MEWSLETTER 37: May 30, 2005

by Pauline Dewberry

Hi there and a very warm welcome to all our new subscribers. You are very welcome, and please feel free to pass this MEWSLETTER on to your feline loving family members or friends.

Thank you to those of you who kindly wrote to me with your preferences on the frequency of the MEWSLETTER. A good many of you would like to see shorter MEWSLETTERs perhaps on a fortnightly basis, whereas an equal number of you want the MEWSLETTER to stay just as it is because you enjoy the good long read! I appreciated your comments and if Garfield hadn’t been sick this month, you possibly would have received a shorter issue two weeks ago. If things go to plan I hope to get a shorter MEWSLETTER out mid-June – but if this proves difficult, either because of Garfield’s health or my own, I hope you won’t mind the usual one which will be sent out at the end of each month.

Have you ever had one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? Well, just recently, I had one of those weeks. Each day something happened and as the week wore on, my patience and nerves wore thin. There were some high moments, but these were overshadowed by a couple of very low moments. I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account of each day’s events, but one may make you smile.

On Mondays I take my elderly next-door neighbour shopping and because we have a lot of grocery bags between us, we get a cab home. I deposit sometimes 8 or 9 bags in the hallway, call out to the cats that ‘Mummy’s home!’ make my way to the bathroom before the arduous chore of putting all the groceries away. This can take a while. Sometimes Sam comes downstairs to investigate the contents of the shopping bags while they are in the hallway and then he’ll sit either on the little sofa or on one of the chairs, and watch while I unpack the shopping and put stuff away.

We normally have a conversation of sorts while this is going on, me asking how he is and him responding, and asking me another question. It’s important for me to tell you that Sam is black – the other 5 cats are ginger. My handbag is black also. It is large and roomy and when I set it down on the little sofa in the dining room, it usually sags over despondently – so now you have the picture.

While I’m making a cappuccino, I begin to unpack the first bag and start chatting to Sam. I am surprised that he doesn’t answer me, but that’s ok, because he often just watches what I do – and I guess he’s making mental notes for the time in his life when he may have to go shopping. Who knows? Several bags later and still not a peep out of Sam so I take a look to see if he is okay and that’s when I make the discovery that I’ve been chatting to my handbag all this time!!!!

One of the low points of the week was that on Tuesday 17th Garfield had another fit and because he was obviously not himself, I took him to the vets for a check up. After some preliminary tests, they discovered that he’d had another stroke. He didn’t know who I was and poor little Timmy who loves him to pieces, was hissed at a couple of times when he went up to Garfield to kiss him on his return from the vets.

It took several hours for Garfield to realise where he was; at first he kept pacing up and down the house, in and out of the garden, not knowing what he was doing or why he was doing it. I gave him some honey to bring his blood glucose level up and some dinner and after a cuddle I laid him in his bed and told him to go to sleep, which he did.

Just before I went to bed, I prepared all the suppers for the cats, and when I gave Garfield a cuddle, he began purring again. Laying him back in his bed after some dinner, I asked if he was all right now and he kissed me. I tapped my right hand with a couple of fingers of my left hand and asked him to ‘give Mummy five’ and he put his paw in my hand. I knew then that his brain function was working again, but Wednesday saw him pacing and restless again, so Thursday morning I took him back to see Kevin, our regular vet. He gave him a thorough check up and said that this time, his recovery may be slower and this could be as good as it gets. He is optimistic that Garfield will make a good recovery and by that weekend, he was almost back to his ‘normal’ self – whatever that maybe for a 19-year-old cat with arthritis!

In your MEWSLETTER

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A’mews’ment Arcade
Animal Welfare
Articles: Moving House
Breed profile –
Cat Chat
Charity profile
Cudell Street Cats by Laura Dumm
Kitty Bits:  Black Cats
Napping on a Sunbeam: Biggles
Purrfect Poetry
Quiz
Wisconsin Update

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A hilarious and addictive game for you to play!!!!

http://upchucky.com/games/hairball-bowling.html

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The answers to last month’s book quiz are as follows:

1. Cat Massage: Expert Know-How at Your Fingertips – Bo Lundberg and Nicola Routlege.

2. What Is My Cat Thinking? – Gwen Bailey

3. The Secret Life of Cats. – Robert de Laroche and Jean Michel Labat

Jared Kline (Belgium) was first off the mark and wins a modest prize.

