Sunday, January 1, 2023

Last Year and This

Another year has ended, and another begun. I was looking back at my blog, which I started in August of 2010, and realised that I had more entries for last year than for any other. The number in each year has grown almost consecutively; 2010 had just thirteen, the first article not even being accompanied by a picture.

I take no credit for having so many entries last year. Indeed, I don’t think it is either a good or bad thing. I think it merely indicates that I thought I had more to write about in 2022 than in other years. Often such numbers come from the arrival and departure of cats. In 2022, Minuet, Horace and Zofia made their appearances in the Cosy Apartment; the first two have departed, in their separate ways. Each event brings at least one story.

I want to express my gratitude to all my readers. Your fondness for my cats is pleasing; they are deserving of such fondness. I want to thank those readers who leave comments; I’ve come to know several of you better through such remarks, and through communication outside the blog, for which too I am grateful.

Truthfully, though, I write simply to tell the world, whether it pays attention or not, about these cats of mine, their adventures, and my adventures with them. Their lives deserve to be remembered, not just for their own sake, but for history’s. I enjoy social history, and have found memoirs of lives, mundane and exciting, to be the most informative of the world that once was. All the cats I have known have influenced the world in their tiny ways. This blog is their graffiti, scrawled on an electronic wall, proclaiming that they were here.

But, before I become too grandiose, I should admit that also I write the blog because it is fun.

Thank you for your attention, and your interest. I should warn you, however, that it serves as encouragement and, barring being crushed by an armoire falling off the back of a truck, being accidentally beheaded in surgery during an alien invasion, or forgetting how to write or how to turn on the computer (as I age, much the most likely danger), I will write some more stories about having ‘three’ cats in 2023.

23 comments:

  1. We love hearing stories about you and your family and hope to hear many more in 2023. Wishing you a year of good health and new adventures for all.

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  2. I look forward to your continued adventures with all your cats, John, and those cats to come. I hope that most of those adventures will be good ones, be happy ones. ♥

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  3. Happy New Year to you and your cats John !

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  4. I look forward to reading your blog so much, John. Sometimes your stories leave me with laughter and sometimes with tears. I've come to know and care about your cats as much as I do my own. I wish you and your felines a Happy and Healthy 2023.

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  5. I always enjoy your posts and have a great fondness for your cats, past and present. Of course they must be remembered, that is why I continue with my Memories posts for my boys. I hope 2023 is a good year for you, and of course for your cats too.

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    1. I and many, many others enjoy reading of the boys' adventures. They were wonderful little fellows.

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  6. We always enjoy your furry fun adventures. We all wish you a most Happy New Year! ~Brian, Simon, Seal, Kiki, Maxwell and Macy

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  7. Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year.

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  8. We so love your blog posts about the goings on in the Cosy Apartment. Hugs to you and the cats, John, and Happy New Year!

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  9. I look forward to all your posts John...Well..not the
    sad ones of course..they make me cry, still, a quick
    wipe with a tissue, and l can carry on..! Bless!

    Happy New Year to one and all...Especially all the
    furry ones...!x

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  10. I always enjoy reading this blog and what you and your cats are up to. Sorry that I did miss several posts...sometimes I just can't find the ime to sit down and read/comment on anyone's blog...

    I wish you and your kitty family a Happy New Year!

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    1. I know what you mean about finding the time; I'm in the same situation. Reading blogs is, unfortunately, much more fun than what needs to be accomplished first...

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  11. Your comment about social history (and I fully agree) reminds me of a passage from one of my favorite books, "The Daughter of Time":

    'Look, Mr Grant, let's you and I start at the very beginning of this thing. Without history books, or modern versions, or anyone's opinion about anything. Truth isn't in accounts but in account books.'

    'A neat phrase,' Grant said, complimentary. 'Does it mean anything?'

    'It means everything. The real history is written in forms not meant as history. In Wardrobe accounts, in Privy Purse expenses, in personal letters, in estate books. If someone, say, insists that Lady Whoosit never had a child, and you find in the account book the entry: "For the son born to my lady on Michaelmas eve: five yards of blue ribbon, fourpence halfpenny" it's a reasonably fair deduction that my lady had a son on Michaelmas eve.'

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    1. I liked that book, too. It may be time to re-read it. Accounts, or descriptions of costs, have long fascinated me. It's how I learned that if you want to know how well off someone was in the past compared to now, don't go by the strict economist's equivalence of money then and money now; look at what people could and can afford. Yes, the ordinary things are history's best textbooks.

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    2. The other day, I read where a historian said that people in his line of work ADORE people from the past who kept long, detailed diaries, because you can get information about ordinary day-to-day life that you can't find anywhere else.

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  12. It has been wonderful looking at your current posts, and I have looked back at some of your older ones from a few years ago. It serves to show how many cats you have helped save and neuter and foster. Let alone the ones that are truly yours and yours alone.

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  13. I have deep affection for all the cats in the household. Now and in the past. I remember them all with love. Some, when they left on their journey to Idylland brought out the almost compelling need for Katie to tack on a word or two about Dr Bellen and the Cats who were in charge of the Sanatorium.

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  14. I am looking forward to hearing more of your adventures in 2023 so please don't let an armoire fall on you ... or don't get beheaded by aliens .... and don't .... get old ?? LOL

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    1. Two out of those three I can probably manage...

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  15. You won't forget how to turn on your computer...you'll simply forget which dagnabbit password you last used!
    John, you are an inspiration to those of us who love cats; you walk the walk, and blog about it.
    Am proud to count you as a friend, if it doesn't besmirch your reputation by having an American cohort...hahahaha!
    Am planning to travel to Canada this year or next; we have a mutual friend in BC, and mayhap a side trip to AB can be arranged.
    Happy New Year! We've all had enough of 2022; bring on 2023.

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    1. That would be great to see you - and to have you meet the cats!

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    2. OMC! I have family and friends in BC, know some in Alberta and of course have a lot of family in Ontario...since I am a transplanted to Michigan, Canadian...Can I hide in your suitcase?? LOL!

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  16. I love reading your stories about your cats. You bring us into their world with your words and I for one am so glad you share them with us.

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