Poetry the Calico Cat

♫All Creatures Great and Small♫

The story continues....

My plan to get another cat after "writing her into reality" was interrupted when a friend offered me the calico kitten that had been born recently on her farm.  I was only half way through the story I was writing about Gabriel the Snowman turning into a little white dog so he could search for his best friend, Poetry the Calico Cat.  It was too soon, but this kitten presented herself now so I felt I had to be open to this change in my plans.  I would have to wait a few more weeks for the kitten to be weaned, though.  I hadn't even seen it yet when I learned it had grown sick and died.  But my heart was already engaged and the course had been set, so I went to Petfinder to see what they might have and this is who popped up on my screen....

Gabriel the Little White Dog

This is the story of how I came to be the Mum of a West Highland White Terrier named Gabriel....

In November 2007 it was clear that it was time to let my 13-year-old calico cat, Poetry, go.  She had a vaccine-associated scarcoma and could no longer get around on her own.  It was devastating to lose her so soon especially since I had written children's stories about her and a snowman named Gabriel....

Poetry and Gabriel were names Ken and I had chosen for our future children when we were dating.  We changed our minds by the time we had children 12 years later so the names were available for my characters.  Those stories can be found on Poetry's  website.

It took me awhile before I was ready to replace Poetry.  When I did, I realized I was at the point in my life, now that all my children were grown, that I needed a pet that was more cuddly than my various cats had been over the years.  So by the summer of 2008 I approached Ken about getting a dog.

♡ HEARTS ♡

        ♫ ♥Story ♫

♥'s are my theme today.  I went around the house looking for all the hearts I could find.  It's amazing what one notices when one is on a quest.  In my case, it was mostly dust.  In fact, you will actually get to see some of this dust in the following photos.  

I'm also using this post to practice using the free photo editor site I've been using to put frames around my photos.  This is the first time for me to use the collage feature. So, let's get started.  

These are the hearts I found in my kitchen....

View Outside My Kitchen Window - March

♫New Day♫

"Some people say home is where you come from, but I think it's a place you need to find, like it's scattered and you pick pieces of it up along the way."  --from "Awaken"  by Katie Kacvinsky

That ☝ is what I've been thinking about as I gaze out my kitchen window on this first day of March....

Out and About - February

♫Here, There, and Everywhere♫

February's weather was not any better than January's, but we did go out more because we had things to do---like help one of our son's and his wife move into their new rowhouse on the 1st.  All their friends and family showed up with their cars and moved them the half-mile....

Bringing Life to Sculpture

♫Chopin♫

A friend's post about the bronze sculpture outside her library gave me the idea to post photos of the sculptures we've had the privilege to come upon in our travels.  This is our library's sculpture....

C. Burr Artz Public Library, Frederick, MD

Directors Guild of America Awards Dinner

♫The Sound of Silence♫

 The Directors Guild of America holds their own awards program every year to honor its members.  Forty-six years ago this week I attended  the 19th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.  I was the guest of my Aunt Irene's husband, Reg Browne. 

The Waltons

              I've been thinking about The Waltons because Ralph Waite, the father on The Waltons, died last Thursday.   

A Love Story

The song ♫Leaving on a Jet Plane♫ ran continuously through my head as I watched my beloved walk from me down the dark, barely-lit street in the middle of the night.  The memory of the physical and emotional pain I felt is still with me.  He had already taken his car to his parents' house in Illinois where it would be garaged for the duration, so he had to walk the several blocks to the boarding house where he was staying.  I was 16 and he had just turned 21.  I would be in class--a senior in high school--when he boarded the bus to Detroit the next day where he was to be drafted into the Army....

That's Ken in the first row, second from right