Cats | Perle Champion

Is Your Cat Psychic

16 Dec 2015 Leave a comment

“Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place.”- Paul Gray.

Jazzmine knows I’m leaving for the day. Don’t know how, but cats seem to jaz waiting 2 have that sixth sense. I can pass the front door a dozen times a day to place things in my outgoing stack and she does nothing.

But today is Wednesday – Mom’s day out. We go out all day: we shop, talk, lunch, shop, talk, happy hour, shop.

Jazzmine seems to know, so today my many trips to the front door are watched with considerable interest. The little cupboard by the door is my staging area for things to take with me when I leave the apt. The top shelf holds keys, change, hats, outgoing mail (there’s less every year in this digital age); the closed second shelf holds 3 purses, business cards, kitty treats; the open third shelf holds books for the library; large jar for mom to decant some canned peppers, umbrella and the bottom shelf is shoes (I usually take them off when I get home).

This morning, each time I pass the front door, she nearly trips me then jumps up on the coffee table and speaks to remind me that I’m not allowed to leave until she is handed at least 4 treats. I made the mistake of giving them to her early once, but 30 minutes later when I was actually ready to walk out the door, she demanded more.

Treats doled out, and I’m out the door. One stop to make on the way – Sneaky Pete’s. One of Mom’s favorite breakfasts (and mine) is a Sneaky Pete’s hotdog and a beer for breakfast before heading out for our Wednesday adventure. Sort of kicks the day off the day as a celebration.

Today, we’ll head straight to the Summit and work our way back to Hoover from there.

Later y’all and cheers.

Summer is late and I’m glad

31 May 2015 1 Comment

by Perle Champion in Cats, Journaling Tags: Cats, Journaling

Sunday and it’s the last day of May. I pulled the kitchen calendar from the wall and sat down at the kitchen table to flip the page to June and add dates from my iPhone calendar. The back d aerie balcony jaz 2 oor is wide open, kitty gate in place. Jazzmine preens and watches every moving creature in the back yard, but her kitten days are long gone. She never attempts to leap out. Not sure she could at her age and weight even if she wanted to.

I am amazed that this old place is still so cool inside when I know it’s a very warm 80-something outside when I took the trash to the alley just now.

Perhaps the daily rain storm is a contributing factor, but I also know that old buildings built before there was air conditioning were designed for air flow. I have windows open in the back bedroom and the dining room and the kitchen door, which all face west. I have the door and windows to the screened in balcony open wide as well. That, the ceiling fans and a few strategic box fans have been keeping it very comfortable in here. The minute I open the kitchen door in the morning, the air moves through the place at an event quicker and cooler pace.

I love living on the second floor – I can keep windows and balcony open year round. The only thing I do close when night falls or I head out to run errands is the kitchen door.

However many days I can delay cranking up the central air, I’ll cherish. I hate shutting myself off from nature and the outside world – the trains passing through in the wee hours; the birdsong and chattering squirrels that wake me in the morning; reading on the balcony loveseat; sitting at my small bistro tablejournaling, sipping and watching the life ebb and flow on the street below.

Do You Have Sunday Rituals

02 Nov 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogher, Cats, Poetry, Ritual Tags: Blogher NaBlo, Cats, Poetry, Ritual

Rock Ritual & Rote

with rote of ritual
rock bottom can become our
solid foundation
© Perle Champion

Ritual can be elaborate, but many is simply the rote tasks we perform on a daily basis and never give a second thought unless life or the weather interferes.

It’s early Sunday morning (really early as I forgot to fall back) and, as with all my days, my first tasks are cat-related: put kibble in one bowl, pour fresh water in the other, put the coffee on. But, it’s Sunday and Jazzmine somehow always knows when it’s Sunday and waits impatiently for her can of stinky, shrimpy, Fancy Feast for breakfast. Seven days a week she gets kibble, but Sunday she’ll save the kibble for later and devour her stinky treat.

Sunday breakfasts require an audience, so I sit at the table with my coffee and keep her company whiles she eats. I open my journal and begin writing my morning pages, much of which made their way into today’s Blog.

No hurry. No walkabout this morning – I’ll probably ride my stationary bike while I watch Today and later do yoga stretches while I watch Charlie Osgood and after I’ll make my way to my desk to transcribe my pages and begin my 2000 words for my NaNo novel..

Finished eating, Jazzmine dashed down the hall, and I know she’s gone out her window kitty door to the balcony. Her rituals are simple, eat then outside to scratch her post and preen, before retiring to whatever pool of sunshine she can find to snooze in.

Moments later, she is back inside, and staring at me as only a cat can. Jazzmine feels betrayed, and lets me know it – it’s 31 outside. The odd throaty ‘meorrow’ seems to ask accusingly, ‘what have you done to the weather’. She stares out the window and ventures out once or twice more before giving up and curling up on the electric leopard throw that kept us warm at my desk yesterday.

On the bright side, this is the south and it will be 65 tomorrow and back to a shirtsleeves 70 Tuesday and Wednesday. Jazz will be able to resume, at least briefly,her daily balcony ritual foray – Winter southern style – gotta love it.

Monday, Day of the Moon

14 Jul 2014 5 Comments

by Perle Champion in Art, Blogher NaBlo, Cats Tags: Art, Blogher NaBlo, Cats

Monday is Moon’s day (Old English mon(an)dæg “day of the moon) and the beginning of the work week for most people. I’ve retired from the 8-5 of Dilbertville, but I find I still begin most of my new projects on Monday – old habits die hard.

Lately, I’ve been painting again with a vengeance- mostly on rescued wood. I’ve posted a few below. I’ll be opening an Etsy.com store as soon as I have a bit more inventory. I already have interest in a few I’ve posted on FaceBook earlier which is encouraging. I’ve noticed that I have an obsession with the moon.

My cat series, ‘Meowling at the Moon’, sold well a few years ago when I had a small show at Daniel Day Gallery, so I’m working on a new series.
My Fems in the Wild did almost as well
Small villages nestled in nature are next up.
encouragement and help.

I’m still writing.

Working on a review of a friends book, which I will post on the Blog as well as Amazon, B&N, GoodReads, etc.
Finalizing some essays to pitch to a few magazines.
Attending Lister Hill Library’s WriteNow program – just 2 sessions left, has helped me immensely to organize and create realtime deadlines for my writing projects. Big thank you to Jennifer Greer for her encouragement and help.

Hope you are having a productive Monday. Next up ‘Thankful Tuesday’.

Do you love winter Southern Style?

07 Jan 2014 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Cats, Perle Champion, Winter

Jasmine is irritated with me, but not for the first time since this cold snap began. If the temperature was at least above freezing, I’d have opened her kitty door to the screened in balcony that is her outdoors. But, it is not. The temperature this morning on my balcony was 7 degrees and I don’t want to know the wind chill, as I did not plastic in the balcony this year as I did in years past. My office window at right had enough frost on the inside to require an ice scraper.

Even at 35 degrees, when I let Jazmine out she comes right back in and stares at me as only a cat can. The odd ‘meorrow’ seems to ask accusingly, “What have you done to the weather?” She might venture out once or twice more before walking haughtily down the hall to lie on the leopard electric throw at the foot of my bed.

I keep that electric throw set on low at the foot of my bed from the day the temperature first hits 40 just for her. She knows she can count on that spot for warmth sunshine or no sunshine to warm herself day or night. Handy for her, since I rarely run the central heat.

I truly hate to run the gas central heat. It sucks the freshness from the very air, and in my opinion, most of the breathable oxygen. It dries my skin and my hair. More importantly, it dries my sinuses leaving me susceptible to any arbitrary bug, as it did last week after several visits to over-heated homes for dinner parties, etc.

Jaz golden eyes

I have to turn the central heat on occasionally to warm the bathroom for a shower, but it’s off again right now as I sit at my desk writing this Blog. I have a small ceramic heater whirring away at me feet at the moment, and I’ll move it next to the couch when I move in there to watch NCIS later.

I go to bed around midnight and I slip my feet under Jazmine’s throw just long enough to take the chill off and allow the down comforter to return my heat to me. Jasmine curls up on top of it for most of the night. The throw will stay on for Jazmine until we have several consecutive days at 70.

By Thursday or Friday the temperature will be in the 40’s and 50’s, and I’ll open her kitty door again. I love winter southern style – it comes and goes and seldom lingers more than a day or two.