What's Up Wednesday

It has been a little hectic in the House the last two weeks. Work has me travelling and the wife was cleared for surgery so she has been running around the house getting everything cleaned and organized so that things don't pile up while she is recuperating. But that is enough about the underlings/ the paid help of the House.

Everycat in the House is doing well. Magoo is getting grumpier and grumpier about not being outside every moment of the day now that the snow is gone. A couple of neighborhood cats have been coming by and leaving their calling cards. This is really aggravating Magoo. We have caught him peeing where he shouldn't.

Bella is doing a lot better now that Dolce is distracted by her new brother Baci. Bella doesn't seem a stressed as she was before. She is back to sitting on my wife's lap and helping her with her makeup. She comes and says Good Morning and Good Night everyday. The number of mats in her fur have gone down drastically. I guess she does have to worry about being cannonballed by Dolce when she wasn't looking.

Dolce is being Dolce. Everything happens at 100 mph. She is has started to cuddle again and even fell asleep on my lap while the Wife and I watched movies on the weekend. She hasn't done that in months. I think it really ahs to do with having a willing and able playmate in Baci. Although Baci loves bedtime, his ears perk up when he hears Dolce calling to him. They are a very sweet twosome. I'm not calling them a couple, because I think Dolce still has a thing for Scout.

As for Baci...Well I could write a couple of pages of what a little Mancat he is becoming. His paws are huge. They are rapidly approaching Magoo's in size. In a word, he is "Snorglelicious". He loves to be picked up and cuddled. He follows you around and cries until you pet him or scoop him up from the floor. Then you get to hear his deep rumbling purr. He has tried to make friends with Magoo, but his older brother can't be bothered to train another sibling. Bella doesn't want much to do with him either, which is okay because Dolce loves him. Baci loves her right back.

In less than a week, Baci will be turning 8 months old. He is firmly caught between the goofy kitten months and the transition into a young adult cat. He is now of a size where he can reach things on tables without a lot of awkwardness or clumsiness. It is amazing to see what becomes a cat's first obsession when they suddenly realize that they can get things down that they want. For Bella and Smudge, it was Q-tips; for Dolce, it was fishing socks out of the hampers; for Magoo, well he didn't seem to care about any of that sort of thing; and for Baci, it is change that I have left on my nightstand. He gets this determined little scowl on his face and he reaches up and slowly pulls the coins off the table. He is happiest when they hit the floor and roll into the heat register. There is way more noise that way. Let me tell you, it scares the crap out of you when he does it at 3:00 AM.

It's a short spell until I am home again with my Wife and the Cats. As silly as it sounds, I am counting the sleeps.

Wordless Wednesday

Mancat Mondays

I present to you one of the few pictures of the Endangered Canadian Snow Leopard in its natural habitat:

It's hard to be believe that our little Mancat-In-Training has been with us for four whole months now. He is getting bigger and bigger.

Back in February.

Now in April.


Dolce:
I have to turn to my blogging friends to prevent a travesty of justice; a unwholesome twisting of the truth; an invasion of feline privacy. Dad says he has pictures of my snuggling with Baci and he's going to post them as part of Wordless Wednesday. I told him he can't. What will Scout say when he sees them? I have a reputation to maintain. Just remember Dad: if that finger hits the publish button, a house plant will have to die.

What to do, What to do.

There is meme out there for the 5 Reasons You Blog. Since no one sent it to me directly,(sigh!), I guess I will fill it out anyways.

1. A place to put all the stupid stories I would tell my wife about what the cats had done that day. (I do voices too.)

2. A chance to exercise my writing skills. (Believe it or not, I have thought about becoming a writer. Once I win a million dollars, and find a cure for cancer...)

3. Being able to interact with the other voices of reason and civility in the noise of the web. Politics sounds so lame when voiced through a cat. Seriously, would you elect anyone who would drop to the floor in the middle of a press conference and start licking themselves. Or if they saw a Bill they didn't like, they would just pee on it.

4. Knowledge shared is knowledge gained.

5. A virtual shoulder to cry on when times are tough and the absolute worst is a reality.


Now for an update of the household:

