Charlotte

14 June

Happy birthday @royalmusings.bsky.social!!

12 Apr

Lightning! And thunder!

youtu.beAlysa Liu wins the Olympic gold medal for the United StatesYouTube video by Olympics

22 Feb

If you haven't seen this ... stop and watch it now. I was driving on I-880 through Oakland today and someone had bought multiple "Congratulations Alysa!' spots on the billboards. Ciao Oakland, baby. Way to go, Alysa.

Frank Cifaldi@frankcifaldi.bsky.social

I urge you to stop what you're doing and watch Alysa Liu's free skate from yesterday. I have never seen anything like this. I understand why sports writers are born now. I have never seen anyone as free from the burdens of this world as this pierced Oakland girl spinning to Donna Summers.

On the twelfth day of Christmas ... #12DaysOfCatmas again, it's bittersweet because it was the day that Maggie slipped away gently, after a night where a thunderbolt woke us up and the rain sluiced down.

And I wish I could have taken all the tricolors with me when the shelter shut down! Victoria was barely alive when she was brought in and got FIP. But she survived and has her forever home. 😻 (no pic because I realized the director was in it, but have some other calicoes!)

Thanks for hanging out with me for the #12DaysOfCatmas and blessings on your houses and felines/canines.

Since Maggie was my Christmas girl, I wanted to remember Luna the cat who loved Christmas. Her people strung her cat tree with Christmas lights (all year) for her seventeenth Christmas. The story was inspiring in that grim midwinter of 20-21.

I'm grateful for the house full of love I have now. As most of you know, neonatal/special needs animal rescue has a lot of losses and I have asked Lucy and Maggie to care for both the little ones who didn't make it and the other ones who went OTRB. I have their pictures and remember their names.

Maggie had a more contentious relationship with a previous neighbor. I always got a kick that a cat with a cute name like Peanut was the baddest bruiser on the block. Although even in her advanced years Maggie could hold her own when she was out there. (I did have to do perimeter checks for 🥜)

Maggie was a social star of the neighborhood so I always love meeting other neighborhood cats. One who lives near a friend is miss Hallie (whose people put an "I am indoor outdoor" tag on her) I look for Hallie, and remember my friends' beloved Tara and Chuy (the 🐶who thought he was a 🐱).

I cuddled with my girl one last time before letting her go. (Peep our matching hardware from Paco Collars. I am wearing her collar as a bracelet now. )

But! Let us now praise other cats. I wanted to especially give props to the next door cat, who moved in after Maggie was gone and has become my yard buddy. He's a meezer too so he talks to me. I tell him about my blue eyed girl. His name is Angel and he really is 👼

But the rain let up enough so she could go out and sniff/eat grass in the yard, and we had WALKIES around the house as we had so often since March 2020. (She was weak, so I carried her with her heart next to mine.) She was tired but content.

5 Jan

It's the Twelfth Day of Christmas, everbuddy!

The 11th day of Christmas/Catmas will be bittersweet for me for a long time as it was the day I said a long goodbye to Maggie. We had a communicator call on the evening of the 3rd where she made it clear her body was failing.

5 Jan

Indeed, the last time I saw Julian shortly before she died (she had been ill for a while), I had been at the church to drop something off and used the restroom. When I got out she was sitting in the hallway waiting for me. So I opened the sacristry and ran the tap for her.

5 Jan

Afterwards I petted and cuddled her ... until Miss Mary came to do the flowers and she went off for more sink time. She knew what she wanted and I was glad we could give it to her 😻💧

Julian became a lot more social after her sister's death. She loved drinking from running faucets so she was a fan of anyone she knew who had a key to the sacristry or flower room and would turn on the tap for her. We got her cat tree after she died and Lucy took to it right away.

It's really pouring down outside right now, similar to that day three years ago! We won't get 4" but we are fixing to get over 1, which is a lot considering that average annual is like 20". But it's good to close with Lucy, who "came back" that day to comfort Maggie. 🖤🧡🤍💙

Two cats formed a part of the Welcoming Committee at my former parish and provided lots of "story time". Brigid (gray tabby) and her sister Julian (gray tabby with white) had the run of the place and were MIGHTY hunters.

Brigid had a Sunday morning circuit; she'd go from lap to lap at the early service, move out to the courtyard to wait for the choir ladies who had treats, then often sit on the children's toy box in front during the later service. The church was a concert venue and she was in reviews.

When I met @elainerichards.bsky.social she had a number of cats. I was especially close to her sweet orange boy Fred and learned to give him his beetus shots, and her beautiful calico girl. Here's her Beanie who was also a Fine Boy. He's like the 5th pic I took when I got my iPhone.

