All About Cats

We have company this week. Our son and his wife have come for a few days, and we are all cat lovers. Rebecca and I had a picture-taking spree last night and took pictures of all our cats.

First up is Misty, known also as Mama Cat, as she was the mother of some of the cats we had until last fall. She was napping on the table next to Rebecca, then went into the kitchen to see if she could get Rebecca to give her a snack.

Next is Daisy. I call her Daisy Mae, and my husband wonders why. Has he forgotten the Lil' Abner comic strip? Our Daisy has a bit of the attitude that Daisy Mae had in the strip.

Rounding out our feline foursome is Harry and Hermoine. They are brother and sister and play more with each other than with the other two cats. One can hardly blame them, though. Mama does not like them at all, and Daisy only wants to interact with them when she can maybe steal some of their food. Although to be fair and honest about this, she does sometimes play with Harry. They will chase each other through the house, an invariably one of them ends up sliding across the floor in the kitchen and banging into the wall.

But again, the playing is only on Daisy's terms. If she does not want to play, she lets Harry know.

Hermoine

The two young cats enjoy playing in the section of the Christmas tree that I gave them in January. They loved the tree to the point that it was briefly decorated for one day - December 25th - then the decorations were taken down for safe-keeping. The tree is very old and we decided that it was time to get a new one next year, so why not let the cats play with some of it. This is one of their favorite toys and quite a conversation piece when folks come to visit and wonder why we still have a Christmas tree in our living room.

Hermoine

Harry

Friday's Odds and Ends

Most of us know that former senator Rick Santorum is against legalizing gay marriage, and he has been known to make some inflammatory remarks about homosexuality. More recently he told students at a college in New England that having gay parents is worse than having parents who are convicts.  His rationale is that a father in prison is better than having no father.

Hmmmm... I wonder if he has ever checked the statistics that show that young people are more prone to crime and violence if their father is or was in prison? That is a fact I discovered when doing research for my book on violence in schools, Coping With Weapons and Violence in School and on Your Streets.

If you'd like to read more about what he said, here is an article  that has more details. In researching this topic, I also found this comment on a forum that offers another viewpoint. "As the daughter of two lesbian moms, I'm disgusted and offended by the "family values" crowd claiming to want to protect children like me. Note to Rick and his ilk: you're not helping us. You're hurting us by making sure that our families are stigmatized and unprotected."

Whatever your views are on the subject, if we are truly to have separation of church and state, doesn't it stand to reason that a person's religious view of homosexuality should not influence legislation?

On another note, I found this quote on a blog titled terribleminds which is written by Chuck Wendig. I liked it enough I thought I would share it. "The writer’s voice is the thing that marks the work as a creation of that writer and that writer only. You read a thing and you say, 'This could not have been written by anybody else.' That is voice."   

Who are some authors you have read that have a distinctive voice? If you are an author, do you consider your voice as uniquely yours?

Here is an example of what I mean when I encourage clients to escape the ordinary in their writing. This is from Louise Penny's latest book A Trick of the Light. Instead of writing "Clara's heart beat faster." Or, "Clara's heart thumped in her chest." Both descriptions which I have read numerous times, she wrote, "Clara's heart threw itself against her ribs like something caged and terrified and desperate to escape."

It would be interesting to know how easily this comes to a writer like her. It reads effortless, but for me it takes time to move from the ordinary to the not so ordinary. That is why it takes me a long time to write a book. How about you?

It's Friday the 13th. A superstition says that if a black cat crosses your path on Friday the 13th, you will have bad luck all year. I'd better stay away from our new kitties.

Monday Morning Musings

Actually, this is Monday afternoon musings. We have been having a lot of work done on our house - a new deck and sun room - and the workers came this morning to finish it up. Just when I thought I could come back to my office to get some work done, there would be a knock at the door - another question needed an answer.

The work is all done now and the men are gone, so I thought I would get to this an hour ago, but I had to take the cats out to the new room and introduce them. Then I decided it would be a good idea to sweep out there... and....

Plus it's Cyber-Monday. While I don't participate in Black Friday sales, unless they are online, I do like to see what kind of deals can be made on Cyber-Monday. That ate up another hour, but I did get a nice chair at a good price.

Then my husband came into my office with a cat on his shoulder. Had to get this picture when the cat decided to play with the pulls on the ceiling fan. 

So here I am finally, well after noon, with only one rant to share. I read an interview with Robert Mann, author of a new book Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad That Changed American Politics. He was asked about the ad that some people think scuttled Goldwater's run for the presidency and was the root of negative ads on TV, and he said the ad was "almost entirely about exploiting fear."

He went on to explain that the firm that developed the ad had a reputation for developing ads that were sometimes humorous and "generated emotion more than rational thinking."

While that may be a sound approach for marketing cars and computers and Cheerios, I hardly think it appropriate for marketing the next leader of the U.S. - or any other politician for that matter. I want people to use rational thinking when they consider casting a vote. Forget the spin, the good looks, the eloquent oratory, and focus on the issues and a candidate's plan to address those issues.

Monday Morning Musings

Since it is Halloween, I thought I would tell you about our two new kittens who could be Halloween cats. We got them two weeks ago, but we didn't plan on getting black cats. I don't even like black cats, and the lady who was fostering these kittens, along with several others, had told me on the phone about all the other kittens she had available for adoption: A cute black and white tuxedo cat. An orange tabby. A silver tabby with little white paws that made her look like she was wearing mittens, and a gray cat with long hair and a regal stance.

And she had these two black cats. I cut her off right there, telling her that I wasn't interested in solid black cats. Not sure why. Maybe because solid black cats are so plain. Or maybe because of that old superstition about a black cat crossing your path being bad luck, even though I never thought I really believed that. Groucho Marx said that "A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere."

Pretty benign actually. No. The reason I don't like black kitties is really because they are dull and uninteresting. How many people look at a black cat and say, "Oh how darling? What a cute little kitty."

That aside, when we went to see all the cats, hoping to take home one or two of those cute little kitties, one of the black cats walked across the patio table and right up to my husband. The cat then crawled up his chest, nuzzled in his beard - my husband's, not the cat's - and started purring.

No doubt about it, my husband had his cat.

Then it was my turn to choose a cat. I picked up the Tuxedo cat, hoping he would take to me, but he jumped right down. Ditto for the tabby with the mittens and the orange tabby and the pretty gray kitten. Meanwhile this other little black cat kept walking up to me, touching my leg and giving the sweetest little meow, as if to say, "Take me. Take me."

I picked her up and she nuzzled in my neck, and now she is living in our house.

We were happy with two new cats, then last week, I found this cat in my barn who was injured. I took her to the veterinarian's, and luckily she was not hurt seriously. I had two choices at that point. Turn the cat loose - I think she belongs to a neighbor who seems not to care about her - or bring her home where she could finish healing.

Now we have three new cats.