• It's supposed to be spring. I promised Baci this. Now we have another three inches of fricking snow. Dammit, Al Gore, You promised me Global Warming! or is it Global Cooling?Whoa. Deja Vu all over again.
• Smudge had a V-E-T visit today. He has gained a whole 0.5 of a pound. Dr. Nick says that he is extremely happy with Smudge's physical condition. There is a small sidebar. Like kidney disease in humans (I have an Aunt with kidney failure and on dialysis.), there is the risk of high blood pressure issues. Smudge is at the top of the acceptable range for a Cat, so Dr. Nick wants to start him on some meds to manage this.
• Smudge has decided that this house is not his home anymore. I brought him home to see Magoo, Bella and Dolce since Grandma was at work. Smudge knew where the water dish was and the litter boxes. But he hissed at both Bella and Dolce. Dr. Nick asked me about the new arrangements and I told him that Smudge associates me with these V-E-T visits. Dr. Nick said that we have to be careful not to just manage his disease and become caregivers only to Smudge. We have to be congnizant of the social relationship as well. That is my role now, I will bear the distrust and loathing and the unease so that Grandma can be free to show him the love and comfort he also needs. I am reminded of a line from a movie: "I will hate you for as long as I live." "I hope that it is a very long and healthy hate."
• Our dishwasher got recalled, and the dear wife used this as an excuse to replace the appliances, which Magoo has promptly sprayed after they were delivered and installed by yours truly. Anyone want a cantankerous old grey cat? Seriously, it's the cat equivalent of "Get the Frick Off My Lawn!"
• We still cannot understand how Baci, (Now referred to as a Meezer thanks to Miles and Sammie and the Girls from the Big Piney Woods), was not adopted sooner. He is a playing, cuddling, purring monster. He cries to be picked up when you get home and he starts to purr as soon as you touch him. He and Magoo are still not settled in the sleeping arrangements, but he makes sure he is in bed with us every night. Everything about him makes you want to pick him up and snuggle him.
• Also, Baci fetches toys like a dog. Don't let him know I said that. I'm sure he'll leave a gift in one of my shoes if he hears this.

If you come by and read the stories, please leave me a comment whether you liked or hated it. I'm not making you buy it, so the only way I know what you think is by how many comments they get. I would rather try and find some new storyline that captures your imagination than to keep feeding you stuff that you find boring.

Dolce's Story Chair - Antonius and Malachi Part 2

Dad: On this blog, I wrote a story about what happens to the Lonely Ones and how they made it to heaven. A while back. I came across something on the web that made me very angry to the point that I could hate someone I do not even know. In my mind they have become evil personified. Whatever good they might have pretended to do has been erased by their hypocrisy. The following story ties together two other stories I have posted here for my beloved cats,Of Memory and Loss, and Antonius and Malachi Part 1

Antonius and Malachi delivered the last of the kittens contained within their hem-frayed robes to the softly breathing calico as she laid in her sheepskin lined bed. The young cat turned her head and regarded the two faintly glowing forms that only she could see. Antonius smiled and he placed a gentle kiss on her head.
"Sleep well, young mother." Antonius gently smoothed the fur on the young cat's head. "Your babies are safe and will be here before the morn. Raise them them as you were raised. Love them as you were loved. And when it is time for them to go out amongst the world, give them the strength they will need."
The young calico blinked once and then settled her head on her paws. She could already feel the life within her stirring and longing to breathe the air of the world.
"Time to go, Malachi" Antonius' face took on a slight grim tone.
"I know, Antonius" Malachi replied, his face grew downcast. "We have brought life to those we carried and now its time to take our friends home."
"Remember." Antonius replied, "There is no greater joy than to return to the glory of heaven."
"I know." Malachi said as his little wings lifted his tiny body into the air. "But I don't seem to find the same joy as you. I don't know why. I feel joy when we bring them to Earth, but I feel sad when we return them to Heaven."
"You are attuned to the human spirit, dearest Malachi." Antonius stated. "You feel as they do. Joy at birth and Sorrow at Death."
"I wish I felt as you." Malachi stated.
"And I wish that I felt as you." Antonius smiled. "Come, we have some furriends to take home."
Malachi nodded and he followed Antonius into the ether.

Malachi looked at the final spot that Antonius lead him too. It seemed too clean and too modern by even human standards to be a place where Antonius needed to retrieve the Lonely Ones. He could hear the voices of other cats and dogs. Until now, Malachi had only followed Antonius to places where the lonely still forms of cats has laid unwanted and unclaimed in deserted and vacant spaces. This entire space felt wrong to Malachi. It felt like a place of hope but it bore the taint of desolation and loss.
"Where are we?" Malachi asked. "This place does not feel right. It feels confused. Torn between hope and fear."
"That is it's curse." Antonius replied. "This is an animal shelter. The humans within try to help those cats who have been abandoned by other humans. But, alas, they cannot save them all."
Antonius lead Malachi to a room. Malachi's small heart nearly burst at the sight that he beheld.

There in the clean sterile room were the still forms of dozens of cats; young, old, once sick or even once healthy, were piled unceremonously near a double steel door. Cheurb had never seen this number of Lonely Ones in a single place. He could not understand how they all managed to end up here. Not one of them bore sign of trauma or injury.

"What happened?" Malachi asked.

"Apathy." Antonius replied. "Indifference, Carelessness, and Thoughtlessness."

"This young boy was loved briefly by a little girl." Antonius said as he lovingly picked the long furred body of a young grey male cat. "But his humans did not bother to get him changed so that he wouldn't spray as his nature said he must. In time, they blamed him for the messes he made instead of their own carelessness, ignorance and apathy. So he ended up here."

