The Audrey Special.

I love “special” cats, as you already know. I think that a lifetime of being “special” myself has caused me to treasure the odd, malformed and differently-abled among us.


I happen to know a very special little kitty named Audrey. Audrey has cerebellar hypoplasia, which is a disorder found in cats and dogs in which the cerebellum is not completely developed at birth. Cerebellar hypoplasia causes jerky movements, tremors and generally uncoordinated movement. The animal often falls down and has trouble walking. Tremors increase when the animal is excited and subside when at ease. Cerebellar hypoplasia is also super cute.

Thankfully, Audrey was adopted by my dear friends and some of the best cat owners I know. She has been treated with dignity and gentleness, and been given a safe place to learn since birth, and so she doesn’t know that she’s got it any harder than other cats. She is a very happy little kitkat.



here is Audrey as a kitten drinking water like a hamster before she learned to stand up.  She even had her own crib!




Here is Audrey learning how to walk.  Slow down there, sweetie!  I remember my first beer too!



her disorder causes her to do very cute things, such as sit with her back legs out like this to help her balance. 

what a pretty little cornish hen!!!!

Audrey has grown up to become a freindly, frisky catty.

she can clean herself

she can eat with the other cats of the house

she can serve as a sundial.

she loves getting love from her momita.

she allows herself to be dressed up as a goth

she loves to play.

She is regal and dignified.

like all cats, she loves boxes.  Audrey rules the roost.

Thank you to Sarah - Audrey-owner, one of my best friends, and blog master at There is Limitless Joy.

christmas cats

my mom made Sam a beautiful cat quilt "Plaid Cats in Twilight"



Brenda was very pleased with her present - the box from my new laptop (so so def). As you can see she's fully flattened the box from my Frye boots (in background) that I got for my birthday.



My Momita got a stuffed owl, handmade by Elin Moorlag, family friend, from my sister.

And I got new red jammies and a beautiful red cat.

Dogs of Flamborough.

Did you know that the cat lady of Parkdale, despite basing her identity entirely around cats, also loves dogs? 



Now ya know.



how can one resist when they're big gentle giants with the temperament of a puppy and the physique of a beast?  Churchill melted my stone butch blues.

thank you to Sam for the photos and to Brenda for the beautiful baby dog.

She's a Talker

Three Best Things: Art, Gay People and Cats.

I do wish I could imbed this video, but I swear it's worth the click and watch.  "Neil Goldberg’s “She’s a Talker,” a short video which hits on the sublime by examining gay men’s relationships with their cats." Made in 1993.

Thank you to my beloved Steph and Diego for continually making this blog possible. 

Black against White; or, The Snow-Shoer; or, The Winter Cat.

The snow floats down upon us, mingled with rain . . .
It eddies around pale lilac lamps, and falls
Down golden-windowed walls.

We were all born of flesh, in a flare of pain,

We do not remember the red roots whence we rose,
But we know that we rose and walked, that after a while
We shall lie down again.

 

(The House of Dust, Conrad Aiken)

Walter!

Parkdale + Cats + Books = Heaven.

The River Trading Company opened up in Parkdale this summer.  This was amazing in itself because I had previously been hauling ass to the Annex to buy my crumbling old paperback Agatha Christie's.  Books!

1418 Queen St. West

 I was dumbfounded with delight when I drunkenly stumbled past the new store one night and saw a pretty silver tabby baby sleeping on his princely pillow in the window.

I did a little research and found out that the owner of this store, David McGowan, took this stray sweetie in to live in the store, and named him Walter!

Some people say cats and dogs don't belong in retail stores due to potential customer allergies, but to those people I say : don't be dumb!  These angels are way more important than your sniffles!  If you can't take a Claritin, go to Chapters!

Steph and I went to visit Walter and found him cuddled up in all his Christmas glory!

 He just loves sleeping in his sleigh on his red quilt with his angry bonnetted baby and sweatered teddy!   

i've got squinty little eyes and a big furry head from my rough life on the streets until i got this sweet bookstore position. 

I love my baby.

Sickest xmas window display i've ever seen.

Happy Holidays Walter!  I hope Santa Claws brings you a big fat cat nip blunt and a can of wet food.

Queen of the Window Cats!

Remember when I met this window Kitty on Queen West?

