Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Snowmen Cats

The weather outside is frightful, but to make a cat snow creature is delightful...


Do you have a cat snowman picture you'd like to share? Click HERE to email it to the Edgycats and Sylvia. We will feature it on the blog at a later date. Don't forget to include your name, the photo caption and, of course, your cat's name. Love, Syl

Friday, November 19, 2010

Cat and Deer Love to Cuddle

An Edgycat friend, Bruce Bartleson, wrote in with these cute cat and deer photos. Take a look!






Deer visits cat in yard every morning! 

A cat at Harrisburg has a special friend that visits every morning. 

The owner finally took pics! Those we love don't have to be exactly like us.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Come to BadGirlChats.com for Coffee and Donuts with Sylvia


Edgycat Friends, stop by BadGirlChats.com for coffee and donuts with Sylvia.

Thanks,
The Staff

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Looking for a sign


Looking for signs
 Sally would only drink water that was moving. Where was the sport in water captured in a bowl? Where was the magic? When Sally could no longer leap to the top of the clavfoot tub and land gracefully inside, that was a sign. How many signs are necessary?

Another sign

Sally loved to sit out on the deck in a certain pale green lounge chair. When she could no longer leap up effortlessly, that was a sign

 And when Jana and  I watched Television

She would come into the room and vacillate between us. who would she choose… my sister or myself and for how long? My sister never had a cat, but she did sorta like Sally, and she did like being chosen. I would occasionally hear her say:” So how’s it goin’ sal?” At the end, Sally stopped keeping us company.   

And finally…
 When her back legs didn’t work at all and all the fun was gone, the vet came to the back porch and put her to sleep and Tom and Olivia were there to say goodbye and we buried her in the back yard with Izzy, and Buddy and Eric under 3 beautiful stones and a cast iron cat and very soon Olivia will plant ghost ferns there to keep my white cat company.

Monday, April 19, 2010

I am early for my appointment



I was early for my appointment to discuss illustrating a book on Hot Dogs... Vienna Hot dogs...Vienna hot dogs at a picnic. I was an illustrator before I became a cartoonist.  I loved drawing hot dogs in buns, not much call for it then or now, so I was pleased to be offered this opportunity.

 I was sitting all alone in a huge room, two stories high with a winding staircase.  I had been buzzed in and told to wait. I was calmly looking around feeling relieved as I always did when I actually found the address that I was looking for with a modicum of angst and was safely seated. It was obviously someone’s private apartment, someone who was highly successful in Public Relations, someone who could afford a two-story place on Cedar Street in Chicago.

I heard a clanking noise behind me and I turned my head slightly to look at the stairway and I saw a cat. A cat that had two front legs and two wheels where her back legs should have been. She was coming downstairs.  She had no trouble making her way. She moved with aplomb.  Her owner followed her explaining that her cat had had an accident. But she didn’t go into the details. 

Probably she had talked about the accident many times. It’s not like a child. People might hesitate to ask: how did your child come to lose her legs and how did you arrive at the decision to use wheels? The cat on wheels was another sign that I was in the home of a highly successful woman who had no financial need ask herself can I afford to  amputate my cats back legs and replace them with wheels ? Or “ is my cat’s quality of life diminished by her locomotion? Is her life full of fun, spiritually rich”?

Sally has four legs, but she gets around on them awkwardly. I look at her. She purrs. She studies the height of everything before she jumps…and then she makes it look easy. Except when she misses, but don’t we all miss once in a while?  

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Will Sally Recognize me?

Sally Cookie is on my mind…

I escaped to California again this year, but due to Sally’s unfortunate condition, her reputation had preceded her and no one wanted her as a houseguest.

Sally has had a miraculous cure due to the diagnosis of her illness: allergy to gluten and my application of the remedy: gluten-free raw meat with vegetables and minerals. But it’s hard to explain to people when you are going to share their space that your wonderful cat no longer has the condition that would make her the spoiler of their environment.

Sally had to stay home. I approached everyone I could think of looking for a companion who would stay in my, I think, pretty interesting space with all the amenities, including Tivo, an in-apartment washer/drier, a copy machine that makes 11X17 copies, great art and a netflix membership. No takers.

Finally the gods smiled and a neighbor, who lives a block away agreed to come in twice a day to feed and medicate Sally... did I mention Sally’s diabetes? My friend’s household is rather crowded with relatives and pets and she welcomed visiting a home that contained only one quite small cat.

I will be home soon. Will Sally recognize me? Will she prefer her surrogate mother to me? I am prepared to take second place, but I hope she will run downstairs to greet me.

March l: 
Got here at 7:30 a.m. to be told that the plane was not departing until 3:00. No reason. Later we were told that the plane needed a part and that it was being sent from Dallas. Which had weather. I tried various standby flights, but no luck. I decided to buy a one day pass at the Admirals Club for $50 which includes free wifi, cookies, and certified kosher snacks. They have nice bathrooms. Finally at 1:40 I decided to sit at the gate in case they just decided to takeoff without telling anyone. I called Sally’s surrogate mother and she will step in and keep Sally company for another evening. I have éclairs in my suitcase. My suitcase is in Chicago.

The suspense continues, will Sally recognize me? Will she acknowledge me?

March 2:
I think she recognized me. She was friendly, but then I remembered that’s why I named her Sally Cookie. She’s so friendly and sweet, I felt she needed an endearing last name.

Sally is very very old and she has had a history of near death experiences. She resembles a cat put together from very old parts. Like that old Mel Gibson movie where everything is assembled from rusty leftovers.

Previous emergency interventions have left her with bald patches, (shaved areas for blood tests and medicinal patches) which have never grown back. This is particularly disturbing on her legs, which make them look too thin to hold her up.

She’s as friendly and loving as ever, and she leapt onto the bed to sleep with me with the grace of a gazelle. I’d been looking at the Sky Mall catalog on the plane with a view to buying her a ramp to get onto the bed, but it’s totally unnecessary.