The Purrfect Little Lady

My favorite kitty is so dainty when she sits with her toes all lined up.

She's so cute ♥

Homer's Odyssey

I first heard about this book while I was at the Publishing Institute at the University of Denver two summers ago and have wanted to read it ever since. Last month, I finally borrowed it from my friend Jenny. Since I'm going to give it back to her when I see her this weekend, I thought I'd go ahead and take this rainy afternoon opportunity to write about it!

Homer's Odyssey: 

A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned 

About Love and Life with A Blind Wonder Cat

by Gwen Cooper

Homer's Odyssey is a memoir about Gwen Cooper, but it's really a story about her kitten Homer.

When Gwen was in her twenties, she was contacted by her local vet about maybe adopting this kitten that had been abandoned at her clinic. The four-week-old kitten had had a virulent eye infection that required the vet to surgically remove both of his eyes, and his family had decided they couldn't handle taking care of him.

When the vet told Gwen about the kitten, she warned her that he would probably never really amount to much. They warned her that he would, in short, be an underachiever.

He was anything but. Without his sight, Homer's other senses sharpened dramatically. He could leap five feet in the air and catch a fly, he could scale seven-foot bookshelves with ease, he could case and memorize a new floor plan in minutes. He was a wonder cat.

What followed was an amazing adventure that would take Gwen, Homer, and her two other cats, Vashti and Scarlett, from their home in Florida to NYC. Together they would survive an attempted break-in, 9/11, boyfriends, sickness, and all sorts of other things. Through it all, Homer's unfailing sense of curiosity and adventure never failed to entertain and comfort.

Homer's Odyssey is not just a book for cat people. Sure, I loved reading about all of Homer's crazy antics because he reminds me so much of Little Kitty (aka Skits), and his love of being scratched and petted (which sends Homer into "veritable convulsions of delight") which reminds me so forcibly of Frisk, and when Gwen describes the interactions between her three cats, it reminds me of when Snickers was a kitten and how she used to terrorize Frisky and Figaro. 

But I think that anyone would love this book because the story is so good and because it helps you remember that miracles are still possible.

Read it! I know you'll love Homer just as much as I did.

Can't Get Enough?

Check out these other pet friendly memoirs...

Grayson by Lynne Cox — seventeen-year-old Lynn Cox was almost finished her training session in the California ocean (she's a big swimmer and at the time this happened, had already swum the English Channel twice) when she felt something strange in about the water. It turned out to be an eighteen-foot baby gray whale who had lost it's mother. Rather than risk the whale swimming towards the shore and beaching itself, Lynne took it upon herself to keep swimming with the whale (named Grayson) until he could be reunited with his mom. This 176 page memoir is a quick read, but a great story about facing insurmountable odds and beating them. 

Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien — a highly informative and enjoyable memoir about a woman who adopts and raises a baby owl. Very similar to Homer's Odyssey.

They're So Adorable.

I came home from work the other day to this absolutely adorable sight. My papa and Frisk taking a mid-afternoon cat nap. I just about died from the cuteness.

(Sorry the picture is a tad blurry and not quite properly exposed... I didn't want to risk waking them up by using the flash.)

Fabulous Image of the Day

You may remember our family's newest edition "Little Kitty" also (and more formally) known as Skits. I just took this picture of her sleeping. She is so dumb. She's also not so little anymore. In fact she's huge. I think she's part lion.

(that pillow is slightly more than two feet wide)

A couple days ago I found Skits and Frisk cuddling together on my bed.  Skits was washing Frisk's head. It was adorable.

While I'm on the subject of this silly feline, check out these pictures that I forgot to post back around Christmas... Skits decided to make her new favorite sitting spot the middle of our Christmas tree.

Geez. What a silly. And she used to be so darn cute...

The Cone of Shame

I ♥ UP.

Today mom took Little Kitty (aka Skits) to the vet to get her stitches taken out (we had her spayed) and they told her that the silly cat had developed a small infection from licking her incision. The treatment? A shot of antibiotics and a few days in the "Cone of Shame."

The poor thing hates it and lies around looking all pathetic when she has it on... it's really very cute...

I FOUND IT!

The universe is right again, the stars have aligned, and my bracelet has been found.

That's right. Found.

It's a miracle.

The bracelet in question belonged to my grandmother and I inherited it (by which I mean I snagged it from her jewelry box before anyone else could) a little over two years ago. I've pretty much worn it every day since, that is until the dark days hit.

If you recall about three weeks ago I went through a kinda rough patch. So lame I know... I'd rather just forget it happened. Just before that time in my life, I lost my bracelet. At first I wasn't too concerned because I just figured I'd left it somewhere awkward, like in my car or my purse or my ballet bag... I have been known to do that sometimes. But then, when several days went by and I still couldn't find it I got worried.

Well worried is putting it lightly. I literally felt sick to my stomach. I'm convinced that had I had my bracelet I would have been happier, I wouldn't have had car trouble, and my life would have been a better place. I pretty much tore the house apart looking for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

So, I stopped looking. Sometimes looking is what prevents you from finding something. I firmly believe that.

And look what happened... threeish weeks later, I FOUND IT!

My Mother, the Kitty Whisperer

The new kitty (I call her little kitty right now, we're still working on her name) joined our house last night. Snickers seems pretty hesitant about her (there were lots of hisses and growls), but Frisk, mellow as ever, continued to prove why she is my cat, by sniffing little kitty and then walking away.

Isn't she a cutie?

I love how little her tail is. Maybe that's why Frisk tolerates her...

Yes. She is sleeping. What a weird kid.

Little Orange Tabby Cat

For the past two and a half months, every time I drove to ballet or to work or just in to town, I met a friend along the way.

My friend was this little orange tabby cat that was lying peacefully by the side of the road.

I first noticed him when we got home from spending New Years with my friend. I have no idea how long he'd been napping there before then, but I'm pretty sure he didn't spend Christmas there. He looked so comfortable lying there, it almost made me want to join him. Almost.

Then it snowed. My friend disappeared under more than 18 inches of snow. But each time I drove by, I still hoped he was still there, sleeping away, keeping me from getting lonely on that quiet bend in the road.

Several weeks later, he finally reappeared from beneath the snow, looking just as pretty and orange as he had before being buried.

Then one day, he just wasn't there any more. No longer gracing the grassy green bend with his pretty orange fur. He just disappeared.

It was crazy. I swear that little cat toed the line of frozen immortality for those two and a half months. He never showed any signs of decomposition or decay, never gave any indication of becoming animal fodder. He was untouchable.

I miss him.

Amazing Images of the Day

My dad decided to use the cat as his computer cushion... typical.