A cat, a book, and a couple of quotes

Clawdia

Today is Clawdia's Gotcha Day, as I posted on Caturday, you know, yesterday, the day before Sunday.

Man’s Fate ~ by André Malraux, translated by Haakon M. Chevalier, 1934, fiction, 338 pages

Man's Fate (French: La Condition Humaine or The Human Condition) is a 1933 novel about the failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in 1927 and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution."

First quote

Former news anchor Dan Harris (NPR on July 16, 2023):  "One of my favorite descriptions of Buddhism is that it's not a thing to believe in; it's a thing to do."  The headline says that he is at the center of the mindfulness movement.  Click HERE to read the whole story.

Second quote

I think that is also what Jesus intended.  He never said, "Worship me."  Rather, he told us to love one another as he loved us (actually, as he had shown love to people around him).  It's a thing to do, not a thing to believe in.  Here's the New Revised Standard Version of John 13:34, supposedly a direct quote of what people remembered that he said:

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.

It's Clawdia's Gotcha Day!

When I got Clawdia in 2015, the vet estimated she was about six years old.  That means she is about thirteen years old now.

Not knowing the day she was born means that we celebrate her Gotcha Day, instead.  That's today, the anniversary of the day I got her.

   

This chart says that would be 68 years old in human years.  Find "Senior" cat, line 13.

This photo shows Clawdia visiting her other best friend, Donna.  Best friend besides me, I mean.  This was in 2020, when they had to visit through the window, with me six feet away from Donna at the other end of that leash.  Clawdia didn't get to visit Donna even through a window screen last year because Donna was in the hospital, dying the next day.  Clawdia has other friends, but she has never stayed overnight with them, as she stayed with Donna whenever I went out of town or was in the hospital.

I think this must be a motto cats live by:  "Live every day like it's Caturday."  Happy Caturday to cats everywhere!

But especially you, Clawdia!  Happy Gotcha Day, pretty girl!  Want some treats?

(By the way, did you notice her Gotcha Day falls on a Caturday this year?)

Gotcha Day ~ Clawdia is a senior cat

I may not know her birthday exactly, but the vet estimated Clawdia was about 6 years old when she came to live with me on this day in 2015.  That means she is now about 12 years old.  How old is that in cat years?  I've found these charts.  The one above is a bit more specific, but both charts indicate Clawdia is a senior cat around 64 years old.

Gotcha Day ~ time to celebrate

It's Clawdia's Gotcha Day

Since I don't know her actual birthday, it's a day to celebrate and give my little roommate some extra loving.  What would she like?  I could...

1. take her out to nibble grass and watch birds and people.
2. let her "talk" to Donna through her window, as in this photo.
3. order her favorite gourmet foods on InstaCart.
4. maybe visit her friend Sharon in the hall to get petted.
5. give her lots of loving today, along with brushing her fur.
6. give her treats, maybe even give her treats — TWICE.

Update ~ I fortgot to mention that she came to live with me in 2015, five years ago.  The vet thought she was about six, so now she's eleven.  She's elderly now and fits right in at the Crown Center for Senior Living.

Life beyond my apartment

Today, when I clicked on WindowSwap, I was looking out Ami's window in Nes-Ziona, Israel.  I learned about WindowSwap a couple of days ago on NextDoor, a way of connecting with people in our own neighborhoods.  Click on WindowSwap for a surprise look at the world, with no way to predict what in the world you'll see.

Word of the Day

co-vid-i-ot / noun = (1) A stupid person who stubbornly ignores "social distancing' protocol, thus helping to further spread COVID-19.  Example:  "Are you seriously going to visit grandma?  Dude, don't be such a covidiot."  (2)  A stupid person who hoards groceries, needlessly spreading COVID-19 fears and depriving others of vital supplies.  "See that guy with the 200 toilet paper rolls?  What a covidiot."

Clawdia's Gotcha Day

Clawdia at the rescue center, looking very anxious and thin (6 pounds 1 ounce)

July 23, 2015 ~ posted on Facebook the day Clawdia moved in with me.

Miss Clawdia is settling in.  I stretched out on the bed, and she curled up with me for a good hour while we talked as she looked around and pushed her head against my hand.  After awhile, she rubbed her whole face against mine, since it was on her level on the pillow.  She was spooked when the air conditioner came on and would stare at the door whenever she heard noises from the hallway as people talked to each other and opened or closed doors.  She carefully jumped over from the bed to sit on the windowsill and look down at her new neighborhood, but mostly she snuggled beside me and struggled not to nap ... not yet, not yet, not yet!

At dusk, she sat in the living room window watching the light fade and looking down at ... something.  She seems very content, having eaten some of her food from her new blue dish.  Her litter box is in the corner of the bathroom (she watched me put it there), and her pet carrier is on the floor near the bed, wide open in case she would feel more secure there.  But I think she likes curling up next to me and will sleep on my bed tonight.  When she looked at me from the window ledge around dusk, I smiled at her.  That made her meow at me, and we carried on a conversation across the room.  It's been a momentous day, and now she's sleeping on the cushion of a chair pushed under the table, within sight of me on the computer.  I wonder if she'll follow me to bed tonight.

