A Tale of Two Kitties

When I was just a wee toddler, back in the mists of time that I barely remember, my parents got a calico cat. They let me name her, and because I was still pretty new to the world and had a limited vocabulary, I called her Kitty, and they let that stand. After my parents’ divorce, Kitty ended up with my dad, and because I lived with my mom most of the time, I didn’t get to see Kitty as much. But I adored her. She died when I was…14? 15? I was heartbroken. My dad and step-mom immediately adopted a young calico cat we called Patch. Patch was a sweet cat, and she particularly liked me. (When she got knocked up by a neighborhood tom, Patch had her litter behind my bed.) But she just wasn’t Kitty.

If you’re reading this, you almost certainly know of my little house panther Oberon. He can be a brat, but he’s very attached to me, greets me at the door when I get home, and loves to lie in my lap or curl up next to me. I adopted him from Wayside Waifs 9 and a half years ago and the thought of living without him can bring me to tears. When I adopted him, they told me not to get any more cats because while Oberon is friendly to just about any human he meets, he does not like other cats. I’ve never been sure I could afford having more than one cat anyway, so it’s rare for me to see a cat up for adoption and actually want to adopt it.

But for the first time in almost a decade, I find myself kind of wishing I was catless right now. I received the weekly Wayside Waifs email featuring animals up for adoption and one of them is a female cat named…Kitty. She’s not a calico like my childhood Kitty was, but she sounds like a little darling and I think I’d be a good carer for her. But of course the primary appeal is the name, and it’s hitting me hard in the heart. I truly don’t want to be without Oberon, but I want to think there’s an alternate timeline where I’m adopting this new Kitty now.

2-05-2024 |

Too Sweet by Far (Squishy Business 2)

November is Diabetes Awareness Month, so it was very convenient for me to be diagnosed with type-2 diabetes at the end of October. (It was also for the best that I got my diagnosis before Hallowe’en instead of after. Trying to ask my doctor questions about the diagnosis with my mouth stuffed full of half-priced Reese’s peanut butter cups would have been a tad awkward.) (more…)

11-08-2023 | 2

Bearly Artistic

It’s a bear painting! A painting made by bears!

 

What happened is this: (more…)

2-28-2023 |

Squishy Business

A few weeks ago, I woke up with a knot in my back, next to the right shoulder blade. Not anything unusual–I’ve had back muscle problems since my mid-20s. My posture isn’t great and I carry a lot of tension and anxiety in my shoulders and back, so sudden muscle pain is an old companion of mine and I didn’t think much of it besides “OW!” (more…)

2-23-2023 | 2

Not Absolutely Topping, but Still a Hoot

I’ve been rewatching Peter Davison’s first season as the Fifth Doctor on Doctor Who. It’s the season I saw that first got me hooked on the series. It’s always good to revisit your old haunts. Well,maybe not always, but usually. Tonight I watched the two-part story “Black Orchid.” It’s definitely not the best story of the season, but it’s also not the worst (I’m looking at you, “Four to Doomsday” and “Time-Flight”). It gets a lot of negativity because besides the Doctor, the TARDIS, and his companions, there’s no science fiction in it at all; it’s set up to be a classic 1920s mystery story, but the mystery is never much of a mystery; as a rare two-part story, it’s all a bit rushed, but there’s also not enough story to stretch it out to the typical four episodes. But aside from all that, I think it’s a fun one to watch. So here are the good things about the story:

  • It’s the first purely historical episode since the 1960s and the last one the show would ever do. Some people might not like that, but I find it kind of refreshing to have an episode set in Earth’s history that doesn’t involve an alien menace or time travelers from the future messing around with the timeline.
  • It’s one of the few stories in the season where none of the TARDIS crew get mad at each other, all of them act intelligently, and they’re all in a pretty good mood.
  • Tegan is in a good mood. She’s usually the one complaining the loudest, getting easily frustrated and angry, sniping at the Doctor and Adric and any guest stars who get in her way. Here she’s chipper and charming, she drinks cocktails, dances the Charleston, and playfully flirts with a much older man.
  • We get to watch Peter Davison show off his mad cricket skillz. I don’t really understand cricket, but you can see he’s playing well and having a great time doing it.

It’s easy to dwell on the negatives of the story (there isn’t much plot and what plot is there is pretty thin, and you can clearly see that the weather was pretty bad when they were shooting and the cast don’t look thrilled about it), but while the story never really amounts to much in the larger context of the season, I’m okay with that. It’s a breather episode, and a pretty fun one at that. Sometimes that’s all I need.

1-15-2023 |

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