New Kitty Updates and a Bittersweet Anniversary

The new kitties are settling in well (you know, other than being completely crazy and destroying my house). I'm taking all three of them to my vet next week for a general look-over and to get all their info into the system. I'm curious to have weights on them (especially Koshka, who might end up getting large) and to see if my vet has an opinion about whether Koshka is a Maine Coon or a Norwegian Forest Cat.

They're mostly lovely, albeit still kitten wild. Harry often sleeps with me, sometimes Koshka does too. Ember doesn't seem to like the waterbed for some reason, and rarely stays up there for long. Koshka sometimes sits on my lap while I eat, although that means spending most of my time shoving his face away from my food. They're all very sweet.

But it's not the same.

It wasn't going to be, of course, and I knew that, but some days, like today, it is hard. Today is an anniversary that is important enough that it was written on my calendar every year: 16 years ago today, I brought home two kittens and their scared, sickly mother from the shelter. 16 years ago, my life became so much brighter because of Minerva, Mystic, and most especially Magic the Cat, Queen of the Universe, with whom I had a relationship unlike any other in my loooong history of cat-being-owned-by. I have missed Magic and Mystic every day since I lost them in January, but today was tougher than most.

They were so darned cute.

It's hard to believe they were ever that little. Especially Mystic.

But look at the size of his paws. I should have known he'd get huge.

The family together, Magic, Minerva, and look-alike son Mystic

They used to curl up together a lot. I was so glad I kept them together.

Having Ember, Koshka, and Harry Dresden is definitely helping--don't get me wrong. At least the house doesn't have that horrible empty feeling anymore and they really are adorable little cats. Even Angus doesn't seem to mind them much. But it is going to take time for me to stop mourning the old cats and get attached to the new ones.

Still, in the meanwhile, they're pretty cute too.

Koshka is trying to figure out if there are any good cat shows on

Harry's probably exhausted from all that running and romping.

Ember was running and romping with him, obviously.

All four cats on the couch. A lovely sight.

I'll let you know what the vet says after we go on Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm going to be a little sad today, but I'm sure someone cute will come cheer me up later.

Anniversaries Sweet and Sad

Happy March 1st, everyone! Only 20 days until Spring!

Today is special for two other reasons for me, The first, happy one, is that it is my Agent-versary! I can't believe I've been with the fabulous Elaine Spencer (and the wonderful Knight Agency) for SEVEN YEARS. Oh, my, how the time does fly. There is a lot to celebrate in those seven years, too. Elaine and I have both worked hard at forging a strong partnership, and at this point in our relationship, I can honestly say I can't think of any other agent I would rather be with. She cheers me on, celebrates with me when we have a win, commiserates with me when things don't go well, and is also a stellar First Reader and editor for my books (not all agents also edit, and she's great at it) so we can put out the best book possible for my beloved readers.

Those seven years have seen us sign a number of contracts together, including the three books in the Baba Yaga series, the first two in the Broken Rider series, three books in the Veiled Magic series, plus four novellas and my last four (I think) books for Llewellyn. The Llewellyn books would probably have come out even if I hadn't had an agent--the others, though, not likely. She is worth her price in pearls! (Don't worry, I didn't send her pearls, I sent her chocolate. I'm not crazy.)

The fabulous Elaine!

I can't believe that we don't have a picture of the two of us together (we've hung out in person at three separate RWA National conventions) but apparently, I don't. I'll have to remedy that this July when we meet up at the next one.

Thanks for everything you do, Elaine! Here's to another seven years of putting out great books together.

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My other anniversary is a great deal sadder. Today it is a year since we lost my sweet Minerva, mother to Magic the Cat (Queen of the Universe) and Mystic the Magnificent. They haven't either of them been the same since she died, although they're doing okay. Mystic, in particular, has found solace in becoming snuggle buddies with pal Angus (who is just blissed out that he can now get on the bed, since Minerva used to hiss at him and chase him off, because it was her safe spot.)

Minerva and Mystic snuggled up together. They matched, except he is so much larger!

Magic, Minerva, and Mystic--the family in earlier days

Minerva in her last month

I brought them all home from the shelter together because in the end, I couldn't bear to separate this mama cat from two of her kittens. Best decision I ever made. She was a great mother, and although she was very timid with others, was incredibly sweet and loving with me and her babies. (It took her two years to sit on my lap--the folks at the shelter thought she might have been abused.) I miss her every day, but I am so grateful for that long-ago impulse that made me say yes. Seriously--look at that face! Who could have said no? I miss you, Mina. Thanks for being my cat.

A Belated Weekend Report with Pictures

I meant to post this on Monday, but, well, MONDAY.

