Miss Madeline

Maddy Cat regrets her haste in trading the warmth of her humans' house for the freedom of the outdoors.

I have to admit, we have had prettier cats and smarter cats and funnier cats through the years, but Maddy is just the steadiest good girl. She's not a lap-sitter or cuddler but prefers to sit on my desk and watch my face while I work (between naps [hers not mine]). She purrs quite a bit but has has this irritated-seeming voice when she chooses to use it. Well, most cat noises are irritating, but her voice sounds like she's just HAD it with you and can't you please pay attention.

Mike doesn't like names for cats and can't bring himself to say things like Madeline or Celia or Stella, so she is usually called Mississippi Cat since we got her in Meridian or Baby Cat because she never seems to get very big. Emily and I in some sort of weak moment went to the animal shelter in Meridian 8 years ago and were determined to come home with kittens. I'm still not sure why because she had just talked me into getting 2 lab puppies, and I wouldn't have thought kittens were a priority (or very safe) at that time. Emily was just staying with us while she applied for jobs after graduating from UNC, so I can't remember the circumstances of wanting to fill our house and yard with animals except it was kind of fun at the moment. Anyway, we got Maddy and her sister Celia, although I don't think they were in any way related. Celia was a calico, long and graceful, with a very cheerful disposition. Maddy was homely, chunky, and a little aloof. Celia disappeared once we moved to Greensboro, but Maddy has been there with us through 2 more moves, the passing of the 2 elder cats, and the addition of her worst nightmare, Stella, and worse, a DOG.

I can count on Maddy Cat to be sitting on my bedside table every morning, just watching me and purring. She expects the alarm to ring at 7:00, and on the mornings it doesn't, she walks over and politely asks me if it's not time to get up. She's pretty patient, but after a period of time known only to her, she starts walking on me or tipping the edge of the lamp, the latter of which every cat of mine has learned will get me moving.

Maddy doesn't eat people food; has never shown the least interest in it. In fact, if you offer her chicken or cheese or anything else, she will make an elaborate show of pretending to bury it while giving you a disgusted look. Until we moved here, she would only eat dry food, but somehow she developed a taste for Fancy Feast that our older cat Lili liked, so now she wails for a spoon of that a couple of times a day. It's the least I can do for my work buddy.

She's trying to figure out how to take walks with Darby and me. Sometimes, I'll turn around a few blocks from home, and I'll see her trotting along the sidewalk with her little bow-legged walk yelling her head off. I've tried carrying her, but she won't put up with that long. She usually just runs along the edges of houses until she gets scared by something or tired and then goes back home. She'll be there when Darby and I get home reprimanding us and welcoming us back home.

I thought she deserved an entry all her own because she's kind of an in-the-background kind of cat. If you take 20 pictures of her, they all look the same. She never seems to do anything mischievous or funny, but she does have her own personality. She's a cat to be counted on, always the same, never climbing the walls or clawing things, but just there for me.

Monday Morning Discoveries

The Good

This sweet little bloom came out of nowhere. Its sister had grown tall and bloomed weeks ago, and it was nice to have this greet me this morning. I think I had rather them bloom one by one and not fill the room with that overpoweringly sweet scent.

The Bad
This is what greeted me when I stumbled into the garage to feed the cats. Evidently they had already dined but were insisting on having fresh food in their bowls. I suggested they finish up what was there first. We'll see how that goes. If they won't, I know a little black dog who will make short work of it.

Find the Kitty

Every morning when the back door is opened, Stella makes her way across the yard to climb up on this fence where our neighbor has a beautiful Carolina jasmine that we get to enjoy. The vine happens to be a favorite place for birds, and Stella probably intends to find her breakfast there. So far, she has had to settle for Fancy Feast in the garage, but you can't blame her for trying.

I've never actually looked over into this yard (there's a double fence), but I'm convinced it's like a Secret Garden. I can see the top of a gazebo and magnolia trees, a banana plant, I believe, and other interesting foliage. The unfortunate thing is that the house is 2 stories, and the poor people who live there have to look down onto my yard. Which they probably try to avoid! There were 2 maple trees here when I moved in, and now there's only 1/2. I planted a dogwood, but the yard men mowed it down. Mike did work hard on the flower beds near the house, so they're coming along a little, and planted the 3 Leyland cypress trees, but what they mainly see is whatever toy Darby has managed to pull the stuffing out of that particular day. Once she gets the ear off her little animal, the opening is there, and she delights in pulling the stuffing out and romping all over the yard with it until it looks like an Alabama snowfall. If I catch it in time, I can sew up the ear hole and prevent this, but she seems to hide it from me until I've neglected her for a few hours in the yard. One day when I'm walking by this house, I'll stop and introduce myself (confess) and maybe get a chance to see that garden for myself.

January 1, 2009

Maddy Cat doing what she does best.

This is a little scary to write things that anyone else can read. I don't like people looking over my shoulder and reading what I write, so this may not be fun for me. Every day I read blogs from the most interesting, talented, hilarious, creative people with beautiful web sites. I have no idea how to create pages like those (and don't know if I really want to), and I'm not creative or interesting and certainly not hilarious, but this is my life, and I want to remember it. I always start a journal on January 1st and can remember only about 3 years in the 80s where I actually wrote in that journal all year. In fact, lots of times I will run upon one of my January journals, and they are usually 8 to 10 pages of meticulous detail about what's going on, and then I'll get busy or have some catastrophe or the weather will get gloppy and my life dull, and I'll just forget to write. This way, if I can draft 1 or more daughters to write with me, we might get past January and enjoy this record-keeping. I'm not sure if I want anyone else to read it, but the fact that they COULD might keep me looking for interesting things that go on day to day. Sorry, couldn't find one today. I'll have to get someone to help me make it a pretty page one day. That's all kind of over my head. I couldn't even figure out how to put the picture at the bottom of the page.