Cat Saturday,  Cats,  Gris Gris,  Odin

Stormy Sandy & Cats 2nd Gotcha Day!

If you love cats, sharing makes us purrrr :-)

Odin-cat Gris gris-cat

NEWS & MEWS:

In light of our recovery from Hurricane Sandy, Cat Wisdom 101 will be publishing on an ad hoc basis. All book reviews and giveaways are postponed or extended. To read more about our adventures with Sandy, scroll to yesterday’s post. Thanks kindly for your good wishes. We still have no Internet and gas shortages are the next challenge (this is being written on my laptop at a library in a neighboring town). The Chinese use the same word to mean both crisis and opportunity and I see this crisis as an opportunity to reflect on personal goals and directions. I can’t say what changes are coming yet but changes are in store for this website.

Being jolted from one’s usual habits and patterns of behavior can be a good thing. Cats are notorious for being creatures of habit but so are humans. We like our routines and rituals of morning coffee and perhaps a newspaper. They offer comfort but can lull us sleep walk through life in a blur of unawareness. That said, it was short of miraculous to see the New York Times being delivered the morning after the storm. Normally, the delivery guy drives up our long driveway and tosses it onto the porch. That day, a little girl I’d never seen before skipped up the driveway and delivered it by hand. I’ll never know if she was a delivery guy’s child or an angel. A crisis brings out the best and worst in human nature and I’m guilty of being equal parts goddess and shrew lately. There will be no Saint Layla anytime soon. Now, on to cat news…

The cats weathered the storm with extra coddling and treats. Everyone sunbathed on the porch this morning as if nothing had happened. Domino remains the most wary and continues to dive under the bed at any loud noise. Odin delighted in new horizontal trees to show off his agility training skills and Gris Gris was allowed to eat roast chicken off my plate in honor of his Gotcha Day.

What a difference two years can make in the life of a cat after they’re adopted. The anniversary of adopting a cat is called a Gotcha Day. October 30 was Gris Gris’s and Odin’s 2nd Gotcha Day but we were too busy to celebrate. I’d planned to post a photo montage but can’t upload any new photos. Hopefully there will be new pics for next Caturday.

It feels like yesterday when the unlikely duo arrived. Odin was a five-month old kitten, recuperating from eye surgery to remove a badly infected left eye. He shared a shelter room with Gris Gris, a near feral, scrawny old cat with zero chances of being adopted. At first glance I wasn’t attracted to him but I’d never seen such desperation before. He’d lived in that small room with a series of bullies for over a year. We connected telepathically then as we do now. He knew he had one chance to get my attention. We were there with plans to foster Odin but Gris Gris had other plans. He paced in front of me back and forth with a gleam in his amber eyes. GET ME OUT OF HERE! We had no plans to adopt. Merlin’s beloved sister Coco had died that September 14 and we were all grieving. The plan was to foster temporarily but cats have ways of changing best laid plans, and here we are happily two years later with a family of four cats.

Life is full of unexpected twists and turns. More than ever, I believe, good comes out of bad. Maybe not right away but eventually. Despite the distractions of listening to kids babbling in the library, a guy belching every 30 seconds, a harried librarian being asked endless questions, this post got written. I’m someone who needs absolute silence and privacy to write but by being forced out of my comfort zone, my patience stretched to the max, new elasticity and possibilities opened up for me. I’ll go out on a limb and say: I believe Sandy is the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me a sorely needed wake-up call.

There will be no new book review on Sunday, but there is still time to enter our huge giveaway to win copies of our favorite new cat book The Dalai Lama’s Cat (Last Sunday’s review). Thanks again and see you next time. Fellow bloggers: I look forward to catching up with you at your blog soon!

 

26 Comments

  • Zee and Zoey - Deb Barnes

    I don’t mean to celebrate a storm by any means, but I am very pleased to see this renewed attitude and do believe as you do, that sometimes it does take events like this to help guide us to life altering moments. Happy Gotcha Day to Gris Gris and Odin.

