Barbara Chepaitis's Blog: http://aliterarylunch.blogspot.com/2015/07/frying-mad.html - Posts Tagged "cats"
True Love and Doggie Talk
What I’m really writing about today is how to know true love, which leads you on strange paths toward your own soul. To do so, I have to talk about dogs.
It’s probably obvious that a writer with a character named Jaguar is a cat person, but I hope it doesn’t shock and horrify you to learn that I never liked dogs.
That’s because I grew up with my father’s dog, Prince, an unneutered male beagle who smelled bad, and embarrassed me with his amorous intents toward lady dogs of the neighborhood, I learned early on to prefer the contemplative, sensual, and predatory attitude of cats. While dogs rolled in poop, my cats rolled in my herb garden, and would brush the scent of lavender against my face.
Then, I married a man who always had dogs, and wanted another. I grit my teeth and welcomed Luna, a black lab, into our home. I did it only because I love my husband, and knew how much joy this would bring him. And, as is often the case with love, what happened next was sheer hell.
It started when we introduced Luna to our black cat, Photon. Picture this: A black puppy and a black cat, weighing in about the same, sit in a livingroom, looking at each other. The puppy wags her tail. The cat sees the wagging tail, interprets it as a challenge, and starts to flick his tail back and forth. The puppy sees the flicking tail and interprets it as playtime. The puppy leaps, the cat pounces, and a great tangle of fur and claws and noise ensues. Husband and wife separate dog and cat, and glare at each other over their respective pets.
It didn’t get better quick. Luna had a strong prey drive and often chased the cat, which made me crazy, and whiny. I didn’t understand dogs. They have to be taken out. They look at you and want to be with you always. They eat your shoes. There was a great gap between my consciousness and doggie mind.
But, in fact, there’s always a gap between one consciousness and another. Always. Any married person will tell you that. As a writer my job is to bridge that gap, make the experience I write about real for the reader. My tools are words, chosen carefully to create sensory experience for the reader - the doggie smell versus the cat smell, for instance. But with dogs, I didn’t have a clue. I had to learn the language.
The first thing I learned was that dogs are all about The Walk, which is fine since I like to walk. However, as you can imagine, I’m an off-leash kind of gal, so Luna and I started walking the hundred or so acres of woods around us - no leash needed.
On those daily walks I observed her behavior and saw how closely she observed mine. Our communication grew simple and wordless. I would point. She would go that way. I’d clap my hands. She’d turn and come to me. She’d prance around a stick. I’d pick it up and throw it. When I gestured, she’d bring it back to me.
Over time, I found pleasure in that wordlessness, which stretched my consciousness to embrace Luna’s, and provided a break from my constant immersion in human language. As I investigated more of the woods around us, I grounded my feet firmly in the land and its language as well. And I learned a deeper appreciation of my husband, a man who lives very much in the present tense.
You haven’t forgotten about love, have you? Of course not, because clearly Luna taught me that the hallmark of true love is the way it takes you beyond your own limitations - sometimes kicking and screaming, I’ll grant, but always into realms that increase the well-being of all concerned. True love gives you more languages to speak, more connection with consciousness beyond your own. But what about how it leads you back to your own soul? Yes. That happened, too.
When Luna was about a year old, we were on our morning walk, on a trail with a grassy field on one side, woods on the other. We saw motion in the grass and I stopped to observe. Luna picked her head up, stood in her Calm and Alert position.
Whatever was in the grass was brown and gold, not tall enough to be a deer. A coyote? We’ve got plenty of them around. We waited, Luna unusually still, since she usually tears off after any wild thing that moves.
What emerged from the grass was sleek, golden and white, backlit by the early morning sun. It was a bit larger than coyote, and had a rounder head, rounder ears. It stopped on the open trail and turned to stare at us, no more than 5 yards distant. We were all very still, except for the creature’s long tail, which flicked at the tip in the unmistakable motion of a nervous cat.
A cougar. We were staring at a cougar.
There was great silence, and great connection. We were three different languages, all in communication beyond words, absorbing each other’s essential energy, knowing each other for who we all are.
Eventually, the cougar walked off into the woods. I looked down at Luna, sleek and trim and beautiful. My dog, who led me here. She looked at me for direction and I moved forward, following the cat, then decided breakfast was the better part of valor.
