How Cats Show Love

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Snowball in his "non-kill" modeBlair informed me that Snowball, our recently adopted cat, left a dead squirrel on on our front porch the other morning. Not decapitated, but a fully grown dead squirrel. 

My eyes filled with tears. 

"See, that's why I didn't tell you," said Blair. "I didn't want to upset you." He reached to embrace me but I brushed by him and grabbed Snowball, smothering him with kisses. 

"That is so sweet," I cried, pressing my face into his fur. "He loves us. He really, really loves us." 

"You're not upset about the squirrel?" Blair looked doubtful. 

"Are you kidding me?" I gave Snowball more kisses, even though he was exhibiting the tail-twitching that signaled he was just about done with that level of affection and was close to attack mode. "Who loves their Mommy? Who's a good boy? Who's a good kitty?" 

"Do we really want to encourage sadistic tendencies in the cats?" asked Blair.

I don't care. Snowball has never brought us a kill before and I do think it's the sweetest thing, ever. Fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling every time I think about it. I said so to Blair.

"Fine," he said. "Next time, you dispose of the squirrel and see how warm and fuzzy you feel." 

This is why women prefer cats over men. Less backtalk. ;)

Cheers,

Dena

Where Can You Find More Time?

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With the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month looming on Thursday, I invested time this weekend in attending a workshop in Hillsborough taught by friend and author James Maxey. James is one of the most prolific writers I know, the hard-to-swallow part being that not only is James a fast writer, he's a good one too. 

James shared with the assembled group his top 10 Tips For Writing Fast. Of course, part of the discussion centered on where each of us could find time--or more time--in our day to write. I've been thinking about it, and here's where my time needs to come from: 

  • Buh-Bye TV! While I like to think of myself as a person who watches minimal TV, that's not actually true. I multi-task and do other things, like read the paper or go through e-mail or write blog posts (that last one explains a lot of bad posts) while I watch probably an hour or two of TV every other night. I'm never happy with myself after watching TV, so I'm actually looking forward to finding time by watching less programming. The one exception is my Sunday night date with The Walking Dead. I won't give it up and you can't make me. 
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