The Interior Cat

A brief, somewhat - weather - related
public service announcement
from me and the cats:All cats belong inside at all times, no matter what the weather, and no matter how much they beg to go out. The only exception — if you are with your cat, such as taking it out on the porch with you, similar to taking your dog out on a leash, but never unattended. Cats may seem independent, but they are no match for the dangers of the great outdoors, especially cars. Please protect their innocence and their lives, all nine of them!

Best Friends

"Everyone knows that a cat has nine lives. . .
'I am one who becomes two;
I am two who become four;
I am four who become eight;
I am one more after that.'"

~ from an ancient Egyptian religious text,
found at Deir el - Bahari, 22nd Dynasty

Pine, the Cat Who Just Loves Christmas

"The cat, household god and protective spirit of the family, soon gravitated to the very heart of the house, the hearth. Traditionally this was the entrance and exit for both good and bad spirits, for the sorceress as well as for Santa Claus [emphasis added!]. . . . A cat new to the house was immediately taken to the hearth to ensure that it would not run away. This introduction to the heart of the house was completed by an offering of food."

both excerpts above from

by De Laroche‎ Jean-Michel & Labat, 20 - 21
A Christmas present from dear friend
and fellow booklover Megan
Fuqua / aka "GoldenEye" on Laundry Day

Go, Little Book

Thanks Megan!*
Go, little book, thy destined course pursue,
Collect memorials of the just and true,
And beg of every friend so near
Some token of remembrance dear.

Let not our friendship be like the rose, to sever;
But, like the evergreen, may it last forever.

Accept my friend these lines from me,
They show that I remember thee,
And hope some thought they will retain
Till you and I shall meet again.

~ J. S. (John Stuart) Ogilvie, 1843-1910
from The Album Writer's Friend, 1891
found in Pat Ross's With Love and Affection

*To see more from Megan:
~ Books from a Friend ~
@Kitti's Book List

Thanks to Katy Bunder for the Kitten Book End!

Nightfall: Bronze Goddess

Nightfall: Half Life
Bronze Sculpture by Richard MacDonald
Contemporary figurative artist (b 1946)
We grow accustomed to the Dark -
When light is put away -
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye -

A Moment - We uncertain step
For newness of the night -
Then - fit our Vision to the Dark -
And meet the Road - erect -

And so of larger - Darknesses -
Those Evenings of the Brain -
When not a Moon disclose a sign -
Or Star - come out - within -

The Bravest - grope a little -
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead -
But as they learn to see -

Either the Darkness alters -
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight -
And Life steps almost straight.

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
Reclusive, prolific American poet

Megan and I, posing with our favorites

I've been lucky enough to see this beautiful moon goddess twice recently, once with my friend Megan at the Dawson Cole Gallery in Laguna Beach (thanks Kayla Federline) and again at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with my husband Gerry. See how she is standing on the crescent moon? And the way she balances both the full moon and the dark moon in her two hands?

I'm reminded of one of my favorite typos ever -- the time when I accidentally began a note to my dear friend and pen pal Cate with "He Cate" instead of "Hey Cate." But on second thought, I decided that, instead of an error, it must have been a Freudian slip in reference to "Hecate, the Goddess of the Dark of the Moon".