Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts

Thursday, February 8, 2024

You Come Too

“ペット飼ってる人には通じると思うんだけど、ご飯ほしい、お水ほしい、撫でてほしい、遊んでほしい、さんぽいきたい、外に出たい、を手始めとしてだんだん何を求めているかが分かるようになるじゃないですか。本日私は飼い猫の「ひなたぼっこをするから、お前も来い」を習得しました。”  ~酉丸/boothにて通販中さんのツイート / 

 

“I think this is familiar to people who have pets, but they start by asking for food, water, petting, playing with, going for a walk, going outside, etc., and then gradually you become more aware of what they want. Isn't that so? Today, I learned how my cat says, `I'm going to bask in the sun, so you can come too.' ”  ~Tweet by Torimumaru

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Towels and Cats

 


That's my favorite dish towel.  It's pretty old, but there's something about the cat that I find very appealing.

And that reminded me of this:

 “Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. “Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”

“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all; however, she went on “And how do you know that you’re mad?”

“To begin with,” said the Cat, “a dog’s not mad. You grant that?”

“I suppose so,” said Alice.

“Well, then,” the Cat went on, “you see, a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.”

“I call it purring, not growling,” said Alice.

“Call it what you like,” said the Cat.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol is in the public domain and may be read online or downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg, HERE.

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Cats

Excerpted from "What is Tao?" by Alan Watts: 

When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself.  The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground.  But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly made up its mind that it didn't want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing.
 
In the same way, it the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives.  As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.
 
So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Two for One Special

 

Two lights make two shadows from one cat.  For some reason, this amuses me.

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Monday, May 16, 2022

There Was a Cat

 



There Was a Cat

Long ago there was a cat,
Who swallowed a ball of yarn;
And when the cat had kittens,
They all had sweaters on.

I wish I knew the name of the poet!

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Done Your Job

 One of the hardest issues a pet owner has to deal with is expensive veterinary bills.  I like the way Gwen Cooper talks about it in this excerpt from her book Homer:  The Ninth Life of a Blind Wonder Cat, ©2015:

Animals are luckier than humans, because animals get to live in the now.  They do not fear death, or torment themselves with questions about what comes after.  No cat has ever desperately hoped for one more year of life so she can finally see Paris, finish her memoirs, or watch her grandchildren graduate from high school.  I genuinely believe that, if our animals could understand such things and talk to us about them, they wouldn't want us to spend ourselves into bankruptcy for the sake of trying to stretch fifteen years into sixteen, or even six years into twelve.

Cats know when they feel happy, when they feel comforted, and when they feel loved.  None of us ever knows how much time we'll have, and you weren't put in your cat's life to guarantee him a certain minimum number of years.  You were put in his life to provide him with happiness, comfort, and love.  If you have given your cat (or dog, or bunny, or horse, or guinea pig) a life built on these things, then you've done your job, and you've done it perfectly.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Sam

Even anonymously, behind the shield of a url, it's hard for me to open up.  I intended for this blog to be a lot more personal, but it ends up being book excerpts and favorite quotes.

My wife Mona writes much more from the heart, and I thought she did a good job talking about the loss of our beloved pet, Sammy:  LINK

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Man, God, Cats



I know the Hindu hierarchy puts man at the top, but I’ve never really bought into that. I think it’s sort of a species-based narcissism, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find more enlightened beings than myself inhabiting animal bodies just for the fun of it or to take a break:

God: Oh, man, you were so close to achieving moksha this time when you got hit by that truck! Are you ready to incarnate and try again?


Man: I don’t know, Lord. I’m really tired. Would it be okay if I just slept in the sun the next time out, and maybe have a waiter bring me some snacks from time to time?


God: Of course! Enjoy your time as a cat!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Au clair de la lune…



I love the way the moon is reflected in the window, and the way the grainy texture looks like the night.