Clawdia six months later (February 2016), looking relaxed and healthier

When Clawdia reached 8 pounds, the vet said it's what she SHOULD weigh.  When I met her, the vet had estimated she was six years old, yet she weighed only 6 pounds — 75% of what she should have weighed.  Was she abused?  Starved?  I don't know.  But she doesn't look so scrawny and scared anymore.

Two cat toys ~ on TWOsday

Clawdia is loved ― and not just on Gotcha Day.  Her friend Tiny gave her a flying bird like this, along with five cans of Fancy Feast cat food:  salmon (Clawdia's favorite), chicken, whitefish and tuna, chicken in gravy, and tuna in gravy.

Barbara got her a laser light that's shaped like a mouse.  Clawdia chases it, pounces on it, and has learned to "hold it down" even though she can't feel it beneath her paws.  Keeping the strange mouse in place, Clawdia looks around in confusion, meowing as though she's asking, "Why can't I feel it?"

Last night, Tiny knocked on our door with two bowls of vanilla ice cream in her hands.  That's vanilla covered with chocolate syrup.  And she didn't know it was Vanilla Ice Cream Day.  How funny is that!

By the way, Clawdia is still wearing her little red collar.  She slept overnight in it and seems so relaxed about the whole thing that I've decided she must have worn a collar before I met her when she was approximately six years old.  I wonder if her previous collar had a bell on it.  This one does not, since she (being declawed) will never be an outdoor cat.

Clawdia's Gotcha Day is also Vanilla Ice Cream Day

Clawdia moved in with me three years ago.  I gave her a gotcha gift a month early this year, this catnip-double-ball-chase toy.  She played with it a bit on the first day, sniffing the catnip, and has totally ignored it ever since. Today, I slipped a thin red collar around her neck ― snap!  Unlike the dreadful red harness (see evidence above), she has basically ignored the tiny collar.  No problem whatsoever.  Who knows why?  I also have a red leash to go with it, but I think I'll wait a day or two before trying to attach it to the collar.  Maybe it will free her to go visit Donna and her other friends without having to ride in the blue carrier.  She is currently sound asleep, still wearing her new collar.  I also wrote about Gotcha Day last year and the year before.

Sandra Boynton says, "July 23 is Vanilla Ice Cream Day.  Have a sweet and uncomplicated Monday."  Should I run out and get some vanilla ice cream?  I have Black Walnut ice cream in the freezer, which is vanilla with nuts added.  Does that count?

Update:
Tiny brought vanilla ice cream!

Sunday Salon ~ Clawdia's gotcha day

Clawdia moved in with me exactly two years today.  She was scared and scrawny, as I mentioned last year.  This photo proves she has taken over.  Tonight, I was stretched out on my bed tapping away on my laptop, when she decided I wasn't paying attention to her and remedied that by stretching across me, positioning herself between me and the offending machine that took my attention away from her.  She wanted to go for another walk in the hallway, and I kept telling her we'd already been and I wasn't going again tonight.  Didn't matter; she wants what she wants!

Books completed since last week

64.  Burning Sky: A Novel of the American Frontier ~ by Lori Benton, 2013, fiction (New York), 9/10

"That was my place for hiding books."  "Why did you need to hide them?  Did your parents disapprove of your reading?"  "Oma did not like it.  My grandmother," she explained ... "She would hide my books if she found them lying about, so I hid them from her.  Oma thought reading another word for idleness.  I was going to the lake to read when the warriors found me" (loc. 778).

65.  The Jericho Iteration ~ by Allen Steele, 1994, 2013, fiction (Missouri), 10/10

"So ... what high school did you go to?"  It's an old St. Louis line, akin to asking a New Englander about the weather" (loc. 1373).

Newest books I've bought

• A Shift in Time: How Historical
  
  Documents Reveal the Surprising Truth about Jesus ~ by Lena Einhorn, 2016, religion
• The Physician ~ by Noah Gordon, 1986, fiction
• Dawn: Book One of the Xenogenesis Trilogy ~ by Octavia E. Butler, 1987, fiction
• Before Ever After ~ by Samantha Sotto, 2011, fiction
• Escape ~ by Carolyn Jessop, 2007, memoir (Utah)

Library books

• The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom ~ by Gerald L. Schroeder, 1997, religion/science
• The Genesis Enigma: Why the First Book of the Bible Is Scientifically Accurate ~ by Andrew Parker, 2009, religion/science
• Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life ~ by Adam Gopnik, 2009, history

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Gotcha Day ~ for Clawdia on Caturday

From scared and scrawny ...

... to cuddly cute, in less than a year.

Last July, I asked her if she wanted to come live with me.
She snuggled against my hand and chirped a "meow-WUP,"
which I took as a "yes."

Clawdia is the friendliest cat I've ever known,
running to our neighbors to be petted.