Kahomono - It Means Lucky

This Christmas, we got one present that really stood out.

Our daughter and her wife commissioned this painting from the lovely Reimena Yee. If you are not already familiar from the numerous #caturday posts, the subjects are, of course, our very own Alice (top) and Gertrude.

We upgraded our fireplace a bit. It grew a mantel.

The cats don’t care, though. The business end of the fireplace is unchanged, and that’s what they want.

Alice will stare at the dark fireplace until we light it. Gert just wants her belly rubbed.

But when I am up in the office, Gert likes to settle on the box between my chair & window. Just to be near Dad.

I would like to introduce to you, Cleo and Caesar.

Cleo was our calico Carbo-Kitty. She would eat spaghetti if you left a bowl of it unattended, and not for the meat! Red sauce or marinara was fine with her. If you were holding a cookie and looked away at something, she’d help herself to a bite. She ate lemon bars, fer cripe’s sake! Jill once had to chase her out of a bowl of marble-cake batter. Cleo never saw a carb she did not like.

Caesar was our dog in a cat suit. He considered himself Jill’s, and Jill his. He followed her around the house, like a puppy. When I arrived in their lives, Caesar was the one who could never quite accommodate himself to my presence, especially in his person’s bed! He’d wrap himself around Jill’s head – I guess to keep me from stealing her warmth?

One thing over which we bonded, though, was sports. Cleo and Caesar would both watch sporting events with me – but not the same ones. Cleo’s jam was golf. If golf was on and I was watching it, Cleo would soon settle herself down on the couch next to me and watch it too. I think she had heard about a Tiger who was tearing it up in those years, and she was pleased that a great cat would be doing so well in such a human pursuit. Not to mention, the birdies. She wanted to see if she might get one of those, to play with.

Caesar, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed a football game. I used to watch the NFL and Caesar watched it with me faithfully until the end of his too-short life. It was just about the only thing he’d do with me, but we did have that.

Cleo and Caesar are both long gone now but not remotely forgotten.