She’s taking advantage of the radiator being on for a while. A friend said she looks content in the photo.
I currently have another cat sitting on my knees poddling (kneading) me. I’m enjoying being nuzzled on my hand while loud purrs are surrounding me.
Content cats lead to content humans, warm and happy cats show you love. I don’t think they are as aloof as they are sometimes painted. But they do seem to have an off switch, they can be lovely and then just jump off you for no reason! My Mom used to call it cupboard love, because they usually just want feeding!
Snoozing cat having a lie in after a night on the tiles? He snores, he dreams, paws twitching. He greets me with a little purr. I think I have got three familiars (I have two other cats). They all have different traits but they are all very loving.
I don’t name them on here because of online security. I could call them all by pseudonym, but I don’t think it matters. They are big, medium and small!
This is big (used to be ‘outside’ cat), he sometimes pushes the cat flap door loose because he has got quite fat. He has a barrel shaped belly and seems quite content. When we first met him as an abandoned cat he was already an adult, I guess he’s over 13 years old now. Middle aged and happy.
Always by my side. Now I’m a widow. What a weird word. My fate was to be left behind. Yours was to leave first.
The cats keep looking for you. The house is quiet. No explosions of humour and excitement. Just full but empty. Echoing with your life. Your things are everywhere. Your books, your clothes, shoes, things. What do I do?
Lots of support, I’m organising and tidying. Getting advice. Looking for help. Trying to stay calm. Alert about my body, my health.
Time will pass, I will seek support, I must try and go on. Enough sadness for a whole lifetime has poured like molten metal into my heart, burning and breaking. But I must go on.
We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK. It comes from the arrival of settlers in the USA and their survival despite the conditions there. I don’t know much about its history, it seems like many of the same treats and foods for Christmas are eaten during Thanksgiving. I know people make their way home to be with family and friends.
I have been to Plymouth in Devon, England, where the Mayflower left to go to America, but there is some argument about where it first set out from, and I believe there was another ship due to travel across the ocean, but it was in such poor condition that it did not go. I’m interested in the history of the celebration, and the variations between it and Christmas or other winter celebrations. I wonder if it’s similar to our harvest festivals earlier in autumn?
Sorry, I’ve always loved cats, I’ve had cats since I was a child. We never had room for a dog, I don’t think my parents had the time to walk one while they were looking after all of us children.
Cats always seem aloof, but once you get one, and start to understand it they can be very loving. I used to whistle a little tune to get our cats to come home. I’d do it when they were due to be fed, or at bed time, and I suppose they understood the reason behind the whistle so they would come. So cats can be trained. I had one which would jump from one gate post to another when I tapped the post and whistled. She was very special and liked climbing up on my shoulder and having a little ride around the house or garden.
Don’t get me wrong though, I do like dogs, it’s just that when you go out to work all day it seems cruel to leave them shut in the house or tied up in a garden. At least cats can use cat flaps and enjoy independence. And I know you can get dogflaps but they look like a burglar could get in through them…
Also, thinking about cats, I think they are not as expensive to look after, although when you have multiple cats it’s not cheap. Maybe one day if we suddenly have lots of money I might get a dog.
I was bought up as a Christian, and I still believe in some of the ideas behind it, kindness, helping others, charity.
But I’m not exactly religious, I think that we should love one another, turn the other cheek, try and show compassion and consideration. What missing in my world view is the need for a reward either on earth or in whatever heaven people believe in. I feel like needing that means that you are being bribed, in a way, to be good? I think people should care about everyone else. Maybe accepting a bit less if it means others can be looked after or ‘saved’. Life is hard enough without selfishness….
So my answer is that I don’t practice religion, but I try to live by some of its rules. I am as hypocritical as the next person though as I don’t follow all the ideals of Christianity. For instance there are commandments like not eating shellfish. Perhaps in the past that was more important because they might be tainted and dangerous to eat in hot weather? There are lots of other rules I don’t follow, like not eating meat on Friday. But in the end surely we must not be tied up in strange rules but consider others and show we care?
I would say I am an agnostic, not sure what I believe in, not an atheist and totally irreligious. The universe is such a vast place that something might exist. But whatever it is would be so large that I would be like a gnat to be swatted by it. But if ‘it’ is infinite, perhaps it has infinite knowledge and understanding too?
Mallaband-Brown 