Make Someone Happy

"That is a good day in which you make someone happy.  It is astonishing how little it takes to make one happy.  Feel that the day is wasted in which you have not succeeded in this."

~T. DeWitt Talmage

Alyssa gave me this sign one year.  She knows how much I love cats and thought I would like the reminder of cat attitude.  The wall quilt below is actually a printed panel remnant.  It was fun to do the hand quilting.  The sign and quilt have made more than one person laugh.  And that's a happy thing!

Surprise!

Don't you love how perception of mood changes according to even small variations in placement of button eyes or other features?

Even though she is allergic to cat dander, Alyssa bought this funny plaque to go with our wall quilt. I've been amused by the expressions on the feline faces for quite some time. And cats definitely do have attitude. Sometimes I do, too. And it is variable as well. For three years now, we have been going on the assumption that Art had a hip problem and that my knee was getting increasingly worse. Neither of us was aging particularly gracefully. So what do you do when you discover that all my symptoms have been caused not by a knee but by a severely damaged hip? Knee, lower back, left leg (side and front), the pain has been referred from my hip. You scramble to believe the changed diagnosis but the x-rays are right in front of you. After a while it settles in as reality. Then, I guess what you do is count your blessings. We are seeing the premier hip surgeon in the state and hip surgery has a much shorter recovery time. During this adventure, I have discovered that I have the stamina to do physical therapy. We have found out how much people care and formed new bonds. My attitude now is this: we are both feeling that no experiences are wasted. So what's next? Art and I both have summer appointments for surgery. For now, we will both have time to recuperate from some other nagging health issues before surgery. Eventually, we'll be able to celebrate mobility, as well as the longevity of our marriage. Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!!!

The Princess of Cedar City

From the time I was very young I had panic attacks when my parents left to go somewhere. By the time I was 8 or 9, I'm sure it was inconvenient for my parents, to say the least. My mother decided to get me a pet. I think she liked cats herself, so that was what she found for me through a newpaper want ad. The cat did seem to fill a lonely place in my heart. There wasn't much said about neutering house pets in those days, so he occasionally went off on his route. He was black and white and quite patient with me. For the most part he was there when I got home from school or play and he was there when I was left with a baby sitter. The panic didn't totally go away, but became manageable. I still have a great fondness for cats so when we discovered Aunt Fran had a cat, I was pleased. As you can see, Princess is beautiful. At the time this photo was taken she was still quite kittenish. Art was able to get her to dance following the sunlight reflected from his watch as he turned his arm this way and that. Often she would leap so high that it was hard to get a good shot. I really like this one. I think of this picture of Princess as the essence of what it is to be a cat.

I adore cats!