Val Weigle (Florida) who recommends this beautiful website: http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=news

Helen Dowd (Canada) http://www.occupytillicome.com  Please read about my book, "If You Only Knew!" just published.

http://www.publishamerica.com shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?catalogid=8418

Trisha Morales (Florida)

Chanty (Manitoba, Canada) who says next to the Daily Mews, this is her favourite site:

http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/

Now for this month’s quiz. I want the authors to the book titles below and if you have a website you can nominate it, or you can nominate a favourite site. A modest prize will be given for the first respondent so hurry up and don’t miss out!

Who wrote the following:

1. Enough to make a cat laugh

2. Cats: The Rise of the Cat

3. A cat is watching

Send your answers to p.dewberry@ntlworld.com

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PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO FEED A HUNGRY ANIMAL.

The animals and I thank you.

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A’MEWS’MENT ARCADE:

Litree from Florida, sent me a funny little note from the cat to a dog that had been sent to the pound which you can read here:

http://www.thedailymews.com/amewsments/lettertothepound.htm

Mike in Newfoundland, Canada, send me a spin on the usual ‘getting rid of the cat or dog to make way for the baby’ story. Read it here and it’ll make you think.

ANIMAL WELFARE:

I’m grateful for permission from Dan Poynter to let me post The Cat’s Prayer on my site. Click here to visit Dan’s website: http://ParaPublishing.com 

ARTICLES:

We all know how traumatic it is to move house, but have you thought about what it does to your cats?

BOOK REVIEW:

Jackie S Brooks who has written another poem (see Purrfect Poetry) has given me information about a book called: ‘Cats Do It Better Than People: 200 Life Lessons You Can Learn From Your Feline Friend’. It’s authored by Theresa Mancuso with anecdotal stories from 60 + pet lovers, including our own Ed Kostro, and Jackie. One of the contributors, John Jack Vinson, aka ‘Silver Coyote’ died April 2004 has a page in memory to him. It’s published by: Adams Media Corporation, Avon, Massachusetts and the ISBN number is: 1- 59337-281-7 It’s available from www.amazon.com for $9.95 and www.amazon.co.uk for £4.80 or click on these links:

CUDELL STREET CATS:

The latest cartoons from Laura Dumm are great – as always:

Some Cats are … http://www.thedailymews.com/Cudellstreetcats/somecatsaresneaky.htm

My thanks go to Laura for her brilliant illustrations for my Moving House article.

ED KOSTRO:

A dedicated Star Wars fan, Ed has written a truly inspired story which will have you roaring your support for the ‘undercat’ in this spoof of a Star Wars adventure. Click here to read the Great Feline-Canine War http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/greatfelinecaninewar.htm

KITTY BITS:

Some time ago I noticed that Sam had just a few tufts of white hairs on his chest. Not enough to call a spot or a medallion, but just one or two, which a delicate brush could have painted. In Medieval times, these few white hairs would have saved Sam’s life. Click here to read about ‘God’s finger’ or ‘angel’s mark’ on black cats saved them from being burnt at the stake.

To read how Sam came to live at the Daily Mews: click here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/introducingsam.htm

NAPPING ON A SUNBEAM:

It was 8 years ago this month of May that Garfield’s brother, Biggles – aged 11, was run over and killed outside our house. You can read his tribute here:

To read one of Biggles’ stories, click here: http://www.thedailymews.com/articles/fluandfelinefrolics1.htm

PURRFECT POETRY:

Hart Dowd sent me the link to this poem, called The Feline Spirit, of a conversation between God and a cat who isn’t ready to leave his human family:

http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/felinespirit.htm

Jackie Brooks has branched out into nautical adventures in her fantastic poem about a cat being press ganged into life at sea.

http://www.thedailymews.com/poems/orlandosadventures.htm  

WISCONSIN UPDATE:

Great news regarding the decision to shoot cats that were free-roaming or without collars in Wisconsin, is that Governor Doyle has refused to pass the proposed legislation. This is a victory for our feline friends. Many thanks go to everyone who signed petitions, wrote letters, made phone calls, or emailed Governor Doyle. Thanks to all of you who sent me links and newspaper articles on this subject. My thanks in particular, to Colleen Brayack, California, for these two links:

http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/news/archive/local_21028964.shtml and

Well, that about wraps up this particular MEWSLETTER. Good wishes to those of you who are celebrating Memorial Day. Your feedback is always appreciated, as are your anecdotes, poetry, humorous stories, and quotes – anything feline! Until the next issue, have a purrfect week.

Pauline – editor
Garfield – Chief Technical Advisor and Assistant Editor
Billy and Timmy – Chief Wildlife Advisors and Care of The Elderly (Timmy)
Sam – Ethnic Advisor
Ricky – Bereavement Counsellor and Psychiatrist
Ollie – Chief Mischief-Maker and Joker Extraordinaire!

Those of you with AOL will have to copy and paste the links into your browser.

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