Kitchen floor crashing...

3 September 2025: First thing I did when I came through the door after being gone for eleven hours? 

Dropped my bag and got on the kitchen floor with Jo, who was very happy to see me. 

Long day...lots to do, lots to worry about. Seems pretty early in the semester for "miles to go before I sleep" to be in my head... 

But it'll be okay. I've got this--with some help from this girl and good friend.

(BabyCat also lives here.) 

Bird-watching...

31 August 2025: With a frequency and intensity that is almost too much, given their intense beauty against the blue sky, the goldfinches have returned to my birdfeeders, having been absent since the early spring. They join the most common birds regularly convening there: red finches, cardinals, and (to a lesser extent) black-headed chickadees. 

The girls are pleased and every once in a while even manage to share window space to watch them. This late-summer snapshot of a Sunday morning makes me smile.

Home again!

2 July 2025: After a good trip, it is lovely to be home with my girls. Jo was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement and Veronica couldn't help but come down, be seen, and do some staring that I will describe as "not-so-secretly glad to see me."

Long, good day

17 June 2025: 

Things I did today: slept in a tiny bit because I slept awful the night before, mowed the lawn, had lunch with Tim and two recent graduates, helped do a bit of advising for the last group of entering first-year students, did some planning for next semester with Tim (we are taking our students to the Poe House), did some research work, hosted trivia, played with BabyCat and the laser pointer (a promise I made to her yesterday), and listened to a heck of a thunderstorm roll through (with Jo hiding under my chair). 

Not the most exciting post, but I kind of like days like this. 

Only queens...

16 June 2025: Still thinking about Saturday...

Breeze catchers...

9 June 2025: 

First comment about this picture: where were these kinds of poses yesterday, BabyCat? (Don't miss Jo by the door, also catching breezes.)

Second comment: I am so glad this house has that back door with the screen. On days like this, it provides much needed circulation and cool breezes (not to mention the bird songs). It's especially good on a day like this, where the very nice HVAC technician diagnosed a burned out motor on my system. A new part has been ordered and until then, we'll continue to make due without much discomfort. (Ceiling fans help, too!)

Third comment: I am so grateful to have the resources to handle a big-ish expense like this repair. This third comment, in fact, inspired the whole post. Grateful, grateful, grateful. 

Ten!

8 June 2025: She won't pose for a decent picture, but here she is, full of deep thoughts and Lil Soup.

She is still so much herself. The most complicated cat I've ever known.

And man, I just love her more and more every year. 

"all kinds of magic in the world..."

16 May 2025: “There are all kinds of magic in the world…And the sort of magic that ensures that when someone has decided that they would like a cat, a cat finds their way into their life” (59).

Working on some more notes for my SSAWW paper and came across this quotation that delighted me the first time I read Not Quite a Ghost. (I alluded to the book's cat in this post earlier this week.)

Makes me think of these two, who bring me so much happiness.

Work Cited

Ursu, Anne. Not Quite a Ghost. HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.

Saturday buddy...

19 April 2025: I felt crummy enough (emotionally/mentally) yesterday, that I was a bit anxious about how I would feel today--and how I would fill the day. (Weirdly all caught up on grading and work!) 

Pushed through and embraced the quiet, the productivity, the lovely weather, and the chill vibes. Even got some burgers and grilled for the first time this season. Told myself this was an early soft-summer-launch.

And my goodness, did it help that a certain little girl kept checking in and staying close. (BabyCat, too, but from a further distance.)

Still a kitten...

15 March 2025: In a kind of melancholy mood--which makes me extra grateful to have Veronica and Jo around. Jo has been especially delightful today, reminding me of all the way she might be two years old, but she is still a kitten at heart. 

It's hard to be gloomy when she's playing under the freshly-washed sheets are you put them on the bed, on her back--paws in the air. 

And she still finds new sources of wonder in the house. Today, she was fascinated by the thermostat, never interesting to her before, but now on her radar since I had to reset the "change filter" timer and she got to see a red light switch off.

As for Veronica--and I bet this makes me sound unreliable because why would she do it now?--but she seems to be getting a bit closer and friendlier lately. But, as always, I'll take her just as she is. 

This girl...

16 January 2025:

Caught my girl looking so pensive and thoughtful that I almost sobbed.

Yes, I am projecting so much onto her. Everything seems so hard. Only thing to do is take care of each other and do the work we are called on to do.

(She is not thinking that last part, or would never admit it. Ha.)

Saturday snapshots...