As we made our way home, I began the human act of translating the experience into words. I realized that I’d been richly blessed. Extending myself for love had brought me the reward of a very rare meeting with the creature of my soul - the big cat. I could sense Jaguar Addams grinning at me, knowingly. A good day. A very good day indeed.
Luna and I continue our adventures in the wild together. She’ll appear in the eighth Jaguar Addams novel, A Racing Heart of Fear, because she’s the kind of dog who speaks cat, just as I’ve become the kind of cat who speaks dog.
If you want to give the doggie you love a special treat, here’s a recipe for Mud-Nosed Moon Doggie cookies, which I concocted for Luna.
You can visit me at wildreads.com. You can visit Jaguar at wildside press.
MUD-NOSED MOON DOGGIE COOKIES
About a pound of chicken livers (mine come in 1.25 pound containers)
3-5 slices bacon, chopped up
About 3 cups water, more or less
4-6 cups brown rice flour (you can substitute other flours if you prefer)
1 can mixed peas and carrots
At least one dog to feed.
When you open the chicken livers your dogs will come running. Tell them ‘Sit. Stay,’ and explain that they’ll have to wait.
Put the livers and bacon in a pot and add enough water to almost cover. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes.
Blend it up in a blender or food processor, with the peas and carrots.
Pour it into a bowl and mix with the rice flour, little by little, until you’ve got a dough stiff enough to roll out. You may use more or less of the flour, depending. Feel your way, and add more flour or water as needed. Refrigerate for an hour or so.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about half an inch thickness. From here, you can simply cut strips which you then cut into squares, doggie treat size. Or you can use a cookie cutter to make the shapes you want. My shapes are made with a thin-rimmed shot-glass, cutting crescent moons. For Luna, of course.
The treats can be ‘cooked’ one of two ways, because really everything is already cooked and you’re just shifting consistency at this point.
For crunchy cookie treats, bake in an oven at 350 degrees for around forty minutes, depending on the size and shape you chose. Just check them, and take them out when they get to your dog’s crunch preference.
For softer cookie treats, microwave them at high for 4-5 minutes.
Let the treats cool. Give some to your patient and persistent doggies.
Learning Fear
It’s probably obvious that a writer with a character named Jaguar is a cat person, but I hope it doesn’t shock and horrify you to learn that I never liked dogs.
That’s because I grew up with my father’s dog, Prince, an unneutered male beagle who smelled bad, and embarrassed me with his amorous intents toward lady dogs of the neighborhood, I learned early on to prefer the contemplative, sensual, and predatory attitude of cats. While dogs rolled in poop, my cats rolled in my herb garden, and would brush the scent of lavender against my face.
Then, I married a man who always had dogs, and wanted another. I grit my teeth and welcomed Luna, a black lab, into our home. I did it only because I love my husband, and knew how much joy this would bring him. And, as is often the case with love, what happened next was sheer hell.
It started when we introduced Luna to our black cat, Photon. Picture this: A black puppy and a black cat, weighing in about the same, sit in a livingroom, looking at each other. The puppy wags her tail. The cat sees the wagging tail, interprets it as a challenge, and starts to flick his tail back and forth. The puppy sees the flicking tail and interprets it as playtime. The puppy leaps, the cat pounces, and a great tangle of fur and claws and noise ensues. Husband and wife separate dog and cat, and glare at each other over their respective pets.
It didn’t get better quick. Luna had a strong prey drive and often chased the cat, which made me crazy, and whiny. I didn’t understand dogs. They have to be taken out. They look at you and want to be with you always. They eat your shoes. There was a great gap between my consciousness and doggie mind.
But, in fact, there’s always a gap between one consciousness and another. Always. Any married person will tell you that. As a writer my job is to bridge that gap, make the experience I write about real for the reader. My tools are words, chosen carefully to create sensory experience for the reader - the doggie smell versus the cat smell, for instance. But with dogs, I didn’t have a clue. I had to learn the language.
The first thing I learned was that dogs are all about The Walk, which is fine since I like to walk. However, as you can imagine, I’m an off-leash kind of gal, so Luna and I started walking the hundred or so acres of woods around us - no leash needed.
