{"id":4414,"date":"2026-01-09T02:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=4414"},"modified":"2026-01-08T14:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:23:31","slug":"we-got-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2026\/01\/09\/we-got-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"We Got Cats!"},"content":{"rendered":"

These are the times that try human souls.<\/p>\n

I know that\u2019s not how Thomas Paine said it \u2013 he wrote \u201cmen\u2019s souls\u201d of course. That\u2019s usually excused by the explanation that \u201cmen\u201d used that way includes all of us, but \u2013 not to disrespect Paine, who was a force for good in the Revolution \u2013 it really means that no one considered the thoughts, or even the souls, of women important.<\/p>\n

At the moment, I am angry and depressed over the murder of a woman by an agent of an over-funded federal police agency that shouldn\u2019t even exist, by the various actions against the people of Venezuela, by the way surveillance tech is creeping into all of our lives, and by the efforts (and not just by the regime controlling our federal government, but by local utilities) to slow walk renewable energy and keep polluting.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the short list for this morning. There are many other things I\u2019m mad about.<\/p>\n

However, I interrupt this listing of horrors for an important announcement:<\/p>\n

We got cats!<\/p>\n

Meet Shadow (female dark gray) and Piper (male gray tabby), our new beloved and chaotic housemates.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

They are still kittens, more or less, though growing like the proverbial weeds \u2013 seven months old when we got them just under a month ago. All the exploratory energy of kittens, but old enough to understand such things as the litter box and \u2013 to an extent \u2013 the word \u201cno.\u201d (Or at least the water spray bottle when they\u2019re on the kitchen counter.)<\/p>\n

They have torn up several things and caused a minor water emergency by somehow disconnecting the overflow hose from our heat pump \u2013 while one of us might have actually caused that disconnection, it was due to moving things around to protect the overflow bucket from the cats, so it\u2019s pretty much their fault \u2013 and generally been a handful.<\/p>\n

\"Piper,<\/p>\n

We are developing several tricks for getting them away from the front door when we\u2019re headed out \u2013 they are still, fortunately, very distractable \u2013 because we don\u2019t want an accidental meeting between them and any of our neighbors\u2019 dogs, of which there are quite a few in our building. I have some interesting scratches from bringing them back in when they wanted to go explore, not to mention from them leaping across my head while I was still in bed.<\/p>\n

They also purr and talk and sit on laps (when they decide to stay still) and tend to crawl into \"darkbed with us in the middle of the night. They are bonded siblings, according to the animal shelter, and like each other and us.<\/p>\n

Which is all to say that they are a joy to have around.<\/p>\n

I am sharing this news and some pictures not just because even pictures of kittens make people happy, but also because bringing small agents of chaos into your life helps a lot in these difficult times.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t distract you from your responsibilities, but they do distract you from some of the stress brought on by those responsibilities.<\/p>\n

There are other ways to find relief. Meditation is good. Music \u2013 either listening or playing. Comfort reading \u2013 I\u2019m making my way through the Thursday Murder Club series, which continues the British mystery convention of absolutely improbable murders but has them solved by some very interesting residents of a retirement community, which is to say people even older than me.<\/p>\n

\"twoBut the nice thing about cats is that they do things on cat schedule, not yours, so you can\u2019t plan to go play with cats as soon as you finish your current effort to address the outrage going on in the same way that you promise yourself you can get back to your book as soon as you show up at the protest or finish writing your members of Congress.<\/p>\n

You have to play with the cats on their schedule. They won\u2019t stop. And, of course, you have to feed them and water them and stay on top of the litter box and provide them with entertainment while preventing them from doing too much damage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a full time job, except when they\u2019re napping, which, fortunately, cats do a lot.<\/p>\n

And just so you know that I\u2019m thinking about a lot more than cats, here\u2019s a picture of the flag hanging outside one of the businesses in my neighborhood. Yet another reason to be so grateful to live in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\"flag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the times that try human souls. I know that\u2019s not how Thomas Paine said it \u2013 he wrote \u201cmen\u2019s souls\u201d of course. That\u2019s usually excused by the explanation that \u201cmen\u201d used that way includes all of us, but \u2013 not to disrespect Paine, who was a force for good in the Revolution \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[1169,161],"class_list":["post-4414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals-pets","tag-abolish-ice","tag-cats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4421,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions\/4421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}