You have heard all the warnings. “Guard your heart.” “Look before your leap.” “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
If you think about it, Cookie is made of the same ingredients as you. She is the starch of courage and the soft butter of trust. She is the salt of the Earth and the sweetness that outlasts heat. She has been burnt around the edges, but remained warm. She is delicate, but undefeated. She […]
In springtime, kittens are as bountiful as buttercups. But no little bud thinks of itself as “just another flower,” and Slim did not see himself as one among many. As best he could tell, he was the last kitten in the world.
We use so many words, we can’t always hear the music. Meanwhile, Earth speaks in cats and flowers. Sometimes, if we are fortunate, even at the same time.
You can hide them, hunt them, or decorate them. You can dye them, devil them, or fill them with chocolate. But Easter isn’t really about eggs. It is all about the basket.
Early spring is a wriggly thing. It is like a fat neon caterpillar with no symptoms of “butterfly.” It is like the brassy sun that tries too hard and turns into a freeze warning by dusk. It has one paw in the garden of “already,” and one ankle-deep in the slush of “not yet.” In […]
First, you spot her cookies-and-cream coat, but she is not her colors. Next, you notice moonstones where you expected to find eyes, but she is not her jewels. Then, you scan her record: FIV+, blind, heart murmur, lumps. But she is not her medical chart. At last, you see Faith, and she is greater than […]
They don’t make life jackets for sailors who weigh one pound. No water wings or floaties would fit his stubby twig legs. There was only one life preserver for the smallest of swimmers. It was you.
You can tell a cat is loved by his nicknames. Any stray can be a Joseph. It is a perfectly respectable name, shared by saints and Jonas brothers. But it takes the lilt of love to turn you into Joey Muffins.
Editor’s Note: Oh, dear ones, you are in for a masterpiece of tenderness today. If you have ever wondered if it’s possible to be truly known and truly loved at the same time … exactly as you are … read on. Myron and Barbara are love on legs, and Max and Pippin are the kind of blessings that bloom when […]