I’m going to tell you a dirty little secret: I like to procrastinate. If I don’t have an idea for the Saturday blog that thrills me, I’m perfectly willing to wait and see if something fresh pops up Saturday morning (which is still Friday night in the Americas, so something fresh often does pop up in people’s exuberance for the weekend). Procrastination often serves me well.
But when it doesn’t, it’s awful. A ton of pressure to produce 500 words of crap . . . I could have done that Thursday afternoon and saved myself the pressure!
And then there’s today, when something so wonderful happens that all thoughts of writing and blogging are driven out of my mind.
You see, Mama Tabby had her kittens in Auntie Milk’s bathroom last night. Our biological empire increases!!!!
Auntie Milk’s husband is my husband’s uncle invited me over to take pictures, and I jumped on the chance (in pajamas, yet!).
My friends, they are the most adorable little things! I couldn’t believe they weren’t even a whole day old. I thought they’d be more naked-mole-rat than cat. But they were soft, fuzzy little fussballs searching for mother’s milk.
Mama Tabby (who is the basis for my heroine Tabby Kate, the caterwauler who falls in love with Captain Greebo) is doing fine, but had the most incredulous expression on her face during my visit. “What the hell are you doing here?” Still, she let me pet her, and handle the babies.
I haven’t been in Auntie Milk’s living room before. She has Mama and kittens in a box by the kerosene stove. The weather here is foul April today – gray and wet and windy and howling. But in that warm room, we had Mama and her babies, Chibi (the littlest from Mama’s earlier litter) hiding behind the sofa and peeking out to yowl greetings at me, and Lady Black, the old woman who curled up sleeping on the couch. It was paradise, I tell you. I wish I could have stayed for hours.
So, you’ll have to come back next week for my thoughts on writing. The kittens have driven it all clean out of my mind. Maybe next Thursday, I can come up with some helpful tip or funny observation on the craft and business of writing. For today, it’s all cats.
Eight Ladies Writing 
Those kittens are so sweet. A great reason to procrastinate and an awesome inspiration 🙂
They were adorable! And Mama was at the window yesterday. She trembled a little bit as I poured out the food (poor thing!). Auntie Milk provides them with basic cat food, and I think she let Mama out of the house for a potty break. I’ve got the slightly better food treats, so she couldn’t resist stopping by, I guess. She looks worn out, but otherwise in good shape. Poor Mama! Haven’t seen her today.
Great videos, Michaeline. I’ve had cats pretty much all my life, but I’ve never seen a cat with newborn kittens–they’re so tiny!
As for procrastination, I’ve always said that “procrastination is just prioritizing the tasks I’d rather do first.” Sometimes the pressure of waiting until the last minute to do something sparks creativity that I might otherwise not have had and other times I manage to procrastinate things right out of existence.
I’m glad your procrastination led you to the kittens.
It was my first time to see nearly-newborns, too! And by day five, one had is eyes open, and two more were just opening their eyes. So exciting! I thought they’d be more like naked mole rats.
I just feel temporary sparks of juice right now. I can come up with a good idea, but it just doesn’t seem juicy enough to head to my keyboard to write it down.
BUT (and more cat drama ahead), Charli the Mixed Mystery Kitten got spayed this week, and for complicated reasons, we have the cats in a different house than my bed (close, but about 100 meters away). So, I’ve been sleeping and living over there except for lunch and making supper so that all three of the cats can get some sleep and stop grumbling at each other. I don’t dare take my new computer over there for fear of cat hair. So . . . I’m thinking about short-circuiting my objections by writing a few doodly things long-hand that I can type up later. My brain is saying, “Good thinking” but my subconscious is saying, “Well, we’ll see about that.”
We have the Golden Week holidays coming up, so Charli won’t get her shiny stitches taken out until after May 5 (almost two weeks!), and I’m . . . worried. Can I sleep on the floor that long? Am I just borrowing trouble worrying about it? (The cats do seem to be settling down now that it’s day three after the surgery.) WHAT ABOUT THE GARDEN?
Then I look at the lovely Ursula Vernon (T. Kingfisher: The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking) who writes, gardens, draws and juggles a full household of family, pets and friends. HOW DOES SHE DO IT? I should ask and blog about it. Wonder if she’s got a book coming up?
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