A borrowed book ~ or two ~ or three ~ actually four

Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats ~ by Courtney Gustafson, 2025, memoir, 256 pages

When Courtney Gustafson moved into a rental house in the Poets Square neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, she didn’t know that the property came with thirty feral cats.  Focused only on her own survival — in a new relationship, during a pandemic, with poor mental health and a job that didn’t pay enough — Courtney was reluctant to spend any of her own time or money caring for the wayward animals.

But the cats — their pleading eyes, their ribs showing, the new kittens born in the driveway — didn’t give her a choice.

She had no idea about the grief and hardship of animal rescue, the staggering size of the problem in neighborhoods across the country.  And she couldn’t have imagined how that struggle — toward an ethics of care, of individuals trying their best amid spectacularly failing systems — would help pierce a personal darkness she’d wrestled with for much of her life.  She also didn’t expect that the TikTok and Instagram accounts she created to share the quirky personalities of the wild but lovable cats, like Monkey, Goldie, Francois, and Sad Boy, would end up saving her home.

Courtney writes toward a vision of connectedness, showing how taking care of the cats reshaped her understanding of empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for some-thing outside yourself.  She takes us from the dark alleys where she feeds feral cats to inside the tragically neglected homes where she climbs over piles of trash, and occasionally animals, and then into her own driveway with the cats she loves and must sometimes let go.  Compelling and tender, Poets Square is as much about cats as it is about the urgency of care, community, and a little bit of dumb hope.

Knowing my love of cats (and books), one of my neighbors called to invite me for a chat.  She wanted to "show" me something.  Actually, she wanted to let me borrow one of the library books she'd just gotten.  This is the book she handed me.  I started it immediately, since she would want to read it herself when she finished the other book (or books) she'd checked out.  That's why I opened it the minute I went back to my apartment.  Thanks, Madeleine.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. My Wednesday post, HERE, was about a book loaned to me by a neighbor who also loves cats.  Thanks, Larry.
2. On Thursday, I didn't mention HERE that a friend from the community met me for lunch in our Café and brought a book she'd just finished, thinking it is one I'd like to read.  Thanks, Sharon.
3. On Friday, I wrote HERE about a book another neighbor let me borrow, one her daughter had given her.  Thanks, Betty.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A busy week and a borrowed book

Most of my friends here are readers.  I loaned a book to one who doesn't read a lot, and he returned it in the box beside my door recently.  He'd had the book for weeks.  Actually, months, I think.  You want to know which book.  This one:

We'll Prescribe You a Cat ~ by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, 2024, literary fiction, 304 pages

I told you all about it HERE, so I won't repeat myself.  Click that link to read all about the book.  My non-reader neighbor left me a note, saying, "B — Thanks so much for sharing this sweet book!  It brought lots of sweet memories + smiles."  Then he drew a cat's face, with ears and whiskers.

Here's what I posted this week:

1. On Tuesday, I wrote about a neighbor who took me out to lunch for my birthday.  She wrapped up four big boxes of tissue as my gift because of my "post nasal drip."  When I told her that I have a runny nose because of my spring allergies, she doubled down and insisted that I have post nasal drip.  I use tissue to wipe my runny nose, but I do NOT cough it out of my mouth.  Sorry, if that's too much information, but her insistence made me blog about the difference between having a runny nose and having post-nasal drip, HERE.
2. On Wednesdays, I often write about words and phrases, so "glitch in the matrix" was the subject that day, HERE.
3. On Thursday, I attended the first of eight classes on fall prevention, and I smiled when the instructor mentioned "endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility."  That was the focus in the classes I led here several years ago, using free booklets from Go4Life.  That class was my focus on Thursday, HERE.
4. Friday's subject was a book on National Parks in North America, HERE.
5. On Saturday, I wrote about a children's picture book someone (probably visiting an elderly relative here at my facility for senior living) had left in our library, HERE.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.