On those daily walks I observed her behavior and saw how closely she observed mine. Our communication grew simple and wordless. I would point. She would go that way. I’d clap my hands. She’d turn and come to me. She’d prance around a stick. I’d pick it up and throw it. When I gestured, she’d bring it back to me.
Over time, I found pleasure in that wordlessness, which stretched my consciousness to embrace Luna’s, and provided a break from my constant immersion in human language. As I investigated more of the woods around us, I grounded my feet firmly in the land and its language as well. And I learned a deeper appreciation of my husband, a man who lives very much in the present tense.
You haven’t forgotten about love, have you? Of course not, because clearly Luna taught me that the hallmark of true love is the way it takes you beyond your own limitations - sometimes kicking and screaming, I’ll grant, but always into realms that increase the well-being of all concerned. True love gives you more languages to speak, more connection with consciousness beyond your own. But what about how it leads you back to your own soul? Yes. That happened, too.
When Luna was about a year old, we were on our morning walk, on a trail with a grassy field on one side, woods on the other. We saw motion in the grass and I stopped to observe. Luna picked her head up, stood in her Calm and Alert position.
Whatever was in the grass was brown and gold, not tall enough to be a deer. A coyote? We’ve got plenty of them around. We waited, Luna unusually still, since she usually tears off after any wild thing that moves.
What emerged from the grass was sleek, golden and white, backlit by the early morning sun. It was a bit larger than coyote, and had a rounder head, rounder ears. It stopped on the open trail and turned to stare at us, no more than 5 yards distant. We were all very still, except for the creature’s long tail, which flicked at the tip in the unmistakable motion of a nervous cat.
A cougar. We were staring at a cougar.
There was great silence, and great connection. We were three different languages, all in communication beyond words, absorbing each other’s essential energy, knowing each other for who we all are.
Eventually, the cougar walked off into the woods. I looked down at Luna, sleek and trim and beautiful. My dog, who led me here. She looked at me for direction and I moved forward, following the cat, then decided breakfast was the better part of valor.
As we made our way home, I began the human act of translating the experience into words. I realized that I’d been richly blessed. Extending myself for love had brought me the reward of a very rare meeting with the creature of my soul - the big cat. I could sense Jaguar Addams grinning at me, knowingly. A good day. A very good day indeed.
Luna and I continue our adventures in the wild together. She’ll appear in the eighth Jaguar Addams novel, A Racing Heart of Fear, because she’s the kind of dog who speaks cat, just as I’ve become the kind of cat who speaks dog.
If you want to give the doggie you love a special treat, here’s a recipe for Mud-Nosed Moon Doggie cookies, which I concocted for Luna.
You can visit me at wildreads.com. You can visit Jaguar at wildside press.
MUD-NOSED MOON DOGGIE COOKIES
About a pound of chicken livers (mine come in 1.25 pound containers)
3-5 slices bacon, chopped up
About 3 cups water, more or less
4-6 cups brown rice flour (you can substitute other flours if you prefer)
1 can mixed peas and carrots
At least one dog to feed.
When you open the chicken livers your dogs will come running. Tell them ‘Sit. Stay,’ and explain that they’ll have to wait.
Put the livers and bacon in a pot and add enough water to almost cover. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes.
Blend it up in a blender or food processor, with the peas and carrots.
Pour it into a bowl and mix with the rice flour, little by little, until you’ve got a dough stiff enough to roll out. You may use more or less of the flour, depending. Feel your way, and add more flour or water as needed. Refrigerate for an hour or so.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about half an inch thickness. From here, you can simply cut strips which you then cut into squares, doggie treat size. Or you can use a cookie cutter to make the shapes you want. My shapes are made with a thin-rimmed shot-glass, cutting crescent moons. For Luna, of course.
The treats can be ‘cooked’ one of two ways, because really everything is already cooked and you’re just shifting consistency at this point.
For crunchy cookie treats, bake in an oven at 350 degrees for around forty minutes, depending on the size and shape you chose. Just check them, and take them out when they get to your dog’s crunch preference.
For softer cookie treats, microwave them at high for 4-5 minutes.
Let the treats cool. Give some to your patient and persistent doggies.
Learning Fear
