Category: Cats

animal day journal #10 — the cat magic circle

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The March mornings have grown warm enough for the cats to sit out, but still cool enough to be the perfect Magic Circle weather. If you’re the parent of small children, your children probably participate in Magic Circles. The children gather around in a small circle with their teacher, and they would listen to stories read by the teacher, or they would just talk and interact. It was a way to build community within the class, along with outside play. Our children, who are now grown and out in the world, participated in Magic Circles from the time they were in kindergarten up through elementary school. It stopped when they graduated on to middle school. If the Magic Circles were especially notable, then we’d get an exciting version of what happened from their young point of view.

With the six cats and Annie, my wife and I imagine they all get together in their own Magic Circle to discuss pet issues and living with humans in the big house. We make up all sorts of little stories about what they discuss, with Annie as the lead of the Magic Circle. That’s what I immediately thought of when I looked outside to our lanai this morning and saw four of the six cats equally spread out on the cushioned seats. They are, from front to back, Nicholas, Danï, Joan, and Beau. All I had with me at the time was my iPhone, and I didn’t want to waste time running back for one of my cameras, so I grabbed the shot with the iPhone camera. This underscores the old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you at the moment you need it.

animal day journal #9

whbeebeLeave a comment

Danï is in a perfect Ginger zen state while resting in my lap. She’s there because I spent Friday and part of today with heat on my left hip and back due to the effort I’d spent the prior week lifting, planting, and re-planting a crepe myrtle plant from the back yard in too much shade out to the front where it will be in a lot more sunlight, as well as quite a bit more gardening and planting. I have a number of other crepe myrtles all around the home that are now beginning to  show considerable growth, but the one in the back, which had been there for quite a few years, was stunted. I’m hoping the move out front into a more open area with a lot more sunlight, along with a lot of tender loving care, will get it growing again with all the others.

Digging up the crepe myrtle and moving it was a half-day effort. I had trimmed the old growth branches, but even trimmed it was a good foot taller than I am, and I’m still 6 ft 4 inches (nearly 2 meters), and I used a hand truck to move it from where it was to where I transplanted it. I planted it into a large hole with lots of topsoil around the root ball, covered with with plenty of wood mulch, then gave it a good soak. I’ve also planted five azaleas around to begin to build out a flower area. I want as many flowering plants as will grow in the yard to attract butterflies and humming birds.

I’ve been trying to be a lot more physically active in 2025 than in all the prior retirement years combined, and even more than the working years before retirement where I was always too tired to do any decent work in and outside the home. It’s a way for me to keep exercising and keep the left knee in proper shape as well as to help the healing process continue after the operation. It’s been nine months since the left knee replacement, and I suspect that it will be a full year before everything is as close as it can get as far as a healthy joint is concerned. Surprisingly the left knee wasn’t in pain, just the left hip and my lower back. After a day-and-a-half slowdown the pain is much abated and I’m moving and working at the same levels again.

I attribute my quick recovery to the heating pad and the magical ministrations of my lap cat Danï.