This was my weekend:
SATURDAY

I did some spring cleaning, including moving the Minerva altar from the living room to the bedroom (I have altar shelves in both rooms, and the living room one tends to be focused on whatever is going on right now--often whichever book I'm working on--and I thought that since Minerva spent most of her time in the bedroom, she'd rather be there) and changing the comforter cover from the winter one to the spring one. This was actually a pretty emotional endeavor, because it meant washing the last of Minerva's fur and smell off of the other comforter cover. On the other hand, it really needed washing, because the last weeks of her life she had been spitting medicine all over it. (She was NOT happy about taking meds.)
Here's the altar now--that little wooden box with her picture on top of it has her ashes in it. A lovely sympathy card from my friend Karen Rose Smith is to the left.

Here is the gorgeous spring comforter (which was made especially for me, along with the wall hanging above it, by one of the artists at The Artisans' Guild)

The same bed, with cats a few hours later. If you look closely at Angus, the yellow cat, you can see that he is holding his right eye partially closed. He has something going on with it--probably viral, and returned from an occurrence a month ago--and I have to put antibiotic ointment in it twice a day. You can imagine how well THAT'S going.

Lest you think these guys are the only ones getting attention, I also spent some time playing with Luna. I need to do a post about her soon--did you realize I've had her for over a year?

I know the pictures are a little blurry...she rarely stops moving!






SUNDAY

On Sunday, my friends Ellen and Chris and I had a small birthday celebration for Jo, my step-daughter's mom. Some of you may be aware that Jo, as well as being sort-of family, came to Blue Moon Circle rituals for a couple of years before she had a massive heart attack a little more than a year ago. To be honest, no one expected her to be celebrating this birthday (she's since had another smaller heart attack, open-heart bypass surgery, and is in her 11th year of dialysis), but she's tougher than she looks. Or more stubborn. Either way, we broke her out of the nursing home for a few hours so we could celebrate her turning 54. She had a great time.

Chris made these great cupcakes

Jo asked for pizza, so that's what we had.

Blowing out the candle

Opening gifts

Of course, in with all of the cleaning and partying, I also did a lot of writing. Here's a picture from Saturday evening of Magic helping me.

The Red Writing Chair

So tell me, what did you do last weekend? Anything interesting planned for the one ahead?

Saying Goodbye to Minerva

I'm afraid this is a rather sad Feline Friday post. As some of you know (the ones who follow me on Facebook), I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat Minerva this Tuesday. She'd had a bad week back in January I blogged about it here, but it looked like it was just a fluke, and she was fine. Unfortunately, the issue returned after I got back from Coastal Magic on February 7th (I'm still going to put up a blog about that eventually, probably) and we've been fighting the good fight ever since. On Tuesday, we lost the battle.

Minerva 2001-20016

We still don't know for sure what went wrong, but it was likely to be some form of cancer, since all her blood tests and x-rays were fine, but she went downhill incredibly fast. She initially responded well to prednisone, but then even that stopped working and she wouldn't eat. It broke my heart, but we had a good last couple of days on Sunday and Monday (when I was already pretty sure we were at the end) and when I took her in on Tuesday, my vet and the techs and everyone were just wonderful. I miss her terribly, but it was the right thing to do to end her suffering. I put up this altar for her in the last week, and then added her picture once she was gone.

I'm not the only one missing her. I ended up adopting Minerva more or less by accident. I'd gone to the shelter to get one kitten (I swear!) to be company for the final elderly cat I had left at the time, and ended up coming home with Mystic, his sister Magic (she insisted, and that was just the first of many times she twisted me around her little paw) and their scared, sickly mother. The folks at the shelter offered to throw her in as a "bonus," without any of the usual adoption charges, because they could see that she was unadoptable. She was so frightened, it took her two years before she got brave enough to sit on my lap. Of course, then she never wanted to get off. I called her my little bonus cat.

Mystic and Magic are clearly aware that she isn't coming back, although how they know, I'm not sure. (When she was hospitalized for two days back in January, they were just fine.) Mystic isn't finishing his food--that never happens!--and Magic has been a bit clingy. But we'll hang together and get through this.

Magic, Minerva, and Mystic a few years after they got here. Mystic was already huge compared to the others. It made it easier to tell him apart from his look-alike mom.

It is my very great consolation that I was able to give her fourteen years of a good life she wouldn't have had otherwise: a loving home where she could feel safe and stay with two of her kittens (she was a very affectionate and attached mother, which not all cats are). March 8th would have been the anniversary of the day I brought her and the kittens home. It has always been a joyous day in this house, but this year the house will be a little bit emptier.

Minerva always looked so dainty next to her giant son, but she never stopped curling up with her kids.

The family together, in happier days.

This is the tough part about having animal companions, of course, and it hurts like hell. But I can't imagine my life without them and the joy and love they bring to my life.

Thank you, Minerva, for being my little bonus kitty. I miss you.

Minerva

You might have noticed that I haven't put up a new post since last Monday's celebration of Magic the Cat and her brother Mystic's birthday, even though I have a novella coming out Tuesday 19th and a novel February 2nd. Normally I would have been doing all sorts of promo and giveaways, as anyone who is here on a regular basis knows.

Instead, my week pretty much got swallowed up by an unexpected cat crisis.

