Memory: Mauicat Tribute 2

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Here's a second little Mauicat Tribute video, which includes a couple photos that were brought back to Seattle from my brother's house just recently. I'll add this video to Maui's Squidoo page later. The Animoto music library includes two songs by the artist, Angie Arnesault -- I used one for the first Maui video, and planned all along to use the other for the second. (I've used other artists from their library for my Seattle videos.) Sometimes the job Animoto does with what I upload and select is... just stunning. The Animoto shorts are free, but if one has enough themed photos for a full length song, it is surely worth the $3. (Of course there are also more expensive memberships for artists and others who want to use Animoto to promote their business.) One almost has to make some things free to compete on the internet -- but I would like to give Animoto a bit of support. They've done beautifully with my kitty pictures here.

Now I want to say something about that lovely kitty cat who died last June. You know, when he was six or seven, vets first started finding abnormalities in his X-rays and in his lab work; the results were conflicting, and they waffled what system was implicated, and whether anything was seriously wrong or it was more of an anomaly. He seemed very healthy then, and I know there were people who thought I was overanxious and/or that the vets were just after my money. Ah, but, I didn't think that kitty was going to die immediately -- I just feared he wasn't going to get as far as the average cat. He didn't. The life expectancy for an indoor-only cat is about 16; he made it to just 13. There surely are times I've felt guilty, but I know he reached double the age that he was when they first discovered things that were 'out of range' his heart size, his creatine and calcium levels.

Now I hope I didn't detract from this lovely little video by including those comments in the same post.

Reflection: Once More You Open the Door

I knew that it existed -- that old FujiFilm camera with the film not yet developed -- and today I took it to Bartell's. When I went to collect it, the attendant greeted me with, "You have a beautiful cat." That was not such a painful moment as it might seem, as I knew quite well (or at least had a deep suspicion) that Maui appeared in those pictures. What I'd doubted was whether the film, kept nearly a year past its "Develop by" date, would produce discernible images.

Most of the pictures were discernible and something beyond discernible; it was one of the most stunning collections of images Bartell's (or Walgreen's) has ever handed me. There were things I didn't remember until they stared back at me. I've thought to do another verse of "Time After Time" (with more faces from co-op days), and there's fodder for that project as well.

Other pictures were less potent emotionally, but still good illustration material. Speaking of which: At Madrona Grocery Outlet -- I still go there in daylight hours -- I found, for eight dollars, a package of three disposable FujiFilm cameras...

Reflection: Mauicat Tribute

This little music video "Mauicat Tribute" was easy to make, using a site called Animoto, and some pictures. I'll add it to Maui's Squidoo page later -- that looks doable.
Maui's Squidoo

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Reflection: Linking to My Writings...

What was it that caused me to mistitle "The Mill Wheel in Motion" as "The Mill Creek in Motion"? Was it that I really do prefer my creek? I did put in an application to About.com -- the very day I said I wasn't going to do it, after wrtiting this short piece about the daylighting of Ravenna creek. It could take as long as 8 weeks to hear back from them, and I don't actually know what stage in the process they're at -- I believe "Seattle/Tacoma" will be posted as open til they've hired someone. Well -- I can always turn Seattle into a Squidoo page... or two. I just began, yesterday, to involve myself with the Squidoo community, to post on the forums, and leave comments on other's pages... And I wrote about MauiCat. Portions of the piece were adapted from this blog.

Reflection: A Meow From the Chair

Folks from the local Humane Society have spoken of having such experiences; for me, it's a first. When I got home the other evening, I heard a meow from the easy chair: distinct, converational. I almost felt the need to look around for a kitty that had somehow gotten trapped in the studio... almost. I didn't do a search. I was pretty sure there was no cat, and besides I knew the meow.

This picture, scanned at Online Coffee, may also appear as my Poets & Writers Directory profile portrait. (A writing profile is less formal than a teaching profile -- indeed, I gave P&W this website address.)

A Related Post From the Archives: Kitty Cat Dreams

Reflection: Kitty Cat Dreams

In The Irrational Season, Madeline L'engle wrote of a student who asked her if she really and truly believed in God with no doubts at all. She replied, "I really and tuly believe in God with all kinds of doubts."

