Some Seasonal Reading to Rest and Relax
Happy Holidays, and here’s to a Happy New Year to come!
No new merchandise, no sales, just links to articles and stories you may have seen before but I think you’ll still enjoy as the holidays wind down and you have a quiet moment to sit and relax.
Thank you for following me on The Creative Cat. Whenever I get into my studio to create new things or decide which photos to feature or which articles I’ll write, I always think of those of you who follow and support me and I’m grateful to be able to give my inspirations to willing recipients. I’m also grateful to have an audience to share my stories of rescue and socialization, TNR and other activities that make lives better for cats. It all works together for me and comes out of my hands in art and words.
This year I’ve been especially appreciative as my fading right hip kept me from attending vendor shows before and after my replacement surgery, and I was hampered from just about everything I typically do. I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing this year, and I have new ideas I’ve already begun to work out.
So enjoy this mix of stories, essays and articles for the season, and let’s look forward to a great new year!
A Christmas Eve Rescue
One of these days I’ll give this story its final rewrite and create those block print illustrations in black and silver inks, and publish this as a book. Maybe next year! Until then, please enjoy this most favorite story of mine.
One night not so long ago a young and slender black cat quickly and silently trotted down the sidewalk of the neighborhood where he lived, a long and graceful shadow against the moonlit snow, disappearing completely into the shadows of shrubs and cars and doorsteps when he needed to stop for respite from the wind.
Poetry, Vintage Photo: An Old Memory, Perfect in Its Imperfections, 1983
The Unintended Gift: A Kitten in a Box Under the Tree, and Where She Led Me
When I was nine years old, I remember telling my parents and my older sister what kind of animals I liked. I don’t know if this was in response to a question, but I do know I explained completely and with determination, telling every last detail what I liked about birds and squirrels and cats and dogs and horses and rabbits, all the animals I had encountered in my early 1960s suburban development childhood.
Losing a Pet or Grieving a Loss During the Holidays
Grieving a loss, even if the loss is not recent, even if the loss was years ago and whether or not it happened during the holidays, this time of family, friends, socializing, choosing special gifts and making memories is a marker in our year and can enhance our grief. It’s natural to remember all the previous holidays as you decorate, prepare food, shop, and visit, and if a beloved part of those memories isn’t with you anymore you just can’t get away from it. This is even worse if you lost a pet during the holiday season and memories of their decline and death are mixed with memories of the holiday time.
Adopting Pets as Gifts, Points to Consider
The usual advice about this is just plain “NO!” and in many cases that would be justified. But if both sides of the adoption go through the same careful and thorough procedures with a holiday adoption as they do with any other adoption through the year it’s just as unlikely to result in an unwanted pet, and an ASPCA survey shows that adopting a pet for someone actually strengthens the bond with the pet because of the bond with the person.
Fire and Ice-icles, December Holiday Cautions for Pets
As we loom toward the December holidays, here are a few cautions where your pets are concerned with gifts and foods and activities during the holidays. Thanksgiving, Easter and Passover have the same advice for foods and house guests and doors opening to the night as well as plants and flowers, but the December holidays—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Solstice—all have decorations and traditions that we want to preserve but which can be very dangerous to our pets.Read more…
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Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
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