Last Sunday, Magic and Mystic's mom, Minerva, stopped eating. If you have cats, you know this is a Bad Sign. She nibbled on breakfast, threw up a couple of times, and refused dinner altogether. At around 15 (we don't know her exact age because her previous owners dumped her at the shelter when she got pregnant, but since the kittens just turned 14, we can guess she is either 14 or 15 herself, depending on how old she was when she got knocked up), she is the oldest of my cats, and while 15 isn't elderly for an indoor cat, it ain't young either.

Minerva curled up with her kittens in happier times. She's on the right.

So Monday we went to the vet's and hung around until her vet, the lovely Doctor Baker, could see her. Blood tests and temp were fine, but an X-ray showed a severe constipation blockage. They gave her fluids and some stool softener and we went home. But the next day she still wasn't eating, so we went back and she had to have a kitty enema, fluids, and other fun stuff. (Ugh. Sorry. TMI) Plus more tests, of course. I picked her up after work and we went home again. But by Wednesday morning, she still wasn't eating or drinking, so we had to go back, and this time she was hospitalized so they could put her on an IV and give her appetite stimulants and run MORE tests. Older kitties just don't bounce back from things as well as young ones do, and her system was shutting down. It was pretty scary.

I don't feel well. Lemme alone.

 I stopped by after work on Thursday and they unhooked her from the IV so we could visit. She'd eaten a little in the morning, and then ate more for me. She also purred a lot (I'm pretty sure she was happy to see me).

By Friday afternoon, she was finally well enough to come home, with even more medicine (and a bill the size of the national debt). She spent most of the rest of the day following me around and sitting on my lap. Definitely happy to be home. Thankfully, she's been eating well ever since. Whew.

So that's what happened to MY week. I'm just happy she's home and doing okay, and I promise I'll be back to yelling about the new books as of tomorrow. (And I'm already doing it on Facebook and Twitter, at least a little bit.) I've got all sorts of fun stuff planned, so be sure to pop in and see. There are going to be giveaways here and on other blogs, and all sorts of good stuff.

In the meanwhile I'm going to do a quickie cat calendar themed giveaway to celebrate starting a new year, and throw in a copy of the new Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook (which I have some fun contributions in) just for the heck of it. Hopefully the rest of the year will be a LOT better than the last week was. Nothing but good times ahead.

To be entered, leave a comment here and I will pick a random winner Monday at midnight.

And a big thanks to all who sent their good wishes and healing energy on Facebook during this difficult time. It meant a lot to me.

Minerva's Story

Last month, I put up a blog post about the "kittens," Magic and Mystic, on the occasion of their tenth birthday. And I promised to come back and tell you a little bit more about their mother, Minerva. (Pictured above.)

I went looking for pictures of Minerva (or Mina, and I sometimes call her) and realized that there were a LOT more of the other cats than there are of her. In part, that is because she is very shy, and runs away when she sees the camera. In part, it is because she is usually curled up with one or the other of her babies, as you can see below. (With Magic.)

Minerva's story is a sad one, but it has a happy ending. When I first saw her, she was at the shelter with four kittens--the kittens were in great shape, but she was sickly and terrified. The volunteers who ran the shelter told me that she'd been brought in by some "white trash people" (their words, not mine, although you do get a certain mental image from these phrase...) who handed her over, still large with the kittens inside her, and said, "This damned cat got pregnant. You take her." I just hope these folks didn't have teenagers...

[Pause to insert: PLEASE have your animals spayed or neutered. Thank you.]

That was a couple of months before I met her, of course. The shelter kept her until she had the kittens and they were old enough to adopt out. But the shelter workers were afraid that no one would want the mama cat (then named "Patsy" if you can believe it) because she'd had a rough time during the pregnancy and was sickly and very skittish. They thought it was possible she'd been abused, too. When I decided to adopt Magic and Mystic, they offered (pleaded, really) to throw in Minerva as a "bonus"--waiving the usual adoption fee and charge for shots.

I said I'd think about it, and make a decision when I came back the final time to pick up the kittens. But I really didn't intend to take her--not until I got back there and saw that they had moved the remaining kittens (my 2 and 1 other that was being picked up that afternoon) to a separate cage, right next to hers. If you could have seen that mama cat, alone in her cage, terrified and gazing with longing at her babies...well, SHIT, you would have taken her too. Yes, I know. I've got a neon sucker sign in the middle of my forehead. Those shelter people clearly saw me coming :-)

So I brought my little family home. (By way of a visit to the vet for tests, and medicine for poor Minerva.) I think it is very possible that the shelter folks were right about her having been abused, since she was extremely skittish and untrusting. It look me TWO YEARS to get her to sit on my lap. Of course, these days, she always wants to be there, so I'm guessing she's adjusted okay.

Minerva still doesn't come out of the bedroom when strangers are here (and strangers are anyone she doesn't see on a regular basis), but she snuggles with me all the time, and still adores her babies. I've never regretted bringing home my "bonus kitty." And I'm pretty sure she's okay with it too.