Denial is no longer an option.

It's official. I'm a Crazy Cat Lady.
This is Bosco. I found him when he was two days old. It was Mother's Day. Really.

2 or 3 days old. Maybe 4 by the time I found the camera.

I wasn't sure how to care for an infant cat but got excellent advice from several quarters. Keep him warm. For about two weeks he spent a lot of time sleeping on a sweater in a kitty litter bucket. I had just been to the thrift store and scored several cashmere sweaters -- 3 for $5 -- so the sweater is cashmere. Very soft. Very warm. The bucket is yellow. Very yellow. The color was not relevant to his care.

I named him Bosco because Don (or, in some sources, John) Bosco is the patron saint of editors and/or writers. This was warmly received at the writing center where I'm teaching. As was Bosco. I was feeding him every four hours so he went everywhere with me for a while. The first couple of weeks looked mostly like that ^ or like this:

When he was two weeks old I had to go to Ohio for a prepaid, no-refunds-for-any-reason class. So I took him with me. He was a B-I-G hit with most of the other ladies in the class. (I learned that there was one sourpuss, which was okay. Usually there is a sourpuss and usually it's me.)

Feeding always gathered a crowd. There is such a thing as kitten formula. He ate about a tablespoon at a time from a bottle that was almost bigger than he was.

(photo by Mary Valerie Richter)

It was an art class (color theory) and at times things got a little Escher-esque.

(photo by Mary Valerie Richter)

A week and 1200 miles later, we're home again. Bosco is three weeks old and mostly ears and feet.

Eight weeks now and he looks like a miniature cat rather than a kitten. Romping around and getting into and out of things. When he finishes growing into those ears, he'll be huge.

(Don't tell Stella he went to the art class instead of her.)

S: Wait. What?
M: Nothing, baby. Go back to sleep.

working

A  number of things have been percolating along agreeably from winter into spring. I picked up a class at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow. I had forgotten how much I love teaching. The class has been going really well -- largely because of the talent, diligence, and enthusiasm of the students -- and I'm on the calendar through the end of the year. In the unfailing spirit of "work begets work" they asked me for a second class and that's going into the next catalog. This tiny job doing something I love is so much nicer than sitting in the house nursing the fear that I'll never work again.

I recently saw a call for entries on the theme "How Simple Can you Get?" I can get pretty simple. There was some confusion about the date that the call would close. I was ready in time, but decided not to enter. I'm enjoying this free-form embroidery in a scroll format and I want to make a few before I start thinking about sending them into the world. One day I will learn either to focus the camera or how my software works (or both) but clearly this day is not that day.


Time and Tide
9 inches x 34 inches /23cm x 86cm
Muslin, lace,tone-on-tone commercial prints.
Hand embroidered, machine constructed.
(monks cloth background)