SPELLING BEE

BY BEA WESTERBERG

Stories of cats / bra hooks

“When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction”. Mark Twain – a known lover of cats.

I have been overturning new rocks and finding a number of quotes that are sticking in my head. I can write about cats and I can also tell you a story about Mark Twain.

Marnie Muffin Monster of Minnesota Expanding into Wisconsin was our orange tabby for many years and she went to Happy Cat Land at age 18 or so. We took our time looking for a new cat but kept putting if off because we didn’t want to have a new cat at the time we were going to be taking a cruise. After the cruise got canceled for the 3rd time, I said we might need a change in plans and start looking for a new cat. We said we would not be getting another orange tabby because it would remind us too much of Marnie. One day while we were taking Sitka to Rio Gran play time, we saw a huge orange tabby being checked in and said “what a BIG cat”. Two weeks later the same lady was back at Rio Gran with another cat and mentioned that she still had not found a home for the cat she rescued a few weeks back. Our ears perked up and we asked for details. It turns out she was helping a lady move to an apartment and found out that the cat was not going to be able to go along and probably would have to be put down. She said that was not going to happen and she would find a home for him and boarded him at Rio Gran until she found a home. She already had a large number of cats at her home. The one “problem” with this cat was that he did not like men. We had a meet and greet with the cat and said we would take him home and hope everything would work out.

We did not see the cat for 3 days but then he started to show up for a few minutes a day. Husband Larry insisted that we had to get a cat tower for him and then started giving him bed time treats on the tower to show him that men were okay people too. A big cat needed a big name and it came down to either Cheddar or Pumpkin and we decided that Pumpkin Cheddar Krispi Kitty would be most fitting. You can probably guess where the story went from there. Pumpkin now pretty much rules the indoor kingdom, and he is the best friend who sleeps on me every night. He knocked my tea over onto the computer keyboard and I didn’t help things with my clean up method, so I had to get a cordless replacement. This way I can remove the key board when the cat wants to lay in front of the monitor. He says he is not a bit spoiled but keep putting the special sprinkles on the wet and dry food for each meal and keep the bathroom sink full of drinking water. He also has learned how to use the lever handle on the kitchen door to get downstairs on his own.

Mr. Twain had a lot of interests in his life besides loving cats and writing stories. He must have had problems with using suspenders to keep his pants in the proper place. He designed and got a patent for a garment fastener used to tighten shirts at the waist instead of suspenders. Yes, you can look up patent #121,992 issued Dec. 19, 1871. It appears that he did not go further with this invention. In 1914, Mary Phelps Jacob designed an item that consisted of handkerchiefs and ribbon and called it a bra. She sold her patent for this item to Warner Brothers Corset Company and they added the Twain straps. And as they say, “the rest is history”.

The Easter Bunny will be busy this weekend bringing all those goodies to big and little boys and girls. There is a statement out there that 59 percent of people eat the rabbit ears first off of the chocolate bunnies. I know that I always did the ears first because we never got the solid ones. The ears usually made up most of the chocolate and we went for that to start with. The other Easter must have for a lot of people are the Peeps. Did you know that they used to be made by hand one at a time? It seems like either you are a Peeps lover or a Peeps shall not pass my lips person. Have a wonderful day no matter what you enjoy.

Bea Westerberg [email protected]