The Cat Gene

I am what many people would call a Crazy Cat Lady. I love animals in general but have a special affinity for cats, which is a good thing since attracting cats seems to be in my DNA. So much so that, in my family, we call it the cat gene.

During the Depression era, hobos left markings on fences, bridges, sidewalks, etc. to let others know what to expect in that area. It doesn't surprise me at all that the symbol for a "kindhearted woman" was a smiling cat.

Symbol for a Kindhearted Woman. Image from Pinterest.

I'm a sucker for a cat in need and they know it. I'm pretty sure cats have their own version of the hobo symbols and the symbol they use for me means "a sucker lives here". It got so bad that we started calling it the Cat of the Year club. For several years, once a year a new cat would show up - usually in June or July. We rescued a kitten from the church parking lot where it had apparently hitched a ride in the engine of a car. Another we found in the middle of a busy highway - when we straddled it with our car. Fortunately for that baby, traffic wasn't heavy at that time. When we pulled onto the side of the road to make sure it was okay, it came trotting up to us like "There you are! I've been looking for you." Over the years cats did everything except parachute into our yard or get delivered by UPS.

Finally, the influx of cats slowed and it seemed that the power of the cat gene had passed to my sons, especially my youngest. We moved three years ago this August and there don't seem to be as many feral/free-roaming cats in this area. (Thank goodness!) Not long after we moved in, our neighbor brought us a kitten; fortunately, our oldest son and his family gave her a home. All was good until the end of May when I got a call from my youngest son which began "Dad is going to hate me." His next door neighbor had rescued a kitten that had been trapped in his wall and my son was bringing it to us since he knew it would be better off with us than with the neighbor. So, we now have a kitten named Bear. (My husband named him Little Bear; don't ask me why.)

 

 

 

Meet Bear

Bear was only about 5 weeks old when he was brought to us; he was young enough that it was difficult to tell for sure if he really was a "he". (He is.) Bear is busily claiming our house as his own. As of yesterday, he has officially conquered the staircase to our master bedroom which means there is no longer a kitten-free refuge for us or the other cats. Sadly, Bear is also a morning cat; he gets up with the sun and is now making sure that we do as well. My husband and I were both awake by 6:30am this morning. (Unlike Bear, I am not a morning person. Now that I'm retired, 6:30am is far too early for me.)

Of course, having a Bear in the house makes for amusing conversations such as:

Watch out for the Bear!

Where's the Bear?

What happened to you?
It was a Bear attack.

Hopefully this will be the last new cat for several years. (We already have a clowder and don't need it to grow any larger.)

I hope you have a safe, bear free, and appropriately social distanced Independence Day celebration!

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Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer - Kaye Spencer #poetry #firestarpress #baseball

For my May blog article, I wrote about my favorite poem My Papa’s Waltz (Link HERE). 

Continuing with a poetry theme, my June article is about a baseball poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer: Casey at the Bat. 

This poem was published in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1988.

According to the website Poets.org¹, Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born on August 14, 1863 (d. August 21, 1940) in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University. While there, he met William Randolph Hearst, who would later have the San Francisco Examiner. Hearst eventually hired Thayer to write a humorous column for his newspaper, which turned out to be Thayers’s most famous work, Casey at the Bat. Thayer wrote under the pen name “Phin”.

Ernest Lawrence Thayer - Reference¹

Wikipedia²  tells us:

• DeWolf Hopper “gave the poem’s first stage recitation on August 14, 1888 at New York’s Wallack Theater as part of the comic opera Prinze Methusalem in the presence of the Chicago and New York baseball teams, the white Stockings and the Giants, respectively.
• Hopper reportedly recited the poem an estimated 10,000 times on the low side and up to 40,000 times on the high side.
• The first recorded version of this poem was by Russell Hunting, who spoke in a broad Irish accent.
•  Among others who have recorded this poem, James Earl Jones recorded a version with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 1996.
• The poem has been referenced in many movies, television shows, books, comics, and parodies as well as being set to music as a song and adapted into an opera.
• On July 11, 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp depicting “Mighty Casey” as part of a commemorative American folk heroes set that included Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Pecos Bill.

Mighty Casey Commemorative Stamp -  Reference³

My first recollection of Casey at the Bat is from watching this 1946 Disney cartoon.

 

Once I discovered Casey at the Bat via Disney, my grandpa, whom I talked about in my May article, read it to me many times thereafter. He was a big fan of baseball, so he didn't mind at all. :-)

Read the poem HERE

Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

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Resources:

1. Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/ernest-lawrence-thayer.

2. “Casey at the Bat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 May 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat.

3. Sine, Iqzero.net and Dick. “US Stamp Gallery >> Mighty Casey.” US Stamp Gallery >> Browse Stamps through the History of the United States, usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=279473ac9b832af457fc5d895faed6782083c783

CAT SUMMER WINS BIG PURRS, by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer

I have some great news! Cat Summer, (FireStar Press 2019) has won a Certificate of Excellence for Books: Sci-Fi Fantasy in the Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communications Contest.

As a longtime member of CWA, this is not my first COE, but the thrill never goes away. The association has a strict judging policy, and there is no guaranteed winner if the judges deem no work is up to their high standards. So, yay! Three separate judges consider Cat Summer to be of the highest quality!

Now the book competes with others in its category for the coveted CWA Muse Medallion which will be announced at the CWA Communications Contest Virtual Awards Ceremony in August.

Cat Summer is Book One of the Cat Seasons Sci-Fantasy Tetralogy. Here’s the blurb:

Lise has a special destiny: to help a clowder of sentient cats save the world from an evil older than history itself. It is a terrible battle, but Lise and her feline comrades prevail, putting an end to war, poverty, ignorance and want. The world is a better place. 

Or is it? 

A century later, it becomes clear that something has been lost. The new civilization produces no artists, no musicians, no scientists, no philosophers. Inertia has taken hold. Lise, now at the end of her life, must join her cat-friends once more to restore the Spark of the Human Spirit, but the goal cannot be reached without sacrifice.

To note, I also received COA’s for two of my cozy mysteries, and one for a set of cat poems, so I’m really happy right now!

The Cat Writers’ Association is a global cat-centric professional organization dedicated to excellence in written, visual and audio media.

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