Mimi’s Homegrown Catnip

Mimi’s Homegrown Catnip is really putting on a show in the front yard this year! All the tall things with fuzzy tops are catnip and those are the flowers, being visited by dozens of bees, which will eventually develop tiny black seeds where the flowers were. Mimi would be very pleased. Maybe not so pleased at all the community cats who come to visit it now, but they only show up because she’s not here. Funny how one very small black cat could keep the hordes away, but her presence did that most of the time.

I’ve been missing her with all this catnip, and all the gardening I’ve been doing, and cleanup around the yard. She and I spent more time together because we had this outdoor time, often multiple times a day, that I didn’t have with other cats. Even when other cats went outside with me it was rarely more than one visit a day. But I would plan things around going outside with Mimi because I could never leave her indoors when I was outside unless I was doing something that might be dangerous to her. And then she gave me her highly disapproving look.

But we had so much time and so many years together, so many photos, paintings, when I’d work on the deck, which gave me so many memories. She lived to be 21, and even on her last day, we were outside—outside on the front walk where she could nap in the shade of the catnip. And the post below from last year has another from that summer.

So just a short pet loss note for this week. Eventually I’ll catch up with time as I work my way through new things for my display and making new signage, and try to stop my habit of staying up late to finish something if I’m in the middle of it. It’s a lot of retraining for me when much of my creative life those later quiet hours were the only time I had to work on my own creative things, or even work after some days when family members needed things. I’ve been writing my posts the evening before the day I post them, and then just post them through the day, but if something runs over into the evening, as they do near the end of the week, then no posts. Once I even this out, I can get back on social media!

But for now, I’m more than happy to share things here with all of you who stop by to read and often remember the cats I’m posting about.

Below are two photos of catnip from today, as is the one above, and information about catnip from my photo post on Today.

Mimi’s Homegrown Catnip is the star of the front yard right now, just as Mimi always was. An annual native plant in the mint family, catnip, or Nepeta cataria, (see where they got that name?) seeds itself where it will, often blown on the wind or occasionally spread by songbirds who eat the seeds. Catnip is irresistible to pollinators like bees and butterflies as soon as its tiny flowers open, and it’s one of the best pollinator plants to have around with flowers if you gather seeds or let plants self-seed, or vegetables in your garden.

Mimi was the one who discovered it as soon as the first leaves sprouted in the front yard about a decade ago, nuzzling the tiny leaves in that particular way a cat does, then falling down and rolling on the tiny seedling. Catnip is tough and even when she ate it down to nubs it just sprouted more leaves and managed to outgrow her nibbling, attracting bees and dropping its first seeds that year. Mimi visiting the catnip along the front walk was a daily habit when it was available, even in cold months when a few leaves could still be found growing in cracks in the front walk, but she even just liked to take a nap under it or in the shade on the walk. That sounds like an endorsement to me so I named our front-yard variety Mimi’s Homegrown Catnip.

Pet Loss Posts from Previous Years

Memories of Mimi, as the Time Passes…

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

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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.