Mimi and Mewsette Monday: Mimi and Mewsette and the Peonies, June 2, 2023

Mimi downloads the peemail from the peonies while Mewsette naps on the warm concrete in front of the basement door.

These photos are from June 2, 2023, and I remember this as I work outside. So many years I watched the two of them snuffling around in the peonies, seeing them on this morning made me want to remember this with a painting of the two of them interacting with them. I had looked to see that I had so few photos of them in the peonies for as much as I loved to see them there, so I took a bunch, thinking I could do this relatively quickly because the visual was right in front of me and fresh in memory. I always loved watching these two interact outside. Mewsette was on the third day of her prednisolone and responding well, though she had become so weak in the two weeks prior waiting for her ultrasound that she had some ground to regain physically, but her sweet self was all there, and Mimi was always at her side, her tiny self standing next to Mewsette to balance, and walking with her to give her support and encouragement.

Below, I missed the photo of Mewsette in the peonies with Mimi as she briefly stopped to sniff before she continued on to her destination: the deck. Mimi always knew where Mewsette was but wanted to keep her nose in there, obviously a detailed message in those leaves.

Mimi looks around and sees Mewsette…

…and follows after her.

Mewsette isn’t moving too fast…

…and there they are. Mimi might be looking a little wistfully at the peonies and other plants still to be sniffed, but she would never leave Mewsette when Mewsette needed her support.

I’ve been pulling together all the instances I have of cats in the household supporting each other as they developed conditions, and especially helping the one who was in the worst shape at any time. They were family, but that also extended to Basil and Mr. Max in their time. It’s sad to remember the reason for the support, but it’s sweet to remember how they felt about each other.

We lost Mewsette on June 11, 2023; she did respond to the prednisolone, but it wasn’t enough. The peony didn’t bloom this year and this is one time when I don’t think it has any meaning other than that my back yard has gotten so shady that the peony doesn’t have enough light to form blossoms—last year I think there were only two or three where normally there were about a dozen. I’ll be having some trees trimmed and one possibly removed because everything in the yard needs more light, but I’m also glad I took a lot of extra photos of the peonies just in case I decide to do even just a little sketch of the girls with the peonies.

And an anniversary of another sort…

You’ve been hearing about my websites being offline for so long from August 23, 2024 to June 1, 2025—well, that’s a year ago, and now I’ll be able to pick up my posts from 2025 without the extra photos and posts from social media while my sites were offline. There’s a note about that in the post below, and my first post after being offline for nine months is below, featuring Mimi, of course.

And I will likely be slowing down on Mimi and Mewsette Monday at some point after this third anniversary of Mewsette’s loss, June 11. I’ll pull them up for From the Archives or just toss one in on another day. But I’ll still have Friday Four and More for a while longer, since that goes back to 2007, and next month is the 19th anniversary of them all arriving here and I recently found some new kitten pictures.

Photos from Previous Years Around This Date

Memories of Mimi, as the Time Passes…2025, photos from 2024

Just a typical moment, and memory, from a year ago, Mimi always with me outdoors, and always a part of my product photography.

There she is in one of her favorite spots, on the front walk on the warm concrete, acting as my (sleepy) art director as I photograph some note cards, two of which are sketches of her.

So the last few posts here from last August were all about Mimi and her many little visits. I decided I wouldn’t just jump right into my daily photos with all our new daily activities here. I treasure being able to look at those posts and hold those memories, so I decided my first post after so long would be about Mimi, connecting the ends of then and now, and on Sunday, the day I usually post about pet loss. I was feeling her around today, and though I’m usually smiling at the presence and the memories, today I’m missing her.

Yes, my websites are finally back online after the malware intrusion last August 24, 2024! I tell more of the journey of that below, but I’ll say right here that it’s been strange without The Creative Cat, being able to share my thoughts and also my grief and memories with a bunch of people who know why, like you’d turn to a close friend and know you could pour your heart out. I’ve missed everyone who has followed me, whether for days or years, who’ve listened to me and shared their stories. I’m doing pretty well after all the losses, but not having this outlet for my thoughts over the past nine months has in some ways delayed a part of the healing. I promise I won’t be talking about grief every day, but I do have a lot to share, and even some plans for creative efforts for some of what I’ve been experiencing.

I’ve been expanding and enjoying Mimi’s Garden, the last gift she gave to me in her inestimable wisdom, and you’ll see photos of that just about every day. It’s the first place I go in the morning with my coffee, to walk around and just be in the space; work comes later, this is time to feel the day and both the memories and the presences. I do work out there nearly every day, but I also walk through on the paths as a break, and I love to go there at dusk. A friend gave me this set of six solar pawprints. I debated about where to put them, and I also got myself a set of four. I decided to put the six of them on that main path that’s been in the garden since I established it in 1991. All the cats who spent time with me outdoors walked there, napped there, stalked critters there.

