What’s your most unusual cat replica—you know something useful or decorative that’s shaped like a cat or has a cat on it? Do people give you cat-related gifts? Do you buy clothing and knick-knacks depicting cats or with a cat motif? Is your house full of kitty-cat pillows, slippers, plates, trays, plaques, etc? Do you wear cat motif jewelry, clothes, shoes, hats, and display books with great cat covers?
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a collector—partly of 
my own choice, but mostly because my friends and family somehow have pegged me as a cat-woman. However did they ever get that idea? Because my life-long passion for writing is now all about cats? Because I always have one or more cats in my home, because I love photographing them and visiting them? I always look for the resident cat when I visit someone with a 
cat. Just last week I was at a potluck at a new friend’s home and she immediately asked if I’d like to meet her cat who had been sequestered to his room for his safety during the gathering. Of course, I said yes and I was able to wish Harry (or it might have been Hairy) a happy 14th birthday.
So what’s your most unusual cat item? I tried to 
determine mine. I’d say it’s between my cat measuring cups, my rolling pin with a cat pattern (can you believe that?), or my cat trash receptacle (trash goes into the cat’s mouth). Just yesterday a friend gave me a belated birthday gift and among the goodies was a package of bag ties with a cat motif. Talk about laugh-worthy—these are little cat faces and the tongue wraps around the bag. Hilarious. And one of my most valued cat item (aside from my cats) is the Muse Medallion I won at the Cat Writers Conference last year for this blog. I also have a collection of Certificates of Excellence for my cat books, articles, and this blog.
Dear Sophie, it seems like we just brought you home from the veterinarian who spayed you and determined that you would adjust nicely to a home atmosphere. He opted not to return you to the streets where you were found fending for yourself at just ten-weeks old. I’d just lost my precious Katie—a beautiful Himalayan—at the age of seventeen and a half and I missed her so. When we were called about you, I asked, “Does she look like a Himalayan?” Dennis’s daughter, who worked at the veterinarian’s office and who had told us about you in the first place said, “Yes.” I knew she was lying, but we loaded the cat carrier into the car anyway, just in case. After all, we knew that you needed a home and we had a vacancy.
needy, alone, and a little frightened.
It took you longer to warm up to the humans in the house, but eventually you could tolerate a quick petting. You were probably five years old by the time you decided you’d like to try out a lap. Before long you were addicted, but you let us know that you still could not tolerate being picked up.
with a few exceptions. We were able to evacuate you and Lily during the fire of 2017. But you suffered because of it. The veterinarian said you had PTSD and that’s why you were licking the fur off one of your hips. Rescue Remedy helped with that, but sometimes you’ll still become stressed and we don’t always know why. I suppose that’s because we don’t know all that happened to you in your first ten weeks on earth.
Now, Sophie, you are fifteen years old—probably born to a young feral mother cat in her second litter that year. And a good soul found you and saved you from the same lifestyle—two and three litters of kittens a year every year of your life for as long as you would live on the streets. I think you know that you were rescued and you have your sweet way of showing your appreciation every day of your life with us.
Don’t you love a sleeping cat? I mean a cat that’s sound asleep seemingly without a care in the world or a bone in their body as they stretch out, curl up, or drape themselves in interesting positions.
instantaneously and then fall right back to sleep.
I believe we all have our cat limit—the number of cats we can successfully embrace on our property, in our home, or in our hearts. I know people who have upwards of twenty cats and take excellent care of them. And I know people who struggle to properly care for one or two.
During that time, I inherited four more indoor cats. Yes, I became a godparent to a friend’s cats. But then that’s another story for another time.
Several of my friends have their pet cats and they also feed strays. They establish a routine and the free-spirit cats adapt. Sometimes these cats invite their cat friends to partake of the banquet and, if no one has taken care of the problem, litters and more litters of kittens will appear. And I know quite a few good souls who involve themselves in the rescue process. Some open up their home to cats on hospice, others take in special needs cats.
People who have followed my career as a freelance article writer and now the author of the Klepto Cat Mysteries often ask, “Where do you get all those ideas?” It’s sometimes a mystery to me how I can finish one story (or article or blog post), sit at the computer, and come up with an idea for the next . How do I do it? Well, let’s start by discussing how I approach this blog.
revisit articles and former posts I’ve written. And I might chime in on an issue that’s hot on the Internet. I write about my experiences with cats and those of others.
collections.
testing
