Photo Quote de Jour

Last Saturday, my cat Merlin took over the blog while I attended the Cat Show at the Westchester County Center in nearby White Plains, N.Y. He was not amused by the motley bouquet of kitty aromas when I returned, but I bought him peacock feathers to appease him.  The show displayed a myriad of vendors selling every cat toy, bed, scratching post and knick knack imaginable. Feathers on a stick were the primo choice for most of the cat show breeders who tease their cats into show ring alertness. To be honest, the volume of kitty paraphernalia overwhelmed me. Cats want love and not fancy bowls, collars or costumes. My cats will attest: no real cat likes being dressed up like a feline Santa or mini reindeer.

Whats a cat show without cats? Over 230 cats of every breed and description lined the aisles: napping in cages, posing for cameras, handled and groomed for visitors and of course the show ring. It's all about winning and ribbons galore. Here are a few of the feline faces. The Siamese were my favorites, but I was intrigued by a hairless Sphynx kitten who felt like a rubbery hot water bottle.


As lovely as the cats were, the highlight was meeting about twenty writers who write about cats. The cat show was held in collaboration with the Association of Cat Writers and their conference. I was thrilled to meet Clea Simon whose book I'd reviewed recently and Ingrid King, a fan of Cat Saturday who wrote the recently published Buckley's Story (Ingrid and me below)

The writers held a Q & A, each one speaking about their interest in cats and their cat related books. It was pure catnip for every cat lover's soul.
Cat LINK of the Week is the Cat Writer's Association. They have links to all their members which provide websites to just about every cat writer in the U.S.  http://www.catwriters.org/


News & Mews
For the past year Cat Saturday has honored a special Cat of the Week. I'm sorry to admit, not one of those cats has been a Persian. To to rectify that oversight, I'm pleased to announce that we are retiring our Cat of the Week feature and introducing a new feature: Cat of the Month. Our first Cat of the Month is a pretty Persian named Thisby.

Thisby lives with her fur mom Linda and two other cats in Jackson Mississippi. Linda, shared this story with me. 

"Thisby (the only cat I've ever purchased) from a breeder of Persians as a mate for my cat Merlin. The night I brought her home (she was around a year old at the time) she spent most of the evening crouched about a foot away from my bedroom door, staring intently at Merlin's paw. He spent the evening on the other side of the door, frantically crying and thrusting his foreleg under it in a desperate attempt to reach her. Every once in a while, he would get tired and start to withdraw and she would reach out one delicate paw and tap his foot--which would set him off all over again.
That's how she got her name--from the 'play within a play' of Pyramus and Thisby, from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. The lovers could not see each other or communicate except by whispering through a crack in the wall...and Merlin being somewhat magical himself (he showed up on my doorstep at midnight one Halloween) the name just seemed to fit.

I keep any new cats entirely separate from the rest of the household until testing for FIP, feline leukemia and feline AIDS are complete; unfortunately, Thisby has feline AIDS. Thisby has never been spayed since she likely would not recover from the anesthetic. All of my feline children are strictly indoor cats so when she goes into heat, the 'boys' (both neutered) take refuge in my room at night and she spends most of her time gazing adoringly at my son. (Sounds weird, I know, but it's very humorous in action since normally she only has eyes for Mama. If I speak her name, even in casual conversation, she will show up within minutes and start 'talking' to me. This can make phone conversations rather entertaining since she thinks I'm talking to her.)

Thisby feeds herself like a person; that is, she picks up a single piece of kibble with her right paw and holds it to her mouth. Her favorite treat is lobster or shrimp--she will climb up my leg like a tree trunk to get at it--but while she enjoys the aroma of tuna, once she is given a dish she will turn and walk away. (She is also not fooled by sashimi--the cheap substitute for lobster found in 'seafood salad.')

She also enjoys an occasional roll in catnip, which Mama thoughtfully sprinkles over several paper towels on the kitchen floor for maximum exposure. Only the freshest, most-recently harvested catnip, from the bulk section at the health foods store, please and she can be quite ferocious about the boys encroaching on her enjoyment but once she is done, she is sweet-tempered and loving.

Thisby is around seven-years-old and enjoys good health since she eats only prescription cat food. She keeps her girlish figure (all 4 lbs.) by bossing the boys (Tom and Merlin) and by following Mama around, girlishly chatting all the while. She loves to groom herself in Mama's lap and nothing is more pleasing than an admiring audience--except a belly-rub administered by Mama. She doesn't even mind having her nails trimmed--beauty is hard work, after all, and does require some sacrifices--and her most comfortable position for a pedicure is stretched flat out on her back in Mama's lap, purring all the while."

Outdoor feral Domino loves to sunbathe on the porch. He has reached his butterball winter weight and am reducing his three meals a day to two.

Merlin continues his daily supervised stroll outdoors but coco may have enjoyed her last stroll for the season. With her fading vision and the colder weather, she'd rather snuggle under the covers.



Cat ART of the Week
One of the cat writers at the cat show is also an artist. Carol Stevens Bibisi creates colorful cat art of whimsical delight from her studio in Florida. http://www.artharmonycreations.com


Merlin and Coco are meowing at me to get off the computer, so see you next week for a bite-sized portion of  Cat Saturday.