Day 3 of the Advent Calendar is going up a little late, but it’s still Day 3. This one is a bit shorter (thankfully, some will say ) because today was busy. But there’s also some “fan service”…
Cats
Cats are not really what comes to mind for most people when they think of the holidays. Though for me they are inextricably linked to my memories of Christmas. My family had cats most of the time I was growing up and between all of us, we’ve had 11 cats, though that’s spread out over time.
There are, of course, the memories of cats knocking down Xmas tree ornaments. Then there’s the memory of one of our cats, Frisky, falling from a second floor railing, through the Xmas tree, and onto the floor, to escape unscathed, as cats do. Then there was the angel that my mother used to put on the top of the tree that had a cat’s head. Strangely, it wasn’t as creepy as it sounded.
Its hard to avoid that I am a cat person. I like dogs, don’t get me wrong, but cats seem to bring out some kind of special adoration in me. And I take it very personally when a cat, any cat, doesn’t seem to like me (which thankfully is a rare occasion).
My first cat, Chloe. She's 11.
It is thought that cats have been in some stage of domestication for possibly close to 10,000 years (compared to 15,000 years for dog domestication). The remains of a human and a cat were found interred in a grave in Cyprus dated to 9,500 years ago. Early Egyptian art showing cats is at least 4,000 year later. It’s generally accepted that cats were self-domesticated, adapting their behavior in response to human settlements, benefiting by hunting rodents in food stores.
My other cat, Muppet - he's 7.
Here are then, some cat-related links:
My stepdaughter cat, Bette - she's 4.
And the cat quotes (by famous authors):
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci“Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”
~ Mark Twain“I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through.”
~ Jules Verne“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”
~ Ernest Hemingway
Big cat.
Rising Tide, the sequel to Falling Sky, was released on October 6, 2015. 
Falling Sky, my first novel, came out October 7, 2014 from Pyr. It's an adventure story set in a post-apocalyptic future with airships.
CATS!
Thank you! Can’t believe you got a shot of Muppet in which he’s approximately visible.
My only cat at Christmas memory was when the lilac burmese bit into the turkey and got a mouthful of stuffing by accident. He was bouncing off the walls at high speed for hours.
I had to lighten up that picture, to be honest, to make him seem less like a big black lump. He’s hard to take a picture of, that one. 🙂