  • Cat-from-Sydney

    HAPPY GOTCHA DAY Odin and Gris Gris! Your mom’s so lucky to have gotcha’ed you two. Sandy was certainly very naughty and caused heaps of havoc, chaos and destruction. I hope your mom will rise like a phoenix that rises from the ashes. (((((HUGS))))) purrrr….meow!

  • catfromhell

    We were thinking about and purraying for yous! We is glad to knows yous is OK. We sends many good wishes for gottcha day! They is most meaningful. Me was not a kitten when me was saved.
    Yes, when a door closes, another opens.
    Kisses
    Nellie and Mom

  • Cherry City Kitties

    Happiest of Gotcha day’s Odin and Gris Gris! Or should we say it to mom Layla, cause she’s the one who really “gotcha’d” a present that day!
    Glad you are all safe. We’ll be waiting for your return to the blogosphere!
    Harry, Dexter and Tipp
    pee ess, the Momma read us the Dalai Lama’s kitty book in 2 days, she burned out her kindle battery just to read it to us!

  • CATachresis

    Happy Gotcha Day boys!! It certainly was a doozie!! I too need quiet, Layla and libraries always used to be quiet places!!!! But you are right that these times of trauma can and often do turn into times of blessing! xx

  • Katnip Lounge

    Happy Gotcha Day No. 2, Odin and Gris Gris!!! You boys sure know how to pick a great Mom.
    Layla, three years ago hubby had a scary and traumatic psychotic episode. It was the longest damn summer of my life…but looking back it was a definite turning point for both of us. Change is awful, and change is good. I understand what you mean about Sandy.

  • Rykerz Boyz n Allie

    Mom says she totally understands how good can come out of tragedy, and how you can say it’s the best thing that happened. She’s been there too. She sends you HUGS.

    And *we* send Odin & Gris Gris Gotcha Day best wishes!

  • Da tabbies o trout towne

    Happee gotcha day odin and gris gris and heerz ta a bazillion
    mor. We hope when stuffz bak ta normal with yur lives yur mom
    gets ewe sum trout, pork chops, ham samiches, toys, treetz, sghetti
    flounder, makeral, sea bass a new cat tree witha fulle stocked kitshun
    attached anda 2013 CATillac. Happee everee one is still fairin de storm
    And if yur mom wants ta bee a shrew … let her coz her kneads ta get
    it outta her system. N tell her ta seer ee iz lee give thoughts ta an ipad
    We dont werk for apple and we dont werk for at & t but her could chek
    on stuff and due stuffs just like her can with de laptop but without de
    commute ta find or a connection ta wi fi Happee bee lated gotcha, stay
    safe

    • boomermuse

      thanks,I had a friend over last night with her iPad and it never occured to ask about the email function. Thanks! T-Mobile is awful in our neck of the woods.

  • Skeeter and Izzy

    Happy second Gotcha Day Odin and dear Gris Gris!
    Layla I think that you are learning what I think the forces in and around this world aim to teach us. Most feel that weather and catastrophic events are random but I believe that they serve a purpose. I believe that they happen when we as a whole start forgetting how to appreciate,love,share,care,help,heal and learn. It is a rapid and harsh reminder but it usually changes so many for the better.
    I’m glad you have found that core of light! Just never forget that it is there.
    Luvs and purrs to every living being that is struggling anywhere in this world We pray that each can find their light. Luvs Skeeter and Izzy >^..^<

  • nadbugs

    Dear Layla — was just musing with a blog-friend about cats’ gait as being so close to their center-line — about how that may have been an adaptation to walking on branches. I wonder if that image might fit your situation, too? All that uncomfortable closeness to belching males and babbling kids, and you still finding the space closer to your center, to communicate with us even so? Your base of support is narrower these days — but you can still feel the margins with your clever feet. And your claws if need be. Saint Layla getting focused!

  • Sparkle

    Happy second gotcha day to you, Odin and Gris Gris! Although it would be nicer if you got to celebrate it under more pleasant circumstances. I guess this means no broiled salmon for you today!

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