No Cats Allowed - The Kracker Cat Blog: Identical cat incident takes place in parallel universe

Monday, January 12, 2009

Identical cat incident takes place in parallel universe

I took a picture of Royce and Wry today that I thought I might drop in here, but I was web surfing and I came across that site from the parallel universe - you know, the one done by a fellow named Bill Hess whose family members look exactly like mine, and whose cats even have the same names as the cats who live here.

He had blogged about his cat Royce and his grandson Kalib and the picture that he had taken in his universe was identical to one I had taken of Kracker Cat Royce and my grandson Wry. What he wrote was exactly what I was going to write.

"Why bother?" I thought. "I will just post the link and anyone with enough ambition can hop over to that site from the parallel universe and read about what happened to me here there."

So here it is:

http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/journal/2009/1/13/i-find-myself-all-alone-with-kalib-well-not-quite-sorry-cats.html

3 comments:

Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...: Living in a parallel universe has benefits...occasionally.; January 13, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Cafe Cats said...: Your grandson learned walrus noises?; January 13, 2009 at 9:35 AM
Memories of Eric and Flynn said...: We wonder if we have our doubles living in a parallel universe too. We think not. Royce who has double lives is very good and patient. We would not be, we would run and hide.; January 13, 2009 at 9:49 AM

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Due to an unfortunate series of events that beset me as a child, I grew up believing myself to be a despiser of cats. After I married, five children came to Sunflower and I, and when my two youngest, both daughters, would see someone giving away kittens in the parking lot of the local grocery store, they would beg, "Please, Daddy! Let us take home a kitten!"

With a smile, a tilt of the head and the bat of an eye, Tryskuit and Nabysko could charm just about anything they wanted out of me, but towards cats, my heart was hard. "No!" I would deny them, "Dogs are fine, dogs are good, but let just one thing be understood: in my house, there are no cats allowed!"

And then on a hot July day in Alaska, in the year 1991, a skinny kitten stepped out of the woods behind our house - quite literally, he stepped out of a dream and came to me, to beg for my ham. He relished the ham, but he did not care for the pickle, nor the mustard.

That cat stayed, and more followed. These are the Kracker Cats, and in this blog, the stories of all will be told. These will be happy stories, humourous stories, frustrating stories, sad stories, tragic stories. Readers - you who love cats - you will laugh, and you will cry!

To see all the Kracker Cats, both the original and contemporary, scroll down.

I travel a great deal, mostly in Alaska, but I wander into many other places as well. As my children grew, I was gone from home as much as not, sometimes more. When I was home, I would tell my children bedtime stories. By the time Kaboodle appeared at our house, the boys had outgrown these stories but my daughters still thrived on them.

Now, they insisted that every story that I tell be about a cat. So I made up some wonderful ones, right on the spot, and I was always as curious as they were to see how these stories would turn out.

Then one day as I was about to climb into my airplane and fly off to a village in the Alaska bush, Nabysko, the youngest, looked up at me and said, "Daddy! Write us a cat story while you are gone!"

So I did. Not long after, I happened upon a cat. I took its picture. I inquired about its history. When I returned home, I showed the picture to the girls, and told them what I had learned about the cat's history.

Ever since, wherever I go, I try to find and photograph a cat, and learn what I can about its history.

Hence, "Cats Met Along The Way." And always I keep in mind the wise admonition of Persimon Munk:

"Every cat has a story."

Charlie Chaplain, above, chosen at random, is just one of the hundreds of cats that I have met along the way, in every region of Alaska, 24 states, DC, four Canadian provinces, England, Russia and India.

And I will be meeting more, in many other places.

As my children grew, Sunflower was forever scolding me about all these lies that I told them. "You should write these stories down!" she insisted. I ignored this advice, but then, one summer, I decided to write down a few of the tails about cats that I had told to Tryskuit and Nabysko.

These are the stories that will appear in this section of the blog.

Above is an image, created by my talented niece, Amber Swallow, when she was still in high school, to help illustrate a story about Art, a cat who tried to fly his Catabria airplane over Denali.

If any of you southerners are confused by this word, "Denali," it is the name of the mountain that so many well-intentioned folk who don't know any better mistakenly call "Mt. Mc... Mt. McK... Mt. Mck... in... in.. le.." Oh, hell! I can't even say it! I'm not talking about a hamburger here! I'm talking about the highest mountain in North America, the mountain that rises higher vertically over the surrounding terrain than does any other mountain in the world.

I'm talking about Denali.