At Midsummer’s Eve, a visitor to my apartment complex arrived, an orange tabby cat the neighborhood kids dubbed Tiger. He was waiting for me when I arrived home from work tonight, laying down against my front porch step. He saw me coming up the walk, stood, met me halfway, then followed me back to the … Continue reading A Feline Visitor
Category: Cats
Wednesday night I went through some picture CDs in search of some particular photos. I found those, and there were also pictures of Percival, a cat I owned a decade ago. What follows, for no particular reason, are almost all of the pictures I have of Percy from 2005 and 2006. The calico never had … Continue reading Pictures of Percy
I don’t know who said it first, but I think it’s true — the Internet was made for cat photos. Last week, Facebook upgraded my profile to the new profile page design. I’d heard wailing and gnashing of teeth from friends who upgraded their profile pages immediately after they were announced; I was content to … Continue reading On Cat Pictures and Facebook Profiles
On my desk at work I have three framed photographs. One, situated next to a plush Cthulhu beanie, blue with a yellow heart and a smile, is a picture of my niece. She would have been, at the time the photo was taken, about three, maybe four months old. She’s wearing a brown dress with … Continue reading On Cats I Have Known
Stolen from David McIntee, and completely apropos for today: Stop talking about politics for a moment or two. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your blog, not under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has nothing to do with … Continue reading On An Antidote to Politics
Outside my bedroom window is the roof of the house. Just off the edge of the roof is a tree. My cat Galahad likes to climb the tree, get on the roof, and miaow at the window. At five o’clock in the morning. He’s been doing this for about a week now. He’ll miaow. He’ll … Continue reading On Cats and Annoyances
A study at Edinburgh University has shown that cats are susceptible to Alzheimer’s Disease. It has long been known cats can suffer from dementia, but the study identified a key protein which can cause mental deterioration, similar to humans. [SNIP] Scientists already thought cats were susceptible to dementia because previous research identified thick, gritty plaques … Continue reading On Feline Alzheimer's
Percy has taken to sleeping on the bathroom sink counter. I'm not sure why, but he seems to like it. He perks up a little when someone walks by, he'll say something, and then he'll get petted. Maybe that's why he picked that spot–it's right inside the door. I was shaving. He didn't mind. He … Continue reading On a Screaming Cat
Today, we commemorate America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain over two centuries ago. Many of us, as Homer Simpson so proudly proclaimed, will spend today celebrating America by blowing up a small part of it. I’m reminded today of something I encountered last year, people in lawn chairs along the interstate to view fireworks. In … Continue reading On July 4th
After eleven days Percy’s come home. On the morning of the sixteenth there was a loud, fierce cat fight outside the house. A feral grey cat had moved into the neighborhood, and at times I’d see him at the edge of the woods or in the housing construction further down the street. I didn’t see … Continue reading On Percy
Have you ever been too tired to sleep? Maybe it's just the achiness. Maybe. My grandmother has never been able to tell the cats apart. Woody, Percy, Galahad, they might as well be the same cat as best she can tell. She knows there's more than one cat, though while she's aware that there are … Continue reading On the Cats and their Names
Today it was Woody, not Percy, that had to talk, and talk a lot. I’m not sure why he wanted outside so badly. It’s rather hot outside, positively muggy even. There’s talk of thunderstorms, of tornadoes. Woody wanted outside in that? Yet to leave him inside, he’d have kept me awake all night talking. I’ve … Continue reading More On Talking Cats