Posts Tagged ‘Lola and Charly’

Cruel Month

{ April 5, 2013 @ 8:55 am } · { Uncategorized }
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T.S. Eliot was right.  April is “the cruellest month.”  Dear Scrapper Poet readers, Anthony and I have found out that our beloved kitty Lola has been diagnosed with a rare condition called  Chylothorax, which is basically a build up of lymph fluid in the chest cavity.  The prognosis is guarded to good.   Right now, she seems to be fine — she’s eating and playing and is very alert.  She has some respiratory problems, but is managing.  We are treating her with medication and a new diet that is low in fat.  She had a chest tap last week, and yesterday, a follow-up visit to the vet, who was pleased with her progress.  I know that this type of medication often takes weeks before we see any results.  I also know that this condition is often fatal to cats, but I also know that many cats heal and live good, healthy lives.  So please think of Lola in our little humble household of cat lovers.

I was on spring break this past week, but my days have been taken up with cat care.  Now that Lola is on the mend (fingers crossed), I hope to focus a bit more time on poetry — after all, it is National Poetry Month! I’m trying to write a poem a day and so far, on day five, I have been successful.  I’m also trying to catch up on all poetry reading — too many friends with too many good books out! (Wow, what a great problem to have!)

Snowed In With Poetry & Cats

{ January 3, 2012 @ 12:35 pm } · { Writing Process }
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We got our first major snowstorm of the season (somewhere around eight inches, although places north of us got about two feet!), and we dragged our two cats to the vet for their checkup.  All is fine — although both cats got shots, so they were not happy.  But now they are a bit more content.  See below.

School starts in another week and I am busy writing and revising poetry and preparing for the new semester. It’s always amazing how fast the holiday break goes.

Cat Vs. The Manuscript

{ January 7, 2011 @ 1:59 pm } · { Stealing Dust, Writing Process }
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As many of you know, I am in the process of putting my first full length manuscript together.  It’s frustrating and daunting, mostly because I want to put all my poems in chronological order (I write a lot of narrative poems).  It worked with Stealing Dust, but I know that with a bigger collection, I have more room to play.  I’ve been looking at other full-length collections, and I realize that most poets do not place their works in chronological order, even if they write narrative poems.  So, now, I have been busy organizing my poems according to theme and tone.  That has helped.  But then, I realized that certain symbols and images appear again and again.  In the past I have mentioned that dead birds show up a lot in my writing, and I have at least four poems in this collection with dead birds.  Furthermore, there’s a lot of splinters, dust, makeup stains, cigarettes,and heels floating around in my works.  Do these images all go together?  I hope so.

As for the picture above, I promised myself that The Scrapper Poet would not become a “cat blog” but I had to post a picture of Lola helping me compile my manuscript.  She likes my dead bird poems.

Happy Holidays!

{ December 23, 2010 @ 4:22 pm } · { Non Poetry Ramblings }
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Alas, I couldn’t get the cats to wear Santa Claus hats, and when I tried to take a picture of Charly “helping” me wrap presents, she came out in one big gray blur.  The best I could do was this snapshot of Lola, who is looking like a real Scrooge in this picture.

Here, in Western Pennsylvania, it looks like we are going to have a White Christmas and good traveling weather.  Trust me — that does not happen very often.

This blog will be quiet for a few days.  Anthony and I will be out and about visiting family members and friends. We wish everyone out there a safe and happy holiday season!

Welcome, Lola and Charly!

{ August 30, 2010 @ 6:39 am } · { Non Poetry Ramblings }
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Fans of The Scrapper Poet know that we lost our beloved kitty, Toni, this past July.  We miss her terribly, but as cat fans everywhere will probably agree — a catless household should not stay catless for very long.

So, welcome Double Trouble!

We have adopted two kittens from the local animal shelter.  Charly is short for Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lola is short for Lolita (yes, of classic reading).  In the picture above, they look quite innocent, but looks, of course, can be very deceiving.  It has been a long time since I have had a kitten, and I have never had two kittens at once!  Anthony and I have spent a great deal of time fishing them out of curtains, dragging them out from our deep walk-in closets, and shooing them off places they should not be, like our brand new dining room table.  They also bounce off everything — tables, chairs, windowsills, us.

But they are a lot of fun, and make both of us laugh.  Charly (the gray striped kitten) is very loving and wants to be held.  Lola is a little scamp — and the leader of the two.  She’s very daring.  On the first day we brought both kittens home, Charly crawled in the back of her carrying case, afraid to come out while Lola pranced about, head held high and tail pointed straight in the air.

Both are kittens — but not from the same litter.  We decided to get two so they could keep each other company.  They adore each other.  At first, there was some hissing over “food rights” but then I caught them eating out of the same bowl.  In the afternoon, they sleep together in our warm Florida room.

What can I say?  There’s an abundance of homeless animals and not enough owners.  So, if you have been debating about getting a pet (or getting a second or third pet), stop by your local animal shelter to adopt.