Horses, Dogs, Cats and Books

Well, today, November 23, 2024, is the day I changed to the flannel sheets and the electric blanket is on the bed. I didn't do a lot. Laundry, of course, so I could wash the spring-summer-fall sheets, etc., made the bed, made an omelet with cheese and onion, been working on music for a long time tonight. Had to tune the guitar with the tuner. I don't play it much anymore but playing it in the morning. Before it started to get dark by 5:00 I decided to go visit God's Storehouse. I only spent $3.00 on some children's books; Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (retold by Anne M. Simpson). It has beautiful illustrations by Tom LaPadula, and it looks not looked at at all; came out in 1993. Then there was another little book there called The White Stallion by Elizabeth Shub, first published in 1982. It also has beautiful illustrations. I am a sucker for beautiful illustrations. On the cover, in color and inside black and white by Rachel Isadora. I never heard of the book. The other two books I got were The Time Bikee by Jane Langton and a book about the Chronicles of Narnia by Colin Manlove. Oh, and I read the Magic Treehouse book about Jack and Annie going back into the time of Charles Dickens to inspire him to give his gifts to the world. It was good. People who write books like that simply blow my mind, that's all.I wish I could write fiction again. When I was a child, I would not read a book unless it was about a horse or a dog, so a lot of children's literature I am just now discovering. Disney, of course, introduced us and I suppose ruined us for classics like Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz film sort of prevented most of our genertion from reading those books, but oh, well, at least we read something. I remember reading Beautiful Joe, but (again, Disney) Old Yelle,is just too sad to read. I tried a few years ago. I also saw today where one of the black formerly feral cats is missing now. A lady adopted it a while ago, and it had been indoor/outdoor for however long it's been since she adopted it, and now it's been gone since last Saturday. That makes me pretty sad. The story of that cat and her brother, Picasso, I have spoken about on Facebook before. Picasso started begging at my apartment until my neighbor moved in and started spoiling him with expensive treats and actually got him pretty domesticated. He comes in and lays on her couch and everything. He would never let me pet him, so, I resigned myself to the fact that he was her cat. I am without a pet at all now since 2016. Every time I read about someone having to euthanize their pet, I'm glad I don't have any anymore. It's too painful to go through that again. I just think it's time to be pet free at this stage of my life. Every time I went out, I worried about the dear creatures and missed them. It's just not fair. If I could retire and stay home and have two pets to keep each other company, maybe, but I don't think so. Not anymore. I've had so many pets in my life, and left a bunch of them with people. It's just too sad.I think about the pets I've left with people in all my many moves, and I wonder what happened to them. Well, they probably all have had to be euthanized at some point. But at least I didn't have to do it. I'm glad there were people to take them. I'm thinking of Theo, the big tiger cat in Baton Rouge, and I can't remember the name of the yellow and white one I had on the bayou.Some people were kind enough to take them when I left. My cat Modelo and my dog Meli, I still miss very much, and going through their tragic ends was just heart wrenching, gut turning torture. Pat kept Meli in her apartment for about a week when the dog was wandering around. It was just frightful and disturbing. The poor animal was in a terrible state at the end. I hated it so much. Same with the cat, she had a terrible end too. I kept praying for a miracle but a miracle never came. My friend Pat had Wiggles, and then she had Grayson, and then when she died, she left him with her granddaughter, who eventually had him euthanized, I think. It's just too sad. I can't do it anymore. Sometimes it's lonely, for sure, but it's the life God has given me, and there are things I have to do, need to do, and this way, there is plenty of time to do them. If I choose to hang my head and complain about it I'm becoming my own worst enemy. The Bible teaches how we go through all these earthly trials and it will all be worth it when we see Jesus face to face, and some of us just have to spend a lot of time alone to figure things out over time. I don't know how people do this without him, and I sure don't want to do it ever again. This is a short write tonight because I had to work on music so long tonight. I hope my voice is going to hold up in the morning. Still going through the nasal stage of a cold. That time of year, they say. Goodnight.