I had expected that come sunset today the rainbow pounce of scrap cats would be finished.

They would be stuffed, their ears and tails would be attached, and I would have an array of cute photos them that I could share before I sent them off, but a few things got in my way.

The most notable was my washing machine. It is a front loader that I am supposed to clean once a month.

I couldn’t recall the last month it had been done, so I dutifully pulled off a small panel at the bottom of the machine, unplugged the tube to drain excess water before disassembling a basket/filter, replugged the tube and put it away, disassembled the basket/filter, cleaned out the dog hair that had collected in it, and put it all back together.

Or so I thought.

Next, I popped in a cleaning tablet, set the machine according to the directions, and left the room.

For a good part of the time I was not in the vicinity of the laundry room, but eventually, I moved to better light so I could more easily crochet the scrap cat tails I was working on, and while I plied my craft, making one stitch and then another, I would occasionally hear an unfamiliar gurgle.

I concentrated on the scrap tails, convincing myself that the sound was only unusual because I so seldom cleaned the washer as I should, and that the noise I was hearing was how it was supposed to sound, but then when I went into the kitchen to get something, my bare foot found a wet spot on the floor that was 12 feet away from the nearest sink.

In that brief moment when I could imagine that it was simply water that someone had spilled and failed to clean up, I allowed myself some righteous indignation, but the truth began to dawn more fully as I took a second step into a what was turning out to be an expansive indoor puddle.

A half dozen towels and three-quarters of an hour later, the washing machine, laundry room floor, and kitchen floor were all cleaner than when I had started, and I had (correctly, this time) reinstalled the filter/basket.

So when the sun rose on the new day, I was glad to see it, and I got to work on the remaining pieces I needed to complete the cats.

By mid-afternoon, I had finished the eye on the face of the last scrap cat that needed them:

Crocheted all 6 tails:

As well as all 12 ears:

and then I got this photo of the cats with their respective ears and tails:

Next (to keep the ears and tails safe from loss), I stuffed them into the scrap cats, and got this photo:

The journey of the scrap cats has not gone exactly as I had expected, but I am determined to get them done and will push through to the finish, one stitch at a time.