Busy Cat Lady and Crazy Cat

Posted on September 25, 2021 by Pamela Knudsen

The past few weeks have been busy! Finally, my life doesn’t just consist of reading, daily naps, bird watching in the yard and playing toss the pom pom with Samantha.

My post-cancer healing journey is picking up pace here, and although I’m still pacing myself by occasionally napping and know when to say no, I’m also being productive doing things I love.

The Blue Bell Foundation for Cats is having its seventh annual Cat’s Meow Champagne Brunch Fundraiser on Sunday, September 26th. Over the past several years I’ve coordinated that event, but that duty was passed on to Blue Bell’s new assistant director this year.

Blue Bell residents Angelo (RIP) and Cody

I’m still a Cat’s Meow planning team member and have been having a blast working on promotional efforts and being the venue liaison.

Cat Lady with Ed Steinfeld, morning host on Laguna’s KX FM radio after my interview about Blue Bell, Cat’s Meow event and related topics

I named our family cat Beth after the same name of a song by 70s rock band Kiss. Does my t-shirt look familiar?

I dusted off my children’s book manuscript and am working on final edits with my editor, Lynette Brasfield, which has been a thrill. I love it when the magic of words and ideas come together on paper and tell a story. After a gazillion versions, several critiques and frustrations over the last eleven years, the story, which includes protagonists Topper and Lexington (two of my kitty angels), is coming together. I don’t want to leave my story in the hands of chance as far as if it gets picked up by a publisher, so I’m going the self-publishing route. Besides sidestepping the luck of the slush pile draw, the learning and creative process of what goes into making a book is just the challenge I need to start my new life chapter.

Children’s book muses, Topper and Lexington

I have not yet been able to enjoy evenings of live music at my favorite venue in town, The Cliff, as I’m pretty wiped out by dinnertime, but I did manage to get to my other happy place, the Sawdust Festival. My energy levels picked up just in time for two afternoon visits to the longstanding beloved summer art show in Laguna Beach during its last week for the season. I’m certain that being in the presence of artists and their works, live music, and the rustic ambience of Laguna Canyon, an alternate universe radiating joy and love, has aided in my healing.

Listening to classic rock at Sawdust

Visiting with artist Michelle S. Burt at Sawdust

Meanwhile, back at the cat cottage, Samantha has become more at peace with her new home and new cat mama, although quelling her overly sensitive nervous system that triggers cystitis, remains an ongoing challenge. Last weekend high anxiety kicked her nervous behavior into high gear, starting Friday with incessant meows while scratching every cupboard door in the cottage, nervously pacing from room to room until she leapt from a countertop onto the top of the fridge to a ceiling beam, to all surfaces on high.

Crazy Cat Eyes

I finally calmed her down with gabapentin; but when that wore off on Saturday, she became crazy cat again. I concluded that her behavior was triggered by the nightly outside goings-on of squeaking and scurrying rats. I sprayed a nontoxic repellent in suspected areas, and by Sunday she’d calmed down. Those rats must have scurried off to another nest.

For the moment, with Samantha peacefully sleeping on the small rattan console next to my desk as I write, all is right in our little world.

Recovering Without Bobcat

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Pamela Knudsen

Dealing with cancer without my feline companion/nursemaid has been more challenging than I expected. I had surgery on February 1^st, which was supposed to be a full hysterectomy and the removal of a cancerous lymph node, all done robotically on an outpatient basis. My, how surgical procedures have progressed, except my surgery took an unexpected turn, and I ended up in the hospital. Some of the cancer inside my uterus decