Thoughts for Thursday—What Has Your Cat Done For You Today?

Here’s another blast from the past. I posted this in March of 2009—yes, a dozen years ago. There’s nothing quite as comforting and joyful as hugging or petting a cat. Experts say that just being around a cat can lower your blood pressure. That’s one reason why hundreds of business owners throughout the world have felines on their staff. If you haven’t discovered Trina Sampson’s Shop Cats site, you must go there and meet some of the working class of cats. http://www.shopcat.com. Trina’s site features 461 shop cats (now 470)—that is, cats that live either full or part time at a place of business. Most of these cats have the full run of the warehouse, office, storefront, studio or plant where they work.

There’s a place of business in my community situated on a small farm where cats and even dogs of various sizes wander in and out of the manufacturing studio. You never know when you will come back from lunch and find a soundly sleeping tabby curled up in your office chair or holding down the invoices in your out box. There’s a resident cat at the local feed store and there’s one working at our outdoor bookstore.

I have two furry, purry assistants in my home office. Max is raccoon-like in size and shape—you know the type? He’s white with shades of brown markings and perfectly round bright-blue eyes. He’s formerly feral, however, and his pupils are often hugely dilated, so his eye color doesn’t always show well in photos. You can see a photo of Max as he strains to hit a high note while singing in Terzo’s Mewsical Society. http://www.simonteakettle.com/musical.society.htm. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see Max. (Sorry the page is no longer available)

You can also view handsome Max in a variety of poses, involved in a variety of activities in my newly illustrated book, Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats. Order

Regal Sophie

your copy of the ebook or the print book at http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html.

Sophie, a petite tortie, also helps me in my office. She is the paper shredder. If only I could teach her to be more discriminating as to which papers she’s shredding. Sigh. She particularly likes to sneak off with Post-it notes with important dates, phone numbers, etc. And I mean she “sneaks.” If you see a gentle motion out of the corner of your eye heading toward the office door, you pretty much know that Sophie has confiscated a slip of paper and is stealthily on her way to render it useless. She also

Miss Bella has good taste

retrieves faxes. She still hasn’t learned which ones are ours and which ones are hers. Sophie was also rescued. Her story and photos of her retrieving a fax are included in the Catscapades book.

Everyone, upon hearing about this new book of true cat stories, ask me if I know about Dewey, the library cat. I sure do. I was among the many who wrote about Dewey while he was alive. Of course, I read Myron’s recent book about his life as a library cat. (Note, at that time, a dozen years ago, Gary Roma operated a site listing 600 current and former library cats nationwide, but I found a sweet site featuring 8 of the now 800 known library cats in the US. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/21874/8-library-cats# )

Note: This post was designed to promote my first cat book Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats featuring 36 true stories, a dozen or more vignettes and 80 photos featuring around 40 different cats. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html Yes, it’s still available if anyone is interested.