Well my friend/famous photog/artiste extraordinaire Emily Gove got this gorgeous picture of her!

too beautiful for words.  At Queen West near Dovercourt.

A new addition to the kitten face phenom!

"WTF?!?!?!  I can't believe the media's reaction to Wikileaks!"

(thanks Meagan)

the Lion cut.

Androcles and the Lion, by Aesop. 

A slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest. As he was wandering about there he came upon a lion lying down moaning and groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he came near, the lion put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and Androcles found that a huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all the pain. He pulled out the thorn and bound up the paw of the lion, who was soon able to rise and lick the hand of Androcles like a dog. Then the lion took Androcles to his cave, and every day used to bring him meat from which to live. 

But shortly afterwards both Androcles and the lion were captured, and the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the lion, after the latter had been kept without food for several days.

The emperor and all his court came to see the spectacle, and Androcles was led out into the middle of the arena. Soon the lion was let loose from his den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards his victim. But as soon as he came near to Androcles he recognized his friend, and fawned upon him, and licked his hands like a friendly dog.

The emperor, surprised at this, summoned Androcles to him, who told him the whole story. Whereupon the slave was pardoned and freed, and the lion let loose to his native forest.

Moral:

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

loss cat

 

 

There's nothing I can write that would improve this.  This is definitely my favorite peice of cat-related ephemera ever produced.  When I first saw it I cried.  My prayers go out to Ward and Speckles.  (taken from Found magazine).

I've only ever seen one other cat with eyebrows like Speckles.  It was through the window of a crack/meth den in Parkdale.  I lost my head because I LOVE eyebrows on cats, and thoroughly scared the drug user within by leaning outside his window above his bed and making crazy cat lady noises.  He told me to get the fuck outta there, and I've been too scared to go back and see the eyebrows ever since!  But I LOVE cats with eyebrows. 

calico cat-let cowering

Don't be scared, little loafy!

I ain't scared, I'm sassy!

Canada's Next Top Kitty.  Did Mr Jay teach you that pose bb?

Oooh, double pawing it since 2008.

Tang? or Mikey? You decide.

Went into my favorite cat convenience store, Tang's Market, this weekend.  It's a family run store, and there was a nice little lass there playing around.  Their cat, whose name I by default consider to be Tang, was full of love and following me around the store as I collected my Diet Coke, weaving between my legs and mushing me any chance she got.

Then the little girl dropped an info-bomb on me - 1) Tang is a boy! 2) Tang's name is Mikey!!!!

Wearing a pink collar?  Flippin that gender script one kit at a time - I love it!!! Why did this Asian fam give kitty the whitest name ever?  But I kind of like it.  This cat is so brooding, so serious, so dignified.  Mikey is truly an un-dignified name.  But he doesn't pay no mind.

A day in the life of Mikey.

"It's no walk in the park running a business... such is life..."

"This top shelf is getting pretty sparse, but as you can see I always keep the most important shelves (below) fully stocked. But is my work appreciated by my family and the community at large?  Of course not!" 

"God, look at the price on that raisin bran... Marx must be rolling in his grave... Capitalism meow...."

pink nose

after Steph and I Ate Fresh (tm), we walked along Melbourne by this baby's house and even though it was blustering snowballs he ran up to see what we were saying.  WHAT A LOVER.

so happy.

I've wanted to get a pic of this sweety since I moved to Parkdale in aught-eight.  One of the first kitties to welcome me to the neighbourhood.  An extremely friendly and loving gent with a pretty pink nose!

Awwww!!!  You can tell from my face that's what I'm saying to him. If I had a pink nose and a white tipped tail I wouldn't care what Naomi Wolfe said about no Beauty Myth - I'd be making my mills in Vogue Italia as a cat model!!!

Camille

My dear friend Parker has one of the most beautiful cats in the world, Camille.  I don't get to see her anymore since she and Park-park launched a successful new life journey in BC, so I was super pumped to see her beautiful face in my inbox, with the following note: Hey bb,
Camille was being very regal and wanted me to show you how proper kitties cross their arms when reclining.

Camillionairess

 

She's exceptionally loving. Nice pink tummy!

Who goes there?!?!?!

She might look like a beautiful little cup cake but she's got fangs!!!  Rawrr!!!

Some of the biggest, most expressive cat eyes that ever were.  I love you and miss you my baby Camille!!!!