marcel

Chair sharks

/ Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

This morning I settled into a chair to work. A while later, I got up for a coffee refill and returned to find an interloper:

loki-exposes-fangs

Loki bares his teeth to keep me from reclaiming the chair. (Actually, his black fur makes him ridiculously difficult to photograph which results in lots of these blurred “action” shots.)

In my family, we call that getting sharked. As in, “Loki just sharked my chair.”

Anyway, I was feeling generous so I moved to another chair, one that actually suited me better because it’s next to a window and big patch of warm sunshine, and worked there for some time. I then left to take care of something in another room and when I returned, found this:

marcel-in-sun

Marcel claiming my seat in the sun.

Sharked again!

Maybe I should bring the rocking chair up from the basement. I’ve heard that cats get real nervous around those . . .

 

 

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Wearing the clown face

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

I was up all night and so am extremely tired today. Just woke from my nap in a patch of sunshine to find Marcel napping like this:

marcel-is-a-clown

The nose is a little large for Marcel’s face, but I’m glad to see he’s embraced Frank’s advice.

Dare to wear the foolish clown face.
~  Frank Sinatra

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Pinky Whitehead for the win

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

I loved HARRIET THE SPY from the very first time I read it, which was approximately one thousand years ago. Harriet inspired me to carry around a notebook so I could jot down whatever thoughts came to mind. (I remember that my furtive watching and scribbling creeped out one of my good friends, probably because I hadn’t fully absorbed the importance of how Harriet’s friends were hurt and angry after getting hold of her notebook and reading about themselves.)

I know I’m not unique; plenty of writers were inspired by Harriet. But to this day, HARRIET THE SPY resonates with me. I love filling notebooks. I love watching people and making up scenarios for what I observe. And I love my cat who conjures up one of the all-time best character names:

marcel-as-pinky-whiteheadPinky Whitehead!

My cat’s name is Marcel, but those pink ears and nose always transport me back to HARRIET THE SPY. Maybe someday I’ll know a cat that brings to mind Ole Golly . . .

 

 

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All our exploring

/ Tracy Abell

Just finished a Skype session with Zebu who is in Sweden. He’s been there about ten days now and feeling more settled, especially after getting this issue resolved. I carried the laptop around the house so he could see the dogs and cats in their various poses of slumber and he told us of his many adventures.

The son who demanded I hold him for the first year of his life now eats breakfast paste from a tube and purposely gets lost in an unfamiliar city.

Who knew?

Marcel curled up next to my weight bench that's covered with the T-shirt Zebu designed for his 6th birthday.

Marcel curled up next to my weight bench that’s covered with the T-shirt Zebu designed for his 6th birthday.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
~  T. S. Eliot

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One of those days

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Oddly enough, this seems like a fair representation of today:0017

I was very tired and so didn’t accomplish much. I felt a bit, you know, pointless. So it’s weird that this is the photo that jumped out at me from Morguefile.com when I went cruising for photos. But somehow these pointy-headed mannequins capture my mood.

Two positive notes regarding today:

  1. Loki and Marcel took turns curled up on me as I read and napped on the couch.
  2. No one used my head to play Ring Toss.

 

 

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The ins and outs of editorial voices

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

Every writer knows about the internal editor,
that yammering
whispering
haranguing
insidious
voice
that says
Your story sucks
Your writing sucks
You suck so why don’t you give it up already?

I utilize different strategies for getting past my internal editor,
but without a doubt
the most effective approach is to keep writing.
Head down, pen moving.
Guaranteed, that voice will eventually shut up.
At least for a while.

In my experience, the external editors are sometimes harder to ignore.

Marcel and Loki insert themselves into the process.

Marcel and Loki insert themselves into the process.

 

 

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Friday Five: The Marcel Edition

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments
  1. This is Marcel.
    Marcel jpeg
    He looks like the typical cat who sleeps 18 hours per day, right?
  2. I will admit he sleeps a fair amount. In fact, he’s napping downstairs as I write this. But I’ve never lived with a cat who was better at entertaining himself. Marcel especially loves elastics, twist ties, and pipe cleaners (also my sweaty socks, but that’s a whole other blog post).
  3. The other morning as I did yoga, Marcel showed up with a purple pipe cleaner. I tried to maintain my yogic** concentration as he batted it around then snuck up on it to pounce. A few minutes later, Marcel showed up with a white pipe cleaner. After that, it was a black pipe cleaner.
    Pipe cleaners

    The white pipe cleaner is MIA, but these two remain on the floor as toys.