Foster Cypress has filled out a little bit and he's so sweet and loving that he reminds me of dear Fred. (Although, truth be told, he's a little more intelligent.) Other friends had other cats, who I occasionally cat-sat for.

But! I wanted to talk about other cats I had known and loved over the years. I didn't have them as a kid because I have extremely allergic near family members. Our friends had a orange and white boy named Apple Brownie. I remembered him when I got to know Pete, who has similar coloring.

In college my roomies and I acquired two cats thru the CDS, one sassy tuxedo lady we called Molly Bloom and a sweet little gray tabby boy when his mama who we were feeding dropped him off with us. My foster Ash reminds me of him (and my late foster Alex) a lot.

We expected BIG STORMS on the 4th so I asked "do you think you can hang out till day after tomorrow?" and she agreed. We had a lovely cozy time together. (My boss gave me the day off.)

She went slowly from room to room and we cuddled a lot. I remarked at the time that she looked tired and definitely looking at the pics, she looked ready to go. But she sniffed her little world and loved it to the end. Here she is from that day:

On the tenth day of Catmas ... continuing the #12DaysOfCatmas As the rescue was winding down, I was over there helping sweep floors and do basic tasks so the director could work on placing the kitties. I saw Maya's OG carrier which I had donated and wondered ... where it would be going next.

Parker has had a medical adventure and proven himself the Best Boy. We discovered he had stomitis, and we drove 45 minutes away to a dentist who gave foster kitties a price break. He was a great traveler and a wonderful patient. Took his meds like a champ!

(We got stuck in commute traffic on the way back. I was glad they'd given him the GOOD stuff.) He has an adoption nibble, and he's going to be someone's soul cat because he's just that special. (I would miss him, but ... I want to find homes for these cats.)

Parker is a black velvet ball of love. He's constantly at my side (or on my chest!). Shelby loves climbing up to the top of the bookshelf and has the biggest purr in the house. She will try to get between me and Parker under my chin.

Parker even participated in my #AdventCalendar photos! He and Shelby didn't come to me as a bonded pair but they are very sweet together as you can see above.

Then "Oh, you like the torties? Shelby is still here. She's really sweet." Shelby was up on the ledge and we had to get the ladder up to get her. I was finishing up some things and the two of them were yowling in their carriers. "I know this is weird, little ones, but it's going to be ok".

The carrier was still there. I considered asking for it but Maya had let me know when I donated it that it was ready for new adventures. When I woke up the next morning, both of them were curled up together at my feet. They dived back under the bed but they didn't take long to come out.

I even set up a chat with them and the communicator, but when I said I'd come by a particular day to pick them up, I learned they had another placement. Then I thought I'd take Hoku and Judy, who I'd met on my next visit, but when I showed up next week to pick them up, they'd also gone.

There were only about a dozen cats left. One of them, a floofy black one, looked at me longingly. "Who's this? Would he get along with my other cats? How would he be with Biscuit?" "That's Parker. He could put Biscuit in her place." So I said "I'll take him".

The rescue had some special needs cats. I was especially concerned about Pete. Pete has an eye condition but it doesn't stop him from being large and in charge of all the kitties and visitors. I loved Pete. Pete had acquired a BFF named Ed, who survived FIP twice and had the same eye issue.

I loved these guys! Both of them apparently loved me back because when I took a rest break the two of them were RIGHT on my lap purring. My life had gotten un crazy enough to consider taking on a cat with special medical needs. So I said "if you can't find someone for them, I WILL TAKE THEM."

On the ninth day of Catmas ... continuing the #12DaysOfCatmas After Maggie died, I asked whether Alina, who had been BFFs with Ellie and Grace, still needed a home. She had been adopted by the rescue director because she became an Emotional Support Kitty to Biscuit.

Alina settled in right away but Biscuit started picking on the shyer cats, especially Jade who arrived at the same time. So Biscuit's been mostly living in the back room and gets supervised time out.

But Biscuit is mellowing out A LOT with the positive attention and Alina is just a little doll who is the sweetest kitty around. Even Ellie, who has been anti social these days, has responded positively to her. She and Gracie have started hanging out again!

Alina had made a good impression on me. I had told her that if Alina ever needed help to let me know. So when the bad news came down ... including the director needing to rehome most of her own cats ... Alina and her bonded buddy Biscuit came to live with me.

I'm sure Biscuit came to interact with me as well on those original meetings, but I wasn't interested in little black cats, just the tricolors and their friends!

1 Jan

From my memories. Maggie had her last sunny day out in the yard on Jan 1, 2023. We were in the middle of an epic atmospheric river and I didn’t see the sun again until after she was gone on the 5th. She sniffed all the things.