Dear Cat People

Yes, I need a Tillie'n'Jinx icon....

I also need a long-term strategy for getting hairball remedy into Jinx. Experiments to date suggest this will require developing a long-term strategy for catching her on a regular basis. Jinx is the cat who wants all 4 paws under her at all times. She keeps her distance, and even the bait'n'switch operation of putting tasty food down and then grabbing her has limited effectiveness.

As the Virtual Vet says:

"To Catch a Cat: Offer a favorite food and grab the cat
Be rotten. Catch ‘em while they are eating! The down-side is this: if you miss, the cat will not trust you for a while, or ever. Do not attempt this technique unless you are sure it will work right the first time; you will not get a second chance."

Even if you do catch them the first time, they'll remember. At least, Jinx does. I used bait'n'switch to get her into her carrier and to the vet last Friday; she's not letting me come close today.

So. Anyway. Several weeks back, after poking around on the net, I tried adding a light drizzle of olive oil to her food. She tried it and quickly learned she doesn't like it. Now she won't touch it, even when she's hungry. And I'm doing my best not to let her be hungry these days. She's lost a lot of weight and it appears she's continuing to do so. A couple hundred dollars in vet appointments and tests haven't turned up anything; we're now on a wait'n'see approach. She has constant access to kibble though I don't know if she ever eats any of it -- she's a very private cat. She also now gets nummy canned food several times a day. After 7 weeks of that routine and enough hairball medicine to bring up several hairballs, she'd still lost a quarter pound. The formerly 14.2 pound cat is down to 8.5 pounds. Not good.

She's been tolerating brushing of late, which has been a help in all this heat. But signs suggest that hairballs continue to be a problem, one that has been solved by hairball remedy in the past. Now all I need to do is catch her....

(And keep on catching her once a week or so. Yeah. Right.)

Dear Cat People: follow-up

I have a new trick for catching Jinx. It might have been a one-time trick, but, hey, she now has hairball remedy in her.

I didn't even know there was a phone trick. But there I was, sitting at my desk and talking on the phone. Jinx came by, meowing for attention and a pet. One stroke and grab! Fortunately, I'd already relayed the fact that I'd been trying to catch the cat for 4 hours this morning, so once I had her, I could proclaim, "I've got the cat! Bye!" Tore off the headset without losing the cat. Remembered where the hairball stuff was. Applied it to her front paws and and let her go. Watched her lick it off. Win

For this week, anyway.

Life in Wales

A few weeks ago, on election day, I took my Squier plate along with me to the poll, thinking to show it to our primary town historian, David Worth. David was home, recovering from surgery, but Town Clerk Leis Phinney told me David and Kaye would be glad to have me drop by, so I did. While there, David gave me a shallow black & white bowl that came from the Squier House. It's seen better days; decades ago it was broken clean through and repaired, and later, repaired again. Thanks to David, it's "back in the family."

A few minutes ago, the sound of loud knocks permeated through headphones and the attention I was paying to Neil Gaiman's A Calendar of Tales while working on the layout of the next issue of AIR.

David Worth was at the door. Once he knew I was here, he reached into his car, then followed me inside carrying the tattered remains of very old scrapbook and an envelope of photos and some negatives. He's sorting and organizing his own historical files, and came to give me those from the Squier sisters.

OMG. A couple of years ago, he brought me the first of his Squier files, a folder of newspaper clippings about the house being torn down, a few family letters and papers, and a small handful of photos of the Squier sisters, Phyrne, Ruby, and Helen. Helen is the distant cousin who corresponded with my great-uncle Ted, the one who led Ted to write to my Grandma Dorothy in August, 1970, about hearing from "Miss Helen Squier of Wales, Mass." The letter Grandma the sent to my parents, that my Mom kept in her address book and that my sister found is the only reason I know I have family roots in this town, in this area, going back hundreds of years.

And now I have photos -- lots of photos -- some of them identified, many not, but I know they were the Squier family photos here in Wales. Photos of Phyrne, Ruby, and Helen, of their parents and friends, of family pets, the cats, dogs, a duck, cows, and a horse in front of the barn. Photos of outings around Massachusetts, from Marblehead, Holliston, and more, all from 1919 and thereabouts, just a few from the 1930s.

I snapped a few with my camera phone before setting them aside and getting back to work. Some of those will likely show up on G+ in the not-too-distant future.

Edited to correct bowl colors: I thought it was a dark navy blue and white; it's actually a black and white toile picture print, not blue and white.