The Hiding Habit

originally posted May 1, 2024. Seems worth another go....

THE HIDING HABIT

When the world shouts obscenities

and the winds of change roar in the trees,
move low to the ground to the hiding place.

When fear is strong, pay attention.
Sit in stillness, in silence and listen.
Wait. Think. You don't have to move yet.

Breathe in. Breathe out.
Purr to comfort yourself.

If you must move, be stealthy,

silent in the shadows, then return to safety.

When quiet evening finally comes - emerge. 

Look around. Sniff the air. Stretch. 

Give a wide yawn. Blink. You are still here! 

Pay attention!

- Mad Mar Mistryel Walker

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When this photo was taken, the windows were wide open and there was a crew of roofers working on the block  After a while I noticed my three cats were missing. I hunted under and behind everything until I found them. They were  lined up in a straight row in the narrows behind a dresser, hiding from all the noise. 

I'm AWAKE and WATCHING YOU WORLD!

 

I haven't posted in a while. After the events of Jan 6,  I was horrified and speechless. 

After a few heat pump posts, and a lot of silence,  I’ve been thinking - that I’d like to make a post here every day until my death. Seems unlikely. 

Nonetheless - I’m going to start.

I declare this blog open and active again!

My three cats: the morning meeting

My three rescue cats from DAWS decided they want to hold a daily meeting. By feline decree, this meeting, sort of a greeting ceremony, should occur at the corner of the couch in the center of the living room every morning right after the human starts walking around. I don't know what happens if I move the couch. The world will probably end.

The two boys, Crow and GreyHawk scurry over, wind around my legs and each other, tails up, making funny little sounds, giving head butts and cheek rubs. At the commotion, our little cat-colony queen Fiji Phoebe, decides she really should participate and strolls over. She tries hard to make sure one of the boys is strategically positioned between her and the huge horrible human. She speaks to me, but usually only gets close enough to sniff my hand. Yesterday for the first time she allowed me to pet her during the ceremony. Progress!

Tail of two cats.....

Just can't seem to be content without a cat. Right now I have two for the first time in years. Both are antique - one 15 years old, and one 16 years old. Both are fairly spry considering.

I'm waiting until they know each other better & hoping for a photo of them together which is not possible as yet. So instead here is a stylized pencil kitty I recently tweeted:

April 2016 Poem A Day # 17 - a Haiku

Haiku day
.
For fifteen years now
warming my life, chair, lap, bed:
small bread-colored cat

Painting: Busy No 1 - Cat Dreams, oil on canvas board

Cats are busy when they're awake, and who knows what they dream about. Maybe little birds or mice running, or leaves skittering on the wind? This painting is busy too, with color and movement of dots. I don't know why. Just a fancy I had I guess.

Flash fluke - Cat with burning eyes

This is one of those accidental photos that I could never take on purpose, because as a point-and-click photog, I just don't have the skill.  Miet walked right up to the camera and got caught in the flash closeup..  The photo was taken at night, and the lamp in the background has one of those new fangled energy-saving bulbs

Mein feline…

This is my kitty Miet who was a little blinky at the flash.

NaPoWriMo # 18 - Suspicious activity

Suspicious activity

When the strainer for the kitchen drain
is in the center of the floor at dawn

when there are q-tips beneath the pillow
or an earring and tie-clip suddenly are gone

When there is water around the fish bowl
when scarves are tucked into the couch

if there are footprints on the counter
and crow outside becomes a squawking grouch

a roll of stamps becomes unraveled

and underneath the chair a bottle cap appears

and soil keeps escaping from a planter

there is no doubt:  the cat's been here

- Mar Walker

Yes this is just a little light verse but true. Above sits one of the conspirators. 

THE PROMPT: Write a poem featuring the cat family, whether big or small.

Dog and Cat Kiss: Interpretations differ - what's your take?

Many folks look at this photo and see a pretty little dog and cat kissing. What we see depends a lot on what we expect. I live with these two characters and what I see are two rivals inspecting the competition.  My pets are companionable but not affectionate with each other, and are often jealous of, or at least very interested in the attention or tidbitts the other gets. In this photo, I think they are checking each others cheeks and breath to see if one has eaten anything the other has missed, checking each others physical status and mood. This sweet little kitty often bites the dogs ears, lips or toes to drive her out of a spot of sun that the cat wants for herself.  The dog, who is aware that direct aggression on the cat is not an option within this pack, for her part will secretly steal the cat's food whenever she has the opportunity.

We often find it necessary to anthropomorphize or romanticize animals, especially when describing them to children, but they have their own agenda and motivations which differ greatly from our own.  This is the cause of a lot of injury.  A child assumes this is their beautiful stuffed toy to hug and drag about by an ear or a limb.  The cat, dog, rabbit, hamster responds with teeth to this attack, ends up euthanized, not beause they were evil or dangerous -- but because their owners were irresponsibly ignorant of their needs and nature.  When any dog is left alone with a small child and injury results it is most usually the fault of the supervising human being. If you own a gun and your toddler shoots someone with it, you are negligent and you get a fine. If you own a dog, and someone is injured, you might pay damages, but in the final tally its the poor dog that pays the price for your lack of objective knowledge about nature.

-- Mar Walker

April 29 Poem - Never Bathe a Cat

Prompt - "Never ___"

Never bathe a cat

clumps of clingy hair
mingle with your blood
a wet trail leads through dangling Chenille
to the underworld under the bed
where dust kitties stick to the wet kitty
where green eyes glower and the hissing continues...

-- Mistryel Walker

Phooey on politics!

There are some things in the world that require a direct address not a remote vote.  The polite request of  dog who wants something is one of them. Shown here is Oggi who's is now around 11 years old.  Her muzzle wasn't so white when I got her from Danbury Pound.

Below is her sort of friend, the cat Miet, also adopted from an unknown past......  When they want something they sit one on either side of me and stare at me intently.  Maybe we could go to Washington and stare at congress until they get the idea!!! haha! Oh well, we'd all be staring for different reasons....

Sick of Politics for now - how about a brief cat lullaby?

]This is Miet kitty, filmed with a macbook. I sang a little tune and another then dragged them together and applied the delay effect.

Battling entropy - with cat watching....

The forces for chaos are all around me in piles. My cat, ever seeking a better vantage point from which to observe, knocks over the piles. The piles mingle into heaps. Old mail. scraps of drawings, poems. Today I am a Klingon swinging a broom - sorting and barbarically imposing order onto my chaotic belongings which mutter to me of memories and past plans gone awry.