No Cats Allowed - The Kracker Cat Blog: Traveling

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Traveling - no cats met yet this trip

First, I apologize for the long delay with neither post nor explanation. I am traveling. I had hoped that I might have met and photographed a cat or two or three or maybe 100 by now, but I have not even seen a single cat.

I will not be home until the end of the week, but I will keep my eyes and ears open and if I meet and photograph a cat, I will make a post.

8 comments:

Us4 Cats said...: would be neat to get some good photos. if you see any ferals be sure to buy em some nom-noms.; April 26, 2009 at 8:22 PM
Sweet Purrfections said...: No cats! What kind of desolated place are you traveling in? Hee! Hee!; April 26, 2009 at 9:08 PM
michico＊Adan＊Lego-小芥＊阿丹＊樂高 said...: I think you will find many funny cat photos!; April 26, 2009 at 11:22 PM
momsbusy said...: it must be a horrible trip to not have seen any cats yet. perhaps the best is yet to come and you will see many near the end of your trip.; April 27, 2009 at 4:28 AM
The Kitty City Gazette said...: Hey there, we have an award for your award section, too. Email me at sharyn@thekittycitygazette.com and i'll send it to you!!; April 27, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Grahamn Kracker said...: I haven't given up, yet, folks.

I am quite certain that I will not see any ferals. Although a record breaking heatwave has set in and snow is melting and the roads are muddy and puddled, I am traveling in the Arctic, where a loose cat might live for awhile in the summer, but could never survive the winter.

But there is a cat somewhere in my path!; April 27, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Anonymous said...: That's alright. You will find them in time. Meanwhile, let me share share this. Did you happen to see this article on Zootoo’s $1Million scam? http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-12-zootoo-shelter-clash_N.htm; April 30, 2009 at 10:12 PM
The Activist said...: have you found any thus far? Be sure to stop by my blog to read my own very interview and what I said abt u; May 8, 2009 at 10:48 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.