Cats Saving Peeps, Peeps Saving Cats

This photo was taken in Misoula, not Parkdale, but it's sooooooooo cute!  Go firefighter!  The kitten was found in a fire, given oxygen and love, and recovered.  The firefighters named her smoky!


The following story is about a life-saving cat, who warned his owner about a house fire, and it happened right by my house!  I wonder if I've seen this Hero-cat around?  


Wednesday February 4, 2009 - Residents of a street in Parkdale have a cat to thank for their lives after a fire broke out in a semi-detached house overnight.

The blaze began at about 4am Wednesday in the Spencer Ave. home near King and Dufferin Sts. and quickly spread to a neighbouring residence. A man called 9-1-1 after his beloved pet woke him up.

"My cat jumped on the bed, believe it or not, and woke me up," Rob noted. "I smelled a bit of smoke, looked outside and a burst of flame came flying from the window next door on the second floor. I grabbed my roommates and said, 'Fire! Fire!' Yelled it, called 9-1-1."

Nearby buildings were also evacuated. Residents and their pets were sheltered in a nearby apartment lobby as fire crews made quick work of the blaze.

Fortunately no one was injured. There's no word yet on what sparked the flames. 


I always knew Parkdale cats were special!

cat fight club.

Yo, you ever tempted to skip yo pillz so you gotta good excuse to act currr-ay-zay?

This kitty do.

Give it up for Margaret!

Bukowski, reincarnated as stray cat, living in Parkdale!

There’s a bluebird in my heart

That wants to get out

But I’m too tough for him

I say, stay in there, I’m not going to let anybody

See you

There’s a bluebird in my heart

That wants to get out

But I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke

And the whores and the bartenders

and the grocery clerks

Never know that

He’s

In there

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.

then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

"Bluebird" by Charles Bukowski, 1977.

Thank you to my best friend Sarah for helping me help this Bukowski cat show his softer side and taking pictures of it.  I think Bukowski woulda liked Parkdale.

The Secret Garden

Handsome is as handsome does.

All credit to Margaret Kwan!

Honesty is the Best Policy

If this face tells us anything, it's that honesty is the best policy. 

Thanks again, Margaret.

I am a marshmallow

OH I am a marshmallow of love!!!   

 

I wish that cat bloggers only got cuter and lovelier as they get bigger and bolder as cats do!  

"Fiercely real" (thanks Tyra) kitties captured by Margaret Kwan!  Thank you so much. 

Born this way.

  

Oh sweetie, I think you have a little soot on your nose!  Have you been sweeping chimneys?  

No!  I was born this way, and God makes no mistakes!

Gorgeous special sooty nosed cat snapped by Margaret Kwan.  What would I do without her? 

Catfitti Part Deux

My friend Haley McGee snapped this great stenciling in Friedrichshain.  I never even heard of that joint!

Cat aficionado and dear friend Crazy Baby Michael Mouris took this New York City kitty art.    

Cross walk kitty found in LA by Lindsey!

Catfitti

Cat memorial in Toronto, taken by Margaret Kwan.  

Cat homage in LA, taken by Michael Mouris.

Amazing cat drawrings from Maggie Vernon. 

when first we faced and touching showed

When first we faced and touching showed

there stood how much our meeting owed

to other meetings, other loves

The decades of a different life

Belonged to others, lavished, lost

Nor could I hold you hard enough

To call my years of hunger strife

Back for your mouth to colonize

Admitted: and the pain is real

But when did love not try to change

The world back to itself – no cost

No past, no people else at all –

Only what meeting made us feel

So new, and gentle-sharp, and strange?

Pictures by Margaret Kwan, poetry by Phillip Larkin.