#Keepitalive, #Sundaysnapshot, #Lens-ArtistsPhotoChallenge#111
These two challenges dovetail to give me the opportunity to talk about an “everyday” “loveable inconvenience” who takes up an enormous amount of my time.
These are both new challenges for me as a participant. Many of you know about the Lens-Artists who took over after the WordPress Photo Challenge stopped. Their theme this week is Everyday Things.
You may not have heard of Sunday Snapshot, hosted by Sadje at Keeping It Alive. Her prompt today is, “Is it all right to tolerate inconvenience because it’s caused by a loved and familiar thing, object or person?“
Scardy
Everyday
Kitty
Haiku Marsha Ingrao
Scardy Boy is one of those everyday things/beings who we love more now than we did when he was a cute feral kitty nineteen years ago when we moved into our house. After years of living outdoors and keeping our property free of other cats, mice, gophers and rattlesnakes, Scardy retired. This is a picture of him hard at work protecting us from intruders.
His eyes are bad; he can’t hear. His teeth and fur are falling out. His voice barely makes a squeak. He has had more lives than ten cats. He ran away during the earthquake last year when it rolled up onto his porch. He was gone for five days. We saw him stumbling, nearly falling every few steps across the yard and didn’t think he would make it through the night. He’s persistent.
“He looks freaky,” Vince says. What he doesn’t say anymore is “I’m allergic to cats.”
Scardy’s schedule is precise. After eating breakfast, he ambles out to the field, rolls in the the dirt to get rid of imaginary fleas,(he gets flea medicine) and saunters back to sleep for a few hours in the deck chairs or under the steps.
At about 10:30 or 11:00, he crawls up the steps, sits down, and utters a wordless meow to ask if he can come in. In the past year we started letting him come in when it is 100 or more degrees outside, or 30 degrees, or raining, or the air is dusty, or he asks to come in. After a treat of chicken or hamburger, he either falls asleep in a corner or follows us around like a puppy.
Eventually, whether he’s ready or not, I carry his bony little body outside to go to bed in his cage. He can still jump on his table to eat a bite of cat food, but mostly it’s nap time inside or out. Our two year old kitties take turns butting heads or licking him, but they do a terrible job of grooming him. Nothing works well. I brush him, pull out hair by the tufts, even vacuum him. He still looks like something the cat dragged in.
In January we debated about whether to have cancer surgery on his nose or put him down. I had cancer last year, and I would not have wanted Vince to put me down, so surgery it was. Our vet agreed that his vitals looked good, and why shouldn’t a good cat like Scardy have a few more months to enjoy a good meal and a cat nap.
Dr. Haggard, our vet should get a job as a plastic surgeon. He did a fabulous job, don’t you think? Did you know that cats that have white hair are more likely to get skin cancer than those with black?
My answer to Sadje is that it is more than all right to tolerate inconvenience because it’s caused by a loved and familiar thing, object or person.
These aren’t fabulous photos for a photo challenge, but they do meet the themes. Check out the other responses on their blogs.
- Keeping it Alive https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2020/08/23/sunday-snapshot-2/
- Lens Artist, Patti Moed https://pilotfishblog.com/2020/08/22/lens-artists-photo-challenge-111-everyday-objects/
Related Post
How Four Strangers from Around the World Coordinate a Weekly Photo Challenge Interview #7 Lens-Artists, Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine, and Amy
If you know of someone who hosts a writing or photo challenge and would like to participate in my interview series on challenge hosts, feel free to email me at marshaalwayswrite@tchistorygal.net. This is a new email address for me dedicated to bloggy things.
Hans is working on various parts of the house that need TLC, painting, etc. Now I’m prepping for school which starts next week, online of course. I read a bunch of blog posts yesterday to catch up 🙂
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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