HOW TO BECOME KNOWN AS THE DORMOUSE

 

Some years ago, our family were on our way home after a beautiful winter hike. We had climbed mountains to view the ocean and passed countless cows grazing on our way down. The cold air outside had chilled us to the bone, and now the heater in the family car warmed us.

 

The drive was long, and night had fallen. My husband was driving, and I was in the passenger seat, while our two children sat in the back. The conversation was lively, but at a certain point our daughter dozed off in her car seat. It was more than her then-three-year-old body could manage to remain awake. Her older brother and her parents continued to speak, noting her soft sleeping breaths.

 

At some point, even we had rested our conversation, when out of her slumber our daughter’s sleepy voice interrupted the silence.

“Would you pet a cat that had no tail?” she said.

It was a non sequitur to beat all non sequiturs.

“The Dormouse has spoken,” my husband said.

 

 The Dormouse is a character in "A Mad Tea-Party", Chapter VII [1] from the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The Dormouse sat between the March Hare and the Mad Hatter. They were using him as a cushion while he slept when Alice arrives at the start of the chapter. The Dormouse is always falling asleep during the scene, waking up every so often, to insert some unrelated comment and doze off again.

 

After that day, our daughter began to call herself Dormouse, and she and her brother developed this alternate identity further, making up stories that bore little resemblance to Alice’s tea party associate or to nature’s dormice. Our resident dormouse kept this alter ego for some years before it, too, dissipated into the family lore of yore.  

 

But so many years later, I woke up thinking about the question posted long ago in the dark car.

 
“Would you pet a cat that had no tail?” never got an answer back when.

Today, it seems to me the question deserved a reply. The way I understand it, it has a deep meaning. It’s another way of asking, “could you love and care for someone who isn’t perfect?”

 

Dear Dormouse, it was a perfect question perfectly asked. We got sidetracked but your question deserved an answer.

My belated answer is YES, ten times yes. I’d pet a cat that had no tail. Would you?

THE STORY of SOKOLOV’s FAREWELL

 

It’s been almost a month since Sokolov died.

 

I want to say “left us” or “crossed the rainbow bridge” or some such, because the word “die” doesn’t seem to suit him. He’d been sick for three years and there were many times when I thought he would not last long. But, like the phoenix, he rose up and bounced back to life. We began to think—hope— he would live forever. Maybe our inclination to deny death was doing a job on us.

 

But— no, he didn’t.

 

In late February, he began his final descent and this time he did not relent and turn back. He stopped eating despite medication that had worked before to stimulate his appetite. He stopped drinking. He became as light as a feather. The vet said he was in complete liver failure.

 

We made the decision to let him go at home, in peace, on his own schedule. This cat, who came to us as a feral rescue, who feared any person that was not us (with the vet being one of his greatest fears) was going to live to the last surrounded by people and cats he loved and in the home he felt safe.

 

His final descent lasted four weeks. He was stoic, affectionate, and maintained himself in a position where he could always see us and his favorite feline friends. Sokolov, who ran into hiding at the slightest suggestion of an approaching stranger, didn’t hide at all at the end. He chose to be close and look at us as his body was evaporating.

I won’t deny that letting him die at home was hard on us. I wouldn’t necessarily make that choice for our other cats. But I knew that for this shy cat who loved us more fiercely than others, this is how it had to be.

 

The last looks we exchanged were on the morning of March 28^th. I was typing and turned to say something to him. He was a foot away, sitting on my bed. He looked serene and blinked slowly. I kept typing. When next I turned to exchange looks, he was lying sprawled on his side. I kept staring to see if he was breathing. He did, one more time.

 

He is buried among the weeds in the backyard, very close to where this photo was taken a few years ago.

THE EYE of AI

 

If you ever purchased from the giants of the Internet retailers, you have run into an AI summary of the reviews the product has accumulated. For the most part, I have found these mechanical summaries to reflect the gist of the individual reviews by verified purchasers.

 

It’s an odd thing for a writer whose books are also sold there to see artificial intelligence’s summation. But I’m not complaining because AI is programmed to give priority to the positive. After all, these are selling sites. I don’t know how many reviews are required to trigger Ms. AI, but it must be more than twenty. I asked, and AI gave a vague answer that didn’t include a number.

 

But did you know there are AI tools that review/give feedback to private images and works of art (not for sale) you are curious about? 

I didn’t, until my post of an embroidery (one I designed and made some years ago) on a chat board for crafts-- elicited one of the people on the board to use this tool and let me know what AI had to say about my one-of-a-kind work.

 

I had mentioned the center is the Hebrew word that begins the Bible, aptly saying “In the beginning.” (BERESHEET / בּראשׁית in Hebrew.)

This is what my colleague on the board posted right after:

“I know little about embroidery but Microsoft's AI Copilot could read it easily.

 It also said "The embroidery surrounding the text is beautifully intricate, featuring colorful geometric patterns that might resemble trees or plants. A meaningful and artistic piece!"

 It always feels weird getting compliments from a machine though, doesn't it? :D

 I think it looks great too!”

 

I haven’t used this tool yet for any of my other works, but I think I might on a day when I’m feeling blue. Even an AI pick-me-up is better than nothing.

JUMPSTARTING TODAY’S WRITING SECTION

 

When writing anything other than a blog post or a short picture book text, as the saying goes— it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

Beginnings are easier for me, because they come in as a sort of voice with sentences formed that have wind beneath their wings. Watching a helicopter lift off would be a good analogy to the experience.

 

Endings have their own energy. Everything that came before is adding up, and the reflection of the opening hovers over-- projecting the outline of the runway to landing.

 

It’s the long middle that looms over like a gray cloud every time. The feeling that I have no idea where to go and my mind feels empty. How will I get through today's section? I have nothing.

 

A few years ago, when I knew I’d be writing middle grade novels not as a one-off fluke (my first) but every year after that, I devised a technique that works for me during those seemingly endless middle of the story writing sessions.

 

I end each writing session with an evocative sentence. One that charms me. One that hopefully intrigues a reader. One that does the job the very next morning when I sit down feeling I have nothing to say.

 

The same words writers conjure to draw the reader in serve to pull this writer into the next chapter, and off we go.

 

I resolved never to end a day’s session in a static place, and this helped me get to the finish line one section at a time.

 

If your artwork seems to move in starts and stops, perhaps try this way. It takes self-discipline to halt the vehicle just as it moves into a higher gear. But then, it takes self-discipline to write a long story, paint an oil painting, or compose a symphony.

 

It’s all good. Happy navigating the middles to you.

FOOLED YOU!

 

*You’d think that if you opened the link to this post, you’d find yet another high falutin speech on writing, cats, or living life. Fooled you 😏

 

*You’d think you can trust this blog to at least have the presentation of sanity and balance in matters public and private. Fooled you 😜

 

*You would’ve thought that your kindness in at least checking in to see “what she’s up to now” would be treated with the respect and gratitude you deserve. Fooled you 😦

 

Because this is silly day, and not only you, but yours truly get NO RESPECT on the day the fools rule

Now go get some toilet paper to wrap your home, school, or the next-door fool

Don’t be best, be cool 😎