Which Photo Best Summarizes Your Thanksgiving?

I spent the last week in Virginia with my parents, sister’s family, and my brother and his wife. It’s a long drive, and I missed my cats, but it was a good Thanksgiving.

I’ve been catching up on work, but I didn’t want to go another day without blogging, so here are the photo highlights from last week. How was your Thanksgiving? Or, if you’re not in the US, how was regular week?

5 thoughts on “Which Photo Best Summarizes Your Thanksgiving?”

  1. All Roads Lead to Cats
    When the possibility of stunning family resemblances left me unsure whether a person in a picture is you, the hair provides the definitive clue. Not so with the pictured cat! Could your family possibly harbor such a clone-like resembler of your cats? Or is the cat pictured one of your very own? And if so, is it Walter or Biddy? Such profound questions sent me googling to your cat blogs. Although I still can’t tell W and B apart, I was rewarded with a trip down the memory lane starring Daisy, my one and only beloved cat.

    My only pets growing up were two dogs, both lost shortly after arrival—the first was killed by a car and the second given away to the farm-owning gas meter reader, because the dog turned out to be a bird dog rather than the cocker spaniel my mother had bargained for and she said he would get too big to be cooped up in our small house.

    I was indifferent to cats, but Daisy was an abandoned Burmese-Siamese darling who immediately knotted herself to my heartstrings when she wandered into my yard. I was living alone at the time, and looked forward to Daisy coming out to the carport to greet me upon my return from work each day. Roaming the acre surrounding my home, She was all cat by day, magically transformed to human at night as she cuddled up and licked my face. Childless by choice, I was a better cat mother than I ever would have suspected, with one notable fall from grace. That was when Daisy proudly deposited the gift of a dead bird on the fireplace hearth. I was aghast, and my shouts of No! No! filled the room. Cat Daisy’s crestfallen look at my rejection of her love gift hit me hard. I quickly regrouped and explained that she mustn’t kill birds. Other than that, our five years together were all love, free from the tinge of ambivalence that usually accompanies even the most satisfying human relationships.

    Cat-wise friends had told me that Daisy was about four years old, as did a neighbor veterinarian who looked at her teeth. But her heart began to fail, and hitting the right dose of medication was a challenge, due to her small size. She gradually shortened the distance she came from the house to greet my returns from work. When I was about to move across the country, I planned to take Daisy with me, but it was not to be. She failed badly, stopped eating, and her territory shrank to the dining room table. I steeled myself to follow the vet’s recommendation to have her euthanized on the day I was to move. Somehow, on that day, Daisy roused herself and managed to go to die in her favorite outdoor spot, where I found her. No cat carrier this time; she rode in the passenger seat where I could pat her during the short teary-eyed drive to the vets. He told me afterwards that he determined that she was not a young cat, but actually well into her teens. It was a bit of a comfort to know that she had her full share of cat years, including the last happy ones.

    The amazing thing to me, but probably not to established cat-lovers, is that Daisy changed my relationship to all cats. Whenever I see stranger cats, I feel a connection with them, and they seem to respond in kind. For that and much else, I thank Daisy, every Thanksgiving and often in between!

    Reply
    • I love this story, Dorothy. Thank you for honoring the memory of Daisy here. She sounds like a wonderful cat, and I’m glad you had some quality years with her.

      Reply
  2. While you were gone, there was a TON of chatter amongst the JameyStegmaier.com regulars. It seems there was a post featuring your lovely niece, nephew, and gelati celesti that was available one day and then was suddenly missing, never to be seen again. Rumors flew like cats from a windowsill! Did the post secretly implicate Trump in yet another scandal, and did Jamey remove said post at the request of the secret service? Were Biddy & Walter jealous of the kids when they read the blog, and did they threaten to destroy a board game prototype if it wasn’t removed? Is James really Prince Harry? Is Prince Harry really Harry Potter? Should Harry Potter have stopped going back to Hogwarts after several near death experiences? Did someone have a near death experience while at gelati celesti? The truth must come out!

    Reply

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