Happy Birthday, Cat...Cats.

So yesterday was Scout, the cat's, fifth birthday. She dutifully posed for this birthday photo, or at least sat still just long enough for me to fire off a shot. And of course, she used to have a brother, Buster, who should have turned five as well.

I had gotten them in November of 2017, from a family living in an old single story ranch style house off of the frontage road of Highway 99 near Elk Grove, with a long narrow gravel driveway and a distinct lack of exterior lighting at night. The family's cat had had a litter some six weeks prior, and had advertised kittens for sale on Craigslist. Yes, my cats were Craigslist finds. I picked the dark colored female kitten who standoffishly kept to itself away from the rest of the litter, and the orange boy who kept tagging along after her like a lovesick puppy. They seemed destined to be a pair. 

So I took them.

Thus started several years of cat ownership, for which Connor was delighted at least in the fact that Buster took special interest in him and they soon became best buds. Unfortunately in March 2021, on a unremarkable spring day at the apartment in which we resided at the time, Buster suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Connor and I had gone to the park for an hour or so, and when we came back he was just laying on his side next to the bed. Connor didn't know what had happened at first, as he went and knelt down beside his friend to pet him hello. After a moment he said something to the effect that Buster was lying quite unusually still. I came in to look, and saw that he was gone. 

It was a shock for both of us, to be sure, and a traumatic experience for young Connor. His first experience, really, with death. 

This is the last picture I took of them together, about 10 weeks before Buster passed. Just after the New Year, in fact. I would have taken more towards the end, had we had any foreshadowing of what was to come. You just never know how much time you will have with a pet. Come to think of it, the same applies to humans as well. Although by comparison, our time with each other as humans is likely to be much longer than the average lifespan of a house feline, you never really know when the last moment you spend together with anyone may be.

What a tough lesson for a seven year old to learn. 

In any case, yesterday was Scout's...and Buster's birthday. I can't say we did anything more special than the normal routine of eating, sleeping, and pooping. Well, that's her daily routine anyway. But in defense of my lack of party planning, cats don't really have any concept of birthdays anyway.

We did, at least, watch the YouTube tribute I made for Buster. Or at least I watched it. Scout really paid little attention, as cats will do.

Oh well. Happy birthday, Scout. And to Buster as well, wherever his spirit may be.

End of Summer

Well here we are at the (almost) unofficial end of summer. School starts back up in one week. I know I say this or at least think it every year, but it sure seems like the road through summer is quite long at the beginning, and then before you know it you're at the end of the path already. Where does all that time go? Probably gets subjugated into some alternate universe, lost time never to be recovered. Certainly we cannot have actually experienced all that time. I don't remember half of it anyway.

But Mother Nature has been pounding us with her hot flashes, and temperatures well over 100 on more than a few days in the last couple weeks. It's been a great time to relish the amazingness that is the chocolate milkshake, which I admit I have indulged in more than once in the last week. What could be better on a hot summer's day?

I was suppose to be finishing out the second weekend of performances of the Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe this weekend. But as is practically the norm for these times we now live in, several people in the company tested positive for Covid, and we could no longer continue. 

The first weekend went well, anyway. It was a talented cast and orchestra they assembled, but now it's ended early and will be but a footnote in history. You remember that time we have to cancel all our remaining shows of Iolanthe? Yeah, something like that.

But on this surprisingly mild Sunday afternoon, I elected to spend time relaxing at home, and put a movie on through Hulu. A classic: You've Got Mail. Who doesn't love a Tom Hanks flick from the previous century? From when I was a kid. Well, I was 23. But boy, is it funny to watch older films filled with the latest technologies of their era - which are obsolete by today's standards. AOL Online, dial up internet. laptop computers that were veritable bricks. All the things my son will never get to experience. 

Of course my childhood predates even this technology. I lived through the birth of the personal home computer, the rise of low resolution pixelated video gaming systems. The pager! The birth of the cell phone! My son will never believe we grew up with without these things.

And Tom Hanks just made a joke about people who collect shot glasses on their travels. I...totally do that.

But we still had our wall mounted home telephones and VCR's and romantic comedies like You've Got Mail. And who doesn't love a good romantic flick full of hope and dreams and all that sappy stuff that makes us gag but yet we secretly love.

Well. It's a nice way to end the summer anyway.