It's a big effort to change locations. "What's wrong with where you are?" is a question you might hear. Most people like to hold still, liking the solidity of a known home, neighborhood, the people around you, your favorite grocery store. It feels safe.

I'm one of those people who loves where I'm at, for a while, and then it's time to move on. My brother, on the other hand, has lived in the same house, in the same small town, for almost 40 years. Did we really come from the same parents?

When I was younger, I moved a LOT. In the first 15 years I lived in Colorado, I moved 17 times. Gypsy feet. Looking back, pretty excessive, but it was fun while I did it.

Where we live now. If you do anything with horses, this is the place for you.

We've been in the house we're in now for going on 10 years. That is the longest I've lived anywhere, if you don't count the first 14 years of my life, when we lived in the same house on the same street with my cousins right next door. The furniture go...

That's Furs as in animal friends, not coats or shawls. 

Glenn and I are traveling. The horses are covered always, since we have a barn manager and haven't actually had to go out ourselves and slog feed or manure for some months. But the dogs! The cats!

A good friend is coming to stay with them. She's an animal lover par excellence. 

The cats will be very unhappy, because when we're gone they're not allowed out the front door. Doesn't mean they won't try, though, and we'll have to make sure we emphasize how slippery and speedy Jackson can be. He's got that beaming-himself-out-the-door routine down. They can still go out onto the back deck - but it's not the same. No trees. No bushes to hide under. No mom or dad hovering near the door trying to coax them back in.

Jackson the potted cat.

The dogs probably won't be thrilled, either. Since Glenn has retired, the dogs have gotten used to daily trips in the truck. Doesn't matter where it goes, so long as it goes. They usually get to go...

Go to the Library. You never know what you're going to find. Sometimes it's a little book about a big subject. Sometimes it's a fantasy. Sometimes it's both.

I just finished a book called "We'll Prescribe You Another Cat." It's gestalt with cats! I KNEW they were doing it!

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat - click the link to buy the book.

This book is one of three. I suspect they all stand on their own, because "We'll Prescribe You Another Cat", the second in the series, was easy to follow. The third one has just been published in Japan and is in the process of being translated to English.

I will tell you that when I closed the book at the end, I was in tears. I found it amazing, heartfelt, and right on in its "prescriptions."

If you like cats at all, I think you'll love this book. I'd really enjoy hearing your experience with it. Tell, tell! Am I the only one who cried?

If we listen closely, our animal friends tell us what they need. But we have to be open to getting our ego out of the way and seeing what wants to happen. Good lesson for all parts of life!

A cat named George lived on the property of a rescue group. He had shelter, and someone who fed him, but was pretty much left to himself. He wasn't unfriendly, he was just there. He was outside for a reason.

NOT George, but as cute as....

Attempts to introduce him to the joys of indoor living were met with scorn by George. Unbeknownst to those taking care of him, he had other plans, and it wasn't being where he was. Whenever he was brought inside he would mark all the horizontal surfaces. This was primarily the middle of the caretaker's bed. So she did what a lot of people do. She decided he could live outside. Okay by George. Part 1 of the plan done and done! (Be a little difficult.)

A few years passed, and he got in a fight. He was hurt pretty badly, and the vet, after cleaning him up, decided...

Cougars, Mountain Lions, Panthers, Puma - they're all the same thing, just different names. They, like most apex predators, are maligned and hunted.

I was just reading today about a Mountain Lion called P-22, who lived in Griffith Park in southern California. He wandered through the park and on the streets of Hollywood for 10 years. He wore a tracking collar, and provided so much data about the activities of male Mountain Lions - most of it involved minding his own business.

See some P-22 footage here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/901397757971206

He was humanely euthanized in 2022, after being hit by a car. If that had been the only problem, he'd probably still be alive, but he, like our domestic kitties, had a number of problems. He had kidney disease; he had rat poison in his system (from eating rodents who had ingested the poison); he had serious arthritis. Instead of weighing the usual 125 lbs, he was only 90 lbs when he was captured. He was having trouble hunting.

And yet thi...

Last week was a tease. This week you get the full story about Bennie-the-street-cat and his pal Muffin.

Bennie lives in Washington state, and he is one of many, many cats my friend Kathleen feeds in the dodgier parts of South Seattle. She is a Warrior and deserves a medal.

Kathleen and another Warrior, Morgan, noticed a huge orange kitty at one of the sites they both support. He has long hair, which mats up something fierce because - street cat, who's got time to groom?

Bennie was pretty friendly, for a fellow from the street. Most of them don't want to have anything to do with people, but he would allow Warrior Kathleen to pet him a little bit while he was eating. She had caught him once to get his mats shaved off and to be neutered, and then because there was no place else for him to go, he went back on the street. 

Bennie has a girlfriend named Muffin. She's pretty friendly too, and had also been trapped, spayed and returned.

Bennie and Muffin "on the street." Bennie looks li...