An Ode to Our Cats….Hank and me

In this two part post, I write about the love of cats.  I know, I know!  You either hate ’em or love ’em. Both camps are die-hards.  You can’t live with one or you can’t live without one, or two, or three!  For all of Charles Bukowski’s hard living, boozing, philandering, drunken brawls and genius writing, he was a complete softie when it came to cats….even cats that weren’t his own.  He inspired me to write this ode to my dear old Shadow who died and to my new cat, ‘Wild Thang’.  In part two I feature his poetry about his cats.

An Ode to our Cats….Hank and me

she was a feral kitten in the back alley

hiding under the deck

she crept out one day while I sat in the

sun, reading and

the first time I picked Shadow up

she shit all over me, so afraid

she was of any human

Next time, she didn’t shit on me and

slowly we became friends

for the next sixteen years

she was one hundred and twelve

when she died

 

Now I have a new cat

on some days she is called Fiona

when she decides to be a lady

but on other days, she’s called Wild Thang (her secret name)

or Monkey as she loves to climb up high

she answers to all three

 

She joined our family at age twelve weeks

now eight months later, she thinks

she’s a dog but with the wisdom of a cat

her family is me and two golden retrievers

she does as they do

She comes when I call her or them

she follows them when they move through

the house

When the dogs are taking a nap

and are not paying attention, she walks by

nonchalantly, you know the way cats do

and then she plops her body down on their faces

the dogs suffer her with great patience

She has golden green eyes and a mask on her face

good thing too, because she’s a bit of a bandit

she talks to me and I find myself answering her

she has the spirit of her ancestors, the Abyssinians

inquisitive, loyal, funny, and loving

© by Trisha Sugarek
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Don’t miss Part II of An Ode to Cats….Hank and Me  (Thursday 9/26)
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I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview with one once a month . These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal,  Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.

So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!  September will feature Tasha Alexander. Jeffrey Deaver is October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November.  Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.

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