Ode to Cats

-
As I was working on my post about our trip to Tuscany, I was looking through our photos and saw several pictures we'd taken of cats we'd seen in some of the hill towns.  Seeing those pictures reminded me of the cats we'd seen in Sicily and Malta.  While I can't say I've ever seen cats roaming the streets in Germany (dogs rule here), we do see them often in Italy and countries in the Mediterranean.  This is a totally random post but I thought I might share pictures of our international kitties.
Chillin' in Malta
Mooching up to Tom in Mt. Etna, Sicily - hoping for a handout
Cruising the streets in Sarteano
Street Urchin in Taormina, Sicily
Waiting for someone to let them inside in Sarteano
The house cat at our agriturismi (Il Sasso) in Tuscany
Catching some rays in Montepulciano
Kitty in Sarteano -- looks like he had a long night
I think this is Medina, Malta
Two of my favorite kitties - found these guys in Taormina, Sicily
A very friendly Tuscan cat
Tom and I are cat people.  We're dog people too, but cats, at this point in our lives, work out great for us.  There is our old man, Bear, whom Tom calls his red-headed stepchild because I had Bear before we met.  And then there is Smokey, who we call our love child, because we got him before we got married.  I don't want them to feel left out so here are a couple pictures of our boys (aka fuzzy kids).

Bear - doing what he does best
Smokey enjoying the fireplace at our house in St. Louis
Bear trying to conserve energy after a spring haircut
Smokey curled up next to my Bible in a Year
Sometimes I think Smokey was a boa constrictor in another life
At my house in Waynesville, MO
One of my favorite pictures of Bear
Our boys
Just like Tom and I are geographically separated right now; the boys are now too.  When I traveled to Arizona in January to see Tom, I went ahead and took Bear home to the States.  So Bear is keeping Tom company and Smokey is here with me.  Both are definitely good company but we're looking forward to getting everyone reunited later this year. 

I'm going to end with one more cat photo.  My Aunt Alicia and her husband Jay were sponsor parents for four kittens a couple years ago.  Four kittens will liven up any home.  Here they are snoozing after what I'm sure was a very rambunctious afternoon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Letter I Never Wrote

-
Image
A draft of this blog post has been sitting in my unpublished queue for many years now. You'll see that the book I start the post with is one I read in 2020. This post is about the death of my mother's oldest sister, my Aunt Almeda.   I noticed that death, grief, and illness were themes in some of my reading in 2023. I read John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud, Laurel Braitman's What Looks Like Bravery , Elizabeth Alexander's The Light of the World , Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge , Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , and Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms .   Recently I've found a lot of creative inspiration from Suleika Jaouad. There is a documentary on Netflix right now called American Symphony and she recently did a nearly 2-hour-long interview with Rich Roll for his podcast . I would strongly recommend both, as well as her book.  I got the feeling that now might be the time to complete this post. So, here it is.   *** The last book I r
Read more

Walking in History...Visiting Normandy during the D-Day Anniversary

-
Image
This is probably a blog I should do in two posts but I'm going to try and do it in one.  I'll try to minimize my words and let the photos tell the story. Over World War II's D-Day anniversary, Tom and I traveled to Normandy on a 3-day USO tour.  It was a whirlwind, jam-packed trip that maximized every moment of what were 13 to 14 hour-long days.  I had been looking forward to the trip for months and believe that visiting that historic site during the anniversary is a trip of a lifetime.   In two-and-a-half days we visited three of the D-Day invasion beaches (Gold, Omaha and Utah); visited the American and the German cemeteries; visited Point du Hoc and Saint-Mere-Eglise; went to the Airborne Museum (although we didn't stay long because of the crowds) and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is a VERY good museum); we saw the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery and concluded the visit at Pegasus Bridge.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Longest Day" it
Read more

The Joys of Nature Journaling

-
Image
Last month I went to a daylong Introduction to Nature Journaling workshop led by Roseann Beggy Hanson of Exploring Overland and hosted at the Amerind Museum . I knew nothing about nature journaling ahead of the class. It just sounded like something that might complement my own personal journaling and the House Journal I've been keeping since we moved into the new house in February 2023.  In my House Journal I record seasonal observations from Dalrymple Ranch, as my girlfriend Sydney calls our place. Since I walk the pups 2-3 times a day, I notice when a type of wildlfower first appears or when a particular cactus blooms. I also try to note when we have snow or a big rain storm. And while I don't do it as regularly, I do record some wildlife observations too. Thanks to keeping my journal last year I learned that there is an order in which our cacti tend to bloom. Hedgehogs bloom before the prickly pear. Cholla bloom after the prickly pear have started and then barrel cactus
Read more