"This little girl and her four siblings." Antonius set the little grey cat down and then exposed the still forms of five older kittens. "They were born to a cat that also had not been changed. The humans did not know what to do with them so they were abandoned here in a box during the middle of the night. No one else came to claim them or to give them a Forever Home."

Malachi turned away from Antonius and wiped his eyes on his silken robe.

"Did we not know this when we brought these to Earth?" Malachi asked as he motioned towards all the still forms. "If we knew this, why did we bring them only to face this terrible, lonely end?"

"We bring them in hope that humans will do what is right." Antonius replied as he placed wings on the last still form. "We are not given to question or change what humans do on Earth. They have been given the capacity to nuture and love. We have no power to force them to heed that nature. Come, we have one more place to go."

Antonius and Malachi stood next to a dirty rusty trash container.

"We cannot be here to find Lost Ones, Antonius." Malachi cried. "Even humans cannot be this callous."

"Malachi." Antonius placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "I am sorry that you have to see this, but to do this task, you will be forced sometimes to see the worst of the humans' handiwork. I have tried to shield you from the worst but I felt it was time for you to see everything."

Antonius lifted the lid for the dumpster. He exposed several plastic bags tossed in amongst the other human refuse. Malachi looked on as Antonius gently lifted the body of a female cat and her kittens from the garbage bag. There were no signs of trauma on the still bodies.

Malachi's wings drooped at the sight of the still forms. They were similar to the bodies he had seen in the backroom of the Shelter. Malachi tried to withhold the tears that threatened to flow down his cheeks.

"Who?" was the only word that could escape Malachi's throat.

"Humans." Antonius stated. "Humans who hide behind the ideal of Ethics and Fairness for all living creatures. But no Human. who understands those two words, should ever be able to do this."

Malachi watched as Antonius attached wings to all the still forms in the dumpster. He tried to stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. He found that he could not. As Malachi stood and stared at the still forms, he barely noticed the feathers as they fell from his wings and drifted to the ground.

"Malachi!" Antonius snapped sharply, "Mind your wings!"

"Antonius." Malachi dropped to his knees as the last feathers fell to the ground and his wings withered against his back. "My heart is broken. I have no more strength. I was wrong to think that as a cherubim, I could handle your task like you."

Antonius lifted his fragile friend up from the ground.

"I will take you home." Antonius said. "I should never have let you accompany me."

"No." Malachi said softly. "I do not want to go home. Take me to the Rainbow Bridge."

Antonius took Malachi back to the earthly side of the Rainbow Bridge. There were thousands of animals playing and running in the sunlit meadow. Antonius started to set Malachi down. Malachi grabbed and held Antonius' robe tightly.

"Not here." Malachi asked."Take me far enough away that I can still see the Bridge, but no one can see me."

Antonius took Malachi to the limit of human vision away from the Rainbow Bridge. He set Malachi down. Antonius fully expected Malachi's wings to grow back. Malachi stood up to his full height, which barely took him to Antonius's hip. He reached back and pulled his withered left wing from his back. He tossed it so that it was on the far side of the Rainbow Bridge as far away from the bridge as he was. Where his withered wing landed, a small cliff with two empty pools formed. Malachi took his withered right wing and he laid it down on the ground in front of him. As it touched the ground, a dry creek bed grew towards the Rainbow Bridge and the newly formed cliff and empty pools. Malachi sat down on a small rocky ledge on the Heaven side of the dry creek bed. The tears he had tried to hold in on Earth began to flow uncontrollably. Antonius watched as the creek bed began to fill, water flowed under the Rainbow Bridge and two waterfalls started to cascade over the small cliff and filled the two small pools.

"I can no longer help you Antonius." Malachi whispered through the tears that flowed down his cheeks and into the creek at his feet. "The Sense of Loss and the Memories of all those cats and kittens has shattered my heart and destroyed my wings. I am sorry that I could not bear the weight of such feelings like you. Maybe as Humans find the two Pools I have made, they will learn what a precious gift they have been given. I can only hope that they will soon realize what they squander and that they will change their ways."

Antonius left his friend's side and flew to the two pools at the base of the small waterfalls. He dipped his finger into the one pool and he felt the loss that had shattered the cherubim, Malachi's, heart. He then tasted the water from the other pool and he felt all the joyous memories that Malachi felt as he had helped Antonius bring the kittens to Earth. Antonius let a tear fall from his eye into his hand. From it, Antonius created a silver cup and a thin length of chain. Antonius fixed the chain to the first pool.

"This is the Pool of Loss." Antonius stated and then he created a second silver cup and chain from another tear. He affixed this cup to the second pool of water. "This is the Pool of Memory."

He summoned another being of Heaven and instructed it to watch over the two pools.

"These are the Pools of Loss and of Memory." Antonius instructed the creature who sat down between the two pools. "They are God's covenant to any Human that wishes to bring one of his creatures into their heart. In their dreams they shall come to this place and drink from the pools. Only those who can feel and understand what it is like to shatter an Angel's heart are worthy of such a gift."