Music and Cats

The title of this post is not a play on the rather overused 24/7; instead, it’s a shorthand description of the meme with which fabulous food-blogger Lindy of Toast tagged me today:

1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your blog. Ponder it for meaning, subtext, or hidden agendas….
5. Tag 5 others to do the same.

My 23rd post here at M&C, Feline Friday I: First Photos, contains the following 5th sentence:

Lyra, Sasha and Sergei have lived with us for a little over two years.

This post was the beginning of my regular Friday catblogging; the photos are the first ones that I took of the cats after they came to live with us. Little did I know that photos I posted of the McKittens would serve as the first point of connection with so many who are now my blog friends.

Before I ponder this sentence further, here’s a second one. It’s from my first blog, Paul vs. the Squamous Monster, which I cowrote with my husband. (He still writes there occasionally; I haven’t in months.) My 23rd post there, The waiting room, or, Come on over, is from February 26, 2004. Here’s the 5th sentence:

Please drop by, if you have some time.

I wrote this post the day before Paul had surgery to remove an oral squamous cell carcinoma from the base of his tongue. I knew that the surgery would take about 12 hours, and I wanted company, lots of company. I wrote an invitation to everyone reading Paul v. TSM to come visit me in the waiting room… and it worked like a charm. Besides my parents, 15 of Paul’s and my friends came to spend some time with me that day.

Two sentences, on two very different topics, written about 7 months apart on two different blogs. Are they related, and if so, how? While the sentences per se aren’t related, there is a relationship between Paul’s surgery and my cat-blogging. Conveniently for the purposes of this meme, I’ve already written a little self-analysis about the connection. Here’s an excerpt:

My husband Paul and I write this blog, Paul vs. the Squamous Monster, about Paul�s diagnosis last January with oral cancer, his subsequent surgery, and the ongoing process of his recovery. Not quite a year ago, I was having a really difficult day dealing with medical insurance and second opinions, but there was a moment when Sasha made me laugh out loud. Simple laughter, uncomplicated by sarcasm or fear � have I told you what a rare thing that was in our house then? It was so blissfully normal to be amused by the antics of my cat, so I wrote a post about it. I figured all the folks who stopped by every day to see how we were doing might enjoy something light and a little funny.

In August, I started this blog. I wanted a place of my own, a blog that didn�t focus on Paul�s illness. It needed a name, and I thought about this quotation from Albert Schweitzer, about music and cats and life�s miseries. (”There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”) What? � Yes, maybe it is sort of a depressing sentiment. I was depressed. Our cats and my music really were two of the most comforting things in my life.

See, our cats really don�t care about many of the things that we humans worry about, and that�s one of the reasons I love them. They don�t care whether I�m depressed or happy. While Paul is sensitive about the effects of his surgery, the cats don�t care that he has a scar from ear to chin, or that his speech is sometimes thick. These things are of no consequence to them. They want simple things: food and water, a clean litter box, a warm place to sleep, and toys to hunt. They like to be cuddled and brushed and petted; I think that indicates some sort of �mother issues� about bathing and grooming, but you�re the expert on those thing. They like the sounds of our voices, probably because they associate our voices with getting all those other things they like.

Oh, right, I was going to talk about why I post photos of and write about our cats, not why I love them. You remember I said that I was depressed? And that being able to laugh at Sasha�s antics felt normal when so much of my life did not? Well, I really wanted this new blog to be about the normal, everyday things in my life. Not that I felt like my life was back to normal� not by a long shot. But our cats, they�re such beautiful, healthy animals. So I posted some photos of them. Was it a way of presenting my life as more normal than in fact it was? Perhaps so. Then one of my readers commented, �Not enough cat photos. How about cat photos once a week?� I wasn�t sure about once a week, but after a while I decided, well, why not? That�s when I started Feline Friday.

Who am I going to tag for this meme? I’ll get back to you on that… but if you want to play, consider yourself tagged.

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