Melanie Jackson's Blog, page 2

Kittens and Cherries (thoughts by Snowy, the cat)

Miz Melanie is busy writing today so she asked me to handle the blog. I thought about what to talk about since it is mainly humans who visit here.

One thing on my mind, Miz Melanie says it's cherry season and it must be since there are always lovely red balls in the bowl where I like to sleep. Cherries aren't particularly good to eat, but if you find the squishy ones they make a good splat when you throw them on the floor....

What I have also noticed is that it is the season of kittens. Our shelter has more than 150 now. I know this because Melanie told me. She was crying when she said it and when I asked why, she said it was because they might not be able to find good homes for all of them. I asked if they couldn't come live with us, but she got out the cherries and showed me just how many 150 is. Then I realized that I might never actually get to sleep in my bowl again. I might not get to sleep anywhere if that many cats came home with us....

But these kittens must have homes, so I am asking you to tell your friends that while cherries are in season and you can easily take home 150 of them, it is also kitten season and perhaps you can find room for at least one.

PS-- Melanie was describing something called a bikini wax. It sounds nice and cool. Have any of my feline friends had one? Is it a good idea?

Snowy

I have a little shadow....

She is with me always, my little shadow. But instead of being the expected gray of many shadows she is the shade of vanilla ice cream, a blue-eyes ghost that leaves a trail of hairs on my keyboard as she passes through. My little poltergeist has learned to crawl behind my desk and turn off the powerstrip that supplies my monitor. I do not think she knows about electricity-- but being a cat, who can say?-- but she does know that if she walks around enough behind my desk that I will get up, and once on my feet I can be lured out to the garden to admire the finches in the birdbath and the giant moths helping themselves to the flowers on the butterfly bush. My little shadow becomes a lion in the grass, a hunter of the shrubs. Yet when I rise to go back inside, she appears at once, a little vanilla shadow pacing at my side.

Why Blame The Dog?

They call them the dog days of summer, but I've asked the dog and she says she wants nothing to do the seemingly endless heat. Fortunately, unlike the dog, I can escape into the cool crispness of autumn through reading and writing.
The e-world is new to me, but one of the things I like best with e-readers is being able to download samples of books to see if the fit is right. No more guessing if the style works for me. My stockpile of Halloween cozies is growing and any day over 100* I break one out for some escapist reading.
At present I am working on a Thanksgiving cozy called Death In A Turkey Town. It is the third book in the Chloe Boston series and follows Moving Violation and The Pumpkin Thief (Halloween story for those who also like holiday mysteries). Being the author, I can even make it snow if I want and it has. Twice. There is also a novella called Halloween. It is written for the middle grade crowd but I'm betting it will speak to a lot of us adults who remember and miss our childhood adventures out trick-or-treating.
Keep cool-- the end of summer is nigh.