Spring is Springing

It has been a cold winter here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Today, it's supposed to get up into the fifties. Practically balmy.

So I opened my bedroom window for Dax and Kara. They were so pleased that they actually sat together without fighting, something they rarely do. Spring really is coming, I guess.

Apologies for not posting in forever. I've been deeply depressed since my cousin's suicide. She was my best friend my whole life and I'm finding it difficult to move on. I haven't wanted to write for Doux Reviews, either. I'd have hope that spring is coming and things might be better, if only the current administration weren't in the process of actively destroying my country.

Happy Thanksgiving! Feline Detente!

I just bought a new cat tree that fits perfectly under the small window in my room.

My littermate cats Dax and Kara tend to fight and avoid each other, not cuddle, and they spent all last night battling for possession of the new tree. This morning, detente! I never get photos like this any more. Kara is the one on the left.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Limerick

Last night in bed I wrote a limerick in my head:

(And let's give it some space so it doesn't clump up next to this photo of Kara.)

---

A glorious platform called Twitter
Was bought by a Nazi most bitter
He gave hate a shot
Now X marks the spot
And Twitter has gone down the shitter.

I don't usually write limericks in my head in the middle of the night, so I thought I should share it with you all.

Sorry about the quiet for awhile. My cousin, who was my closest lifelong friend, took her own life in August and left everything to me. I've been dealing with grief and with her estate, a house that her parents bought in 1952.

And I'm learning to hate estate lawyers.

An inconsequential window cat photodiary

Dax and Kara, who just turned two years old, are indoor cats, and like pretty much all indoor cats, window sills are their favorite place. While my apartment is mildly shabby, the view makes up for it.

Shoot us both, Spock

It's been quite awhile since I adopted a kitten. I've never adopted two at once, much less siblings that feed on each other's energy. There has always been an adult cat around to keep the new kitten in line, too. There is no adult cat here now. It's a bit overwhelming.

I've learned several things about half-grown kitten siblings since October:

Kara and Desmond Doux

Des is the one showing his belly

Apologies for the quietness when I clearly should be posting kitten pictures.

Kittens!

Desmond and Kara

It's a boy! And a girl!

Daniel and I went to the local animal rescue on Tuesday, not specifically intending to adopt a kitten, much less two. We looked at all of the adult cats and didn't feel a connection. But then we went into the kitten room, and there they were – an adorable, adoptable sister and brother. I couldn't just take one. Had to take them both. I mean, really. Look at them! Could you have left one of them behind?

Valentine's Day without my fuzzy sweetheart

I love Fox's bunny feet in this one

Roses are red, but I'm still terribly blue about losing my dear Fox. Which means I have a few more cat stories about Fox. And Spike, who died in 2014.

(Includes cute cat photos.)

Catless

I had to say goodbye to my dear kitty Fox yesterday. He would have been 14 in May. As I guess is par for the course after a lifetime of one serious disease after another, he had a strange and confusing final illness. And as is par for the course for me, I've been second guessing my decision to let him go, even though I know deep down it was the right one.

Does catnip alleviate anxiety?

My favorite recent photo of Fox. He poses.

I'm a cat person, if that isn't obvious. I've had cats, or they've had me, since I was ten and my mother brought home an abandoned gray striped tabby named Samantha.

Republican politics and macaroni salad

My cat Fox, who has mastered The Art of the Nap.

I was going to call this post "Bored now." Or possibly "Summertime blues." But then there was the macaroni salad... okay.

Life after death: I want to believe

Painting by Billie based on a photo by David Muench

I've lost my share of loved ones. Probably more than my share for my age. Parents and grandparents, my sister. Aunts and uncles. My favorite uncle Richard died of cancer in 2002. I lost Nelson, one of my closest friends in the world, to AIDS. And John, a man I was involved with for a long while and nearly married three times, died a couple of years ago.

The most difficult cat I ever knew

My cat Spike died this past Friday night. He was fifteen, nearly sixteen. I thought I'd be relieved, but honestly, I've been crying all weekend.

And now for something completely different: Hummingbirds

I like feeding birds. The first day I was in my new apartment in Los Angeles (omg, 2001), I saw a hummingbird outside my living room window and just went nuts -- they're soooo tiny!  I eventually got a cheap feeder and set it up on my balcony. The cats loved it. Although sometimes Spike got so excited that he would try to go through the screen door, so I would have to block it with cardboard or a box fan. It helps that it's always summer in Los Angeles. Okay, so it's not, but it feels that way when you only get two weeks of winter.