At the Cabin: Loretta

Sunday, July 29, 2012

More Messages from the Grave Spelled Out in Yellow Mushrooms

This message says, "I'm so happy my little dead body is nourishing the ground and creating an environment conducive to these Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, or yellow pleated parasols as they are commonly called. They are beautiful and fascinating!"

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Loretta's New Area

The Lewis family gave me a "Knockout" rosebush to plant on top of Loretta. It just bloomed and it is indeed a knockout! The same kind of rose is planted on top of their little cat Lucy, who died just 4 days before Loretta. The Lewises were special friends of Lo; Jeannie knew her almost as long as I did.

Jeannie also made the lovely mosaic tile. Later on I'll take away most of the stones, but for now I'm making sure that no dogs or anything else dig up my little cat.

Above is the after; below is the before. The long hard freeze this winter killed off most of what was planted there and it needed a good makeover anyway. Hamilton doesn't know what all the fuss is about; he's just into the new catmint plant.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Loretta Retrospective, Part The End (For Now, Anyway)

The oldest photo of Lo that I could lay my hands on today....she is 2 or 3 years old here. Her stripes faded a lot by the end! The picture below is a paean to her brother Boris, who did not make it out of kittenhood.

In 1993 I lived on 51st Street in the bottom half a duplex owned by a sweet old couple named Ella & Gilbert Champion; my friend Cindy lived upstairs. Ella Champion's hair was peach-colored; her husband Gilbert once nearly had a heart attack removing the old hot-water heater from the upstairs apartment; and they didn't charge us very much rent, which may be why the bank eventually took the property away from them, which is how we ended up living there rent-free for a long time, until the bank figured out about us.

Down the street was a store called "Burning Books" (which incidentally was catty-corner from where my vet clinic was and still is, though now I live 30+ miles away) and one day someone had a batch of kittens there at the bookstore, hoping to find them homes. I actually got Boris first and a few days later went back to get him a companion; my other cats were all older and not enough fun. Hence Loretta! Of all my many cats back then, who knew that she would be the one to last so long and become so dear to my heart?