    If you look closely you can see Marcel’s white hairs on the pipe cleaners, (and if you have really good vision, the kind that sees across the miles and through walls, you’d see white hairs on my shirts, shoes, futons, hardwood floors, bathroom vanity, . . .)

  4. That third pipe cleaner prompted me to investigate and, sure enough, I found the source. Marcel had gone down to the drawers that Wildebeest and Zebu used way back when for storing their craft items. Marcel had opened the drawer holding the pipe cleaners.
    Craft drawer
  5. Marcel is a nappy cat, a food-obsessed cat, and also a pretty damned smart cat.

    Marcel woke up when I came down to photograph the scene of the crime.

    Marcel woke up when I came down to photograph the scene of the crime.

**Confession: I thought I’d made up a word but then looked it up and discovered I was inadvertently legit.

With a Little Help From My Cats

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

I am revising and needed an aerial view of two chapters.
I was making progress with that birds-eye view until . . .
Cats and revision pages 013

 

Cats and revision pages 005

Cats and revision pages 011

Scattered pages and chewed pens are one thing,
but clawing at my words brings “critique” to a whole new level.
Cats and revision pages 017“Animals are such agreeable friends―they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.” ~ George Eliot

Whatever you say, George.

Birdwatching With a Cat

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Western Scrub Jays are very smart birds. Today they found our newly-filled peanut feeder and quickly spread the word. Many jays have flown in to grab a peanut and then taken off again to hide the peanuts (my neighbors across the street might discover a nutty motherlode in their yard next spring). I ate lunch while watching all the activity outside the living room window.
More jays in peanut feeder 002

More jays in peanut feeder 009

More jays in peanut feeder 019

Marcel watched, too.
Scrub jays in peanut feeder 007

For the most part he’s remained calm, tail still. That all changes when one specific jay arrives and then Marcel makes clucking sounds and lashes his tail while climbing the window. I’m guessing there’s some trash-talk going on between the two of them.

Ruminating on Interspecies Love

/ Tracy Abell

Is it possible,
do you think?
For a squirrel
to fall in love with a cat?
Squirrel courting cats 013To pose and perform?
To entice rather than tease?Squirrel courting cats 014Is it possible,
do you think?
For one cat to writhe in response
while the other watches dispassionately?Loki and Marcel 020Is it possible,
do you think?
To guess who writhed
and who yawned?

 

Writing Through the Distractions

/ Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

It’s slow-going on my YA, but I’m making progress despite the usual distractions:

  • books I want to read
  • food that may or may not be in the refrigerator so let’s take a look, shall we?
  • the internets and its many permutations
  • bird action at the feeder and/or bath
  • that patch of sunlight calling for me to come take a nap
  • etc., etc.

All that’s hard enough, but now I have these lovable cats in the house and they demand my attention.Loki and Marcel 002A few minutes ago I was working on my manuscript as Marcel sat in the window behind me, looking at birds and making that funny chuckling sound cats make when they see something they’d like to de-feather, but I was stoic and blocked out his bizarre noises to keep writing. Until, that is, he climbed over my shoulder and down onto my chest where he curled up and aimed his big goofy eyes at me. Really, I’m supposed to have the willpower to ignore such overt emotional manipulation?

And how about his brother Loki who has no respect for my writing boundaries or, for that matter, any boundary?Loki in dishwasher

Loki in dishwasher 2

Maybe I’m supposed to treat him like a Muse?

Family Additions

/ Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

Our hearts broke when we had to say goodbye to Lebowski and his awesome dudeness, and I can still close my eyes and feel the purring weight of him on my outstretched hand. Lebowski and his energy were unique, yet that energy was a subset of Feline Energy, and after he was gone I didn’t just miss him, but also the energy that only comes from cats.

Please welcome Loki:

The consummate trickster.

The consummate trickster.

and his brother Marcel:

"Give me a thick rubber band and I'm a happy guy."

“Give me a thick rubber band and I’m a happy guy.”

They are wonderful cats and I look forward to sharing their escapades, but for now here’s a major insight: A benefit to having one all-black and one all-white cat is that the high contrast makes it easy to see who’s doing what during wrestling matches:

Marcel bunny-punching Loki's head.

Marcel bunny-punching Loki’s head.