I wrote in an earlier post that I would tell the story of the 'cat dreams'. Today I will do that. I have to exert some caution in telling the story because different people interpret it differently. I think that most folks I know have some belief in anomolous communications, but some people would surely say this is irrational. I think there is something in each of us that says that can't be or else that must be - and that 'something' colors how we interpret things, from other's personal experiences to studies that attempt to be scientific and controlled. I remember in college, a professor recounted a study where people prayed for plants [mung beans?] and the prayed-for plants grew better. At the time, I was upset by the implications, and I did so want to hear about the flaws of the study! In the past ten or twelve years, I've become very interested in the science behind anomolous comunication, from dreams to prayer.

With that said... It was right after my father died, I think, that the Midnight and Seafoam dreams started. The cats I grew up with would show up in dreams that weren't even particularly about them. Considering the general illogic of the dreams, my math skills were good: "How old are you now, Seafoam? Twenty-eight?"

The dreams went on for a year and accelerated to something like one a week. One I remember well: Midnight bolted across a road as I watched, frozen. When she got across, she turned into something like a cat mascot and bear-hugged me. A few days before things came to a head with Maui, I had a dream where I was reliving the chronic illness of one of them, and taking it much harder than I had in real life (as I hadn't lived with them for years, and Maui was very much my baby by then). The last thought before I fully awoke that morning: This visit will be the last.

I walked though everything believing in God with fewer doubts than usual.

Reflection: Foster Kits?

The Humane Society where I live is essentially a no-kill shelter: They have hundreds of animals in foster care. I'm not acting now, but before I select, am selected by, or commit to another pet, I may raise foster kittens for a while.

Moody Blue Reflection: Cats with Hearts Like Valentines

-Sadness Warning: Not so Sad if You've Read Earlier Posts-

The Humane Society runs a weekly loss group where people discuss, among other things, what they could've done or should've done. Some of the people who attend that group stay on, and they become the volunteers and group leaders of subsequent years.


The Humane Society has been helpful on several occasions -- like when I saw a spider scurry across my studio, and got such a good look at it that I felt like I just had to tear through the search engine until I found it. The vet hadn't though any of my cat's symptoms were attributable to a spider bite, but there are too many uncertainties. "Sounds like a woods spider," the volunteer commented.

I was looking for an old letter that I wanted to enter into this blog -- quite un-cat-related -- when I unfolded a paper I did not mean to unfold. It was a vet report that contained, I suspected, at least small details that I'd not been told. I quickly refolded the paper, but not before I'd seen one term: 'valentine-shaped'.

A familiar phrasing, and I thought I knew what it meant, but I checked: Yes, it's a sign of pretty severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Here and there are sins of omission and even comission, but it appears my cat got pretty far for a cat with a valentine-shaped heart.

On the right, there's now a link to The Ricky Fund, set up in honor of another Valentine cat.

Moody Blue Reflection: A Perfect Cat

He showed up at age four months or so, wearing a small bow, just in case anyone failed to recognize that he was a gift.

The kitten wasn't claimed, and so he became my cat. No one ever from whence he came. Some suggested -- with at least whimsical seriousness --that his origins were other wordly.

The dreams I had the last year of his life suggested that might even be true. (The subject of a less moody blue post, some other day...)

Mine was not as graceful as the average cat, and his spatial intelligence was low. You could throw a ball for him to catch, and he'd overshoot the mark by about two feet, then look around, like Where'd it go?

But his interpersonal intelligence was very high.

The cat had certain physical anomalies. His heart was a little too large -- I knew that nearly half his lifetime -- though for a long time it was thought to be benign.

He died on June 2, 2009, a little over two months ago, apparently of complications of a too-large heart. He was 13.

Several people received mail from this cat over the years -- creative works with a "four thumbs up rating". That was my cat: He gave four thumbs up to things that didn't deserve it, and three thumbs up to things that were sometimes even lousy. A housemate once described him as the ultimate type B cat. He liked music, and other things, that were mellow and soft -- like himself. He was essentially perfect.