Betsy Horvath

Everybody has a story.

Category: Cats

  • A Gift That Came Early

     

    The holiday season is all about gifts. Whether you get gifts under the Christmas tree, or during the eight nights of Hanukkah, or the seven days of Kwanzaa, or celebrate the gift of light at the solstice, most of the holidays happening in December include gifts.

    This year I received a wondrous gift a little early – he came to live at the Palatial Horvath Estate at the end of September.  Here is the thrilling tale of our adventure thus far.  It’s filled with pathos, roundworms, and a whole lot of love…
    (more…)

  • Distractions

    , ,

    dis·trac·tion

    dəˈstrakSH(ə)n/noun

    1. 1.  a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else. “the company found passenger travel a distraction from the main business of moving freight.”

    synonyms: diversion, interruption, disturbance, interference, hindrance   “a distraction from the real issues.”

    1. 2. extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.  “he knew she was nervous by her uncharacteristic air of distraction”

    synonyms: frenzy, hysteria, mental distress, madness, insanity, mania

     

    Distractions can come in many shapes and sizes.  Sometimes they aren’t all that pleasant – “what’s going on with my health?”  “what’s going on with my job?” “what’s going on with my money?”

    Sometimes they are warm and fuzzy and very cute.
    (more…)

  • The Most Difficult Thing About Pets

    , ,

    poppiesI was debating whether or not to write this post.  It is rather personal.  It’s also Mother’s Day, so I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate.  But it’s what I’ve thinking about, so I thought I would write it.

    As you may know, I lost my cat Oliver to small cell lymphoma and pancreatitis about six weeks ago.  I wrote a blog post about it here.  In the blog post, I mentioned Oliver’s sister Emily, who also had cancer.
    (more…)

  • Challenges, Cats, and Coming Home

    ,

    butterfly1So, I haven’t been here for a while.  The last couple of months have been extremely challenging for me on many different levels.  I was sick for the entire month of January (literally).  I fell trying to shovel my elderly mother out of her house and was laid up with a badly sprained ankle and strained Achilles tendon for the month of February (it’s still giving me trouble).  It snowed almost every freaking day from Thanksgiving until, well, the end of time.   And two of my four cats were diagnosed with cancer within weeks of each other.
    (more…)

  • Cat Haiku

    As I was shuffling through papers the other day, I happened upon the following examples of haiku poetry written from a cat’s point of view. I have no idea who wrote them, but my cat Eddie has taken to wearing a beret and insisting on being called “Francois”. Reach your own conclusions.
    (more…)

  • Miscellaneous Pictures of Cats

    Hooray!  The first draft of my book is finished!  But my writing frenzy sapped me of all creative energy.  Thus tonight I present you with miscellaneous pictures of my cats.  Because when you don’t know what to post, post pictures of cats.

    (more…)

  • Made Paranoid By Cats

    Sometimes, as I lie upon my cot at night, one or more of my cats come up on the bed, walk up beside me, and stare at me as if trying to communicate through telepathy. Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning, I will find one or more of my cats sitting and staring at me, as if trying to communicate through telepathy. Sometimes when I wake up, I have hair in my mouth. Sometimes the hair does not belong to me.

    This makes me paranoid.

    It also makes me wonder what my cats are doing as I sleep innocently before them. It makes me wonder if they are plotting. Or practicing mind control. Or grooming me.

    The thought of them grooming me makes me paranoid.

    Don’t judge me.

    Just so you don’t think this is a new phenomenon in the Angst Which Is Betsy, I thought I’d share a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. I think I had also just seen the episode of the X-Files where Scully gets her little dog, after said little dog’s owner died and the little dog ate her. The dead owner, that is.

    Hey, it made me think, that’s all.  Anyway, here’s the poem:

     

    CATS

    (more…)

  • A Few Things About Cats

    Oliver

    Cats:

    • Do not help with the household chores.
    • Occasionally use the rug as toilet paper – especially if the rug is light in color.
    • Watch to see where you habitually walk with bare feet.  Then they cough up a hairball in that exact spot.
    • Enjoy nibbling on a houseplant now and again.  Then their stomachs rebel.  Violently.  In the path where you habitually walk with bare feet.
    • Can fly if they really want to reach a high perch, catch a bug, or are determined to pull down a stack of books and magazines.
    • Can be immovable if they so choose.
    • Can have a hundred arms, legs, paws, claws and teeth when you try to stuff them into a carrier
    • Seek out the fabric-covered surface in your house that is the hardest to clean and the exact opposite in color to that of their fur.  Then they lay upon it routinely.  And shed.
    • Call for you when they want you to come to them and become impatient if you do not obey quickly enough.
    • Enjoy grooming your hair and face in the middle of the night when you are asleep.
    • Like to stand on your lap and stick their butts in your face.  Especially if you are eating something at the time.
    • Lay on the computer keyboard to get attention.
    • Purr
    • Love you.  Mostly.
    • Rule.

    (more…)

  • My Vacation with the LOL Cats

    I am on vacation this week, which means I have some extra time to play around with my blog. Oh, and my WRITING. Yeah, my writing.

    Anyway.

    Because I have extra time, I had planned to write a post of epic scope. A post that would make you laugh and cry. At the same time. A post that would teach you the meaning of being human. A post that would encourage you to reach for the moon – even if you miss you’ll end up amongst the stars. THAT kind of post.

    But I just don’t feel like it. (more…)

  • Cats of Hogwarts

    J. K. Rowling has four houses in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter, for those of you who have been living under a rock).

    I have four cats.

    Ahhhh… I see you know where I am going with this. And you would be right! It recently occurred to me that each of my four cats represents a house at Hogwarts. Allow me to elaborate: (more…)