11 January 2025: Some Saturday snapshots: a message I found in the new snow and a new box cycled in for the cats. (Guess what was in it.)

More of these "in between" days...

3 January 2025: I put away/took down all of the Christmas decorations, inside and out. This is never a fun task, but it goes more quickly than decorating and there's a kind of "that's that" satisfaction to having it done. 

Still, I find myself fighting off some melancholy. I can sense where it's coming from: the end of the holiday season, some cold and snowy weather coming, the lack of my regular teaching routine, and some other stuff just weighing on me.

Got home from the basketball game tonight feeling all of this and Jo greeted me. And then BabyCat popped out for a hello. These darn girls just make me happy. They make me smile. That's often enough to push through harder times. So very grateful.

Thought I'd post this very funny (to me) picture of BabyCat from a couple of days ago, tell-tale evidence on her whiskers that she joined Jo in the garage for some hijinks when the door somehow blew open.

Christmas: Part 2

29 December 2024: Hosted Erin and company, Tara and the boys, and my parents today for Christmas: Part 2. Pretty great time!

(this last one taken--obviously--shortly after everyone left)

Quiet and cozy...

24 December 2024: Last minute (impending weather that turned out to not be that bad) change of plans means no trip to NY this year. (It's okay because most of the family will be down here later this week.) 

So today has been quiet and cozy, just me and the girls. (BabyCat, who also lives here, is not pictured.)

Working smarter, not harder...

12 November 2024: Took both girls to the vet today for their annual appointments. Jo was due at the beginning of October, Veronica in mid-November and I said, "This is foolishness" and booked them together. They did just fine and we were home from our 9:00 appointment by 9:30. 

Now onto the rest of this stressful, busy day in this stressful, busy week. A bit easier to face it all with this item checked off the list.

Her little face...

6 November 2024: I am not sure I actually slept last night. Just achingly sad--emotionally, intellectually, and even physically painful. When I finally sat up and turned on the lights at just after 5:00, there was Veronica sitting the hallway, looking in at me. I don't always find here there; most mornings, she either moves before I get up and see her or I just find her downstairs waiting.

"Good morning, BabyCat!" I said--and instantly welled up. 

This weird little cat and her weird little sister are just two sources of love and joy and hope that will keep me going. And I am so glad whatever goes on in her head had her planted right there to remind me that I will keep going. 

I could write so much more, but am telling myself that this is enough: her little face and what it meant and will mean in the days and years ahead. 

Fall Break Vibes...

25 October 2024: I've been grading, writing, and working, but I'm still digging the vibes from my walk and from my glances across the living room. 

Quiet Sunday evening moment...

13 October 2024: Just realized I usually do a "Midterm Grading: DONE!" post--complete with a chair-dancing song on days like this when I, in fact, finish submitting my midterm grades. But I guess the moment (nearly six hours ago) was anti-climactic in what has been a different kind of a semester in some ways. So, I'll break the tradition this semester and post about something different on the day I submit the grades...

What I wanted to post about when I opened Blogger was this quiet moment unfolding here. Grades are done. Most of my weekend "to do" list is done. The windows and back door are open on a weirdly warm autumn day. Veronica and Jo are loving it. But this has to be one of the last days like this before real autumn sets in. 

Part of me finds it melancholy; I don't like thinking about months of closed up windows and early darkness approaching. 

But--in the midst of what has been a hard couple of weeks--another part of me is just so grateful for this moment: the gift of the breeze and its sweet smell. Seeing neighbors walk by. The peace of watching my girls look out the windows, wash their paws, stretch out, and relax. The quiet. 

I want to remember it all--breathing it in literally, but also trying to breathe it into my soul to sustain me in the days ahead.  

Revolution routine...

3 September 2024: I think BabyCat and I finally have her monthly (at least in spring/summer months) application of Revolution down to a workable routine. (Jo is not a dream when it comes to this process; so squirmy!) 

Anyway...

As soon as Veronica knows something is up, she hides under the guestroom bed. I shut the door. I gently poke her with a grabber I got for reaching high stuff (ha) and she eventually crawls out and sits on the chest by the bed, cowering and howling, and looking terrified and miserable, but also resolved. 

I brush her for a while and she relaxes. Then I put her in my lap (slowly, gently at every step) and brush her some more. 

Then I put the Revolution on. 

Then she is free to go. 

She hates and loves it and it's all so weird and perfectly "BabyCat and me." But it's so much less dramatic and messy than it usually is. 

And I am also often humming, singing, and sometimes playing our song.