Memories make things more beautiful…

It’s funny, though, everything looks a little more shabby than I remember from last year. My shared joy with Mimi outside, her favorite place and mine to spend at least a few essential minutes each day, made it such a beautiful, inspiring place to be. Funny what love can do to your perspective. Mimi used to hop from one chair to another and rub her face all over them, that was when they had solid seats.

Of course some of it really is pretty shabby, with my penchant for pulling old wicker chairs from the curb on trash night, setting them around the yard as cat scratchers and plant holders, and even sometimes to sit in if they aren’t too worn out.

I remember the days when Mimi and Mewsette made the rounds of all the garden chairs to have a good scratch and a different view of their yard from each chair, and maybe a bath and a nap if it was sunny there. Mimi and Mewsette aren’t here to scratch on them or nap on them anymore, but I keep them where they were and remember with a smile their years of daily habits. That wonderful green wicker bench that holds so many memories of all five of them would barely hold my weight when Mimi was still here last summer, and this year I’m not even sure I could put a plant on it. But I will leave it in that spot until the last of it is gone; that’s the plan for all these chairs, rather than taking up space in a landfill, they get to slowly become a part of the land again.

Today when I was out by the recumbent mulberry tree that has been Mimi’s “real cat tree scratching post” all these years I can see now that most of the branches are dead and dried out, their bark is peeling. Either I missed that too, or the tree totally misses Mimi as much as I do. Every time I thought about removing that tree to rebuild my woodland garden I decided I’d just let Mimi keep running across the yard to it and climbing it, having a good scratch and doing cat things, and all the siblings joined her at one time or another. I’ll see, but I don’t think I could do anything about it this year. Note that in the two photos below, taken seconds apart, the first one has pretty normal lighting, the second one has a warmer tone with two spots that look light a warmish yellow glow. Don’t miss the peeling bark and stuff too.

Once I got back to my usual energy some time this spring I’ve been busy with other things too—cleaning and reorganizing both studio spaces and starting to make new gift items for this year, including some brand new things. I’ve also been pretty diligent about posting photos and art each day and I’ve started having a few sales and commissions from that; now with my websites back up I can continue promoting that. Vendor shows start for me next weekend, and this extra income is very welcome after last year when I missed all the vendor shows after gall bladder surgery and caring for Mimi, and then Basil. I always wanted to end my working career with a few decades living this creative life, I’m well on my way to making that a reality and an income, the thing I’ve been working toward all my life.

So here’s a little video I put together last August 19 that was in my last post before the malware intrusion, Mimi’s little visits to me in the weeks after she transitioned. It’s just a quick little thing but sweet, so please enjoy. And below that is my post about my websites. Thanks again for being here. I look forward to reconnecting and sharing once again.

Mimi’s Signs of Love

---

From Thursday, May 29: Well, I have some news today that makes me very happy.

Last August 24 I had a malware intrusion into one of my websites that infected my entire hosting account. They were taken offline until the malware could be cleared, which was finally finished last night.

It was difficult to be without The Creative Cat at that time, just having lost Mimi and needing that space to keep sharing her and how I was feeling, and then losing Basil a few months later. That’s where I’ve been putting my cat stuff since 2009, and I love and appreciate the people who have followed me, some for all those years.

And without my websites I was also without that portion of my income, not even able to share things adequately.

I’ve cleared malware before, but this was beyond my abilities. I did what I could, but needed to pay someone to finish it off. In the meantime, I’ve had this hosting account since 2005 and had some housecleaning there as serious as I’ve been doing in my actual house.

I had four versions of my own website as website building moved from raw HTML through CSS to CMS. At one time I managed 50 customer websites, designing and drafting them all in my own account before I moved them to their final destination, some small ones I hosted in my account; I used the space to design and present photo shoots, slideshows, all sorts of stuff. Wow, the stuff in there.

It’s all cleaned out now and I am down to only the six sites I use regularly. I spent the day today reconnecting things and updating some of them.

The most recent posts on The Creative Cat are the ones I wrote about Mimi in August. I decided to wait a few days before I post new things there. I just like to go there and look the many ways she visited me.

The painted hand graphic here is one I put together for the website update in 2009 inspired by looking at my hand after working on a particularly colorful illustration in pastel, and it’s the intro to my main website, which is really just a splash page with links to all my sites.

So I’ll keep posting here just as I have been, but now those posts will have links in them where you can go and see or read more at one or another of my sites.

http://www.bernadette-k.com/

 

---

Pet Loss in the First Person

From the time I began writing about my experiences in pet loss, relating what I was feeling and thinking about it as I moved through grief, readers have thanked me, often in private, for my honesty, grateful to know another shared their feelings as they moved through grief, or helped them make a decision. 

Thank you for following our grief journey after losing three members of our feline family.

I hope sharing our experiences have helped you in some way, as sharing my experiences with you helps me.

You can read all the articles related to their loss by tapping one of these images in the side bar and in articles.