutered, vaccinated, and returned), last spring, summer, and early fall, but the clinics are infrequent, and there are so many cats everywhere. Please have your pets spayed and neutered, and please spay/neuter/vaccinate any community cats were you live, or ask a rescue to step in to do it. Pet overpopulation and abandonment are really human problems, which is sad and unfair for the animals and the people who care about them.

It’s hard too, seeing cats and kittens out there who all bear a family resemblance to your own pets, in our case, Bertie and Phoebe. This kitten has Phoebe’s face. I still feel so unhappy when I think about their siblings and other relatives that had to stay. I feel sad I couldn’t take their sister, and I worry about how she is doing. I think about that a lot, wondering how many more litters of kittens there have been, and I hope they are okay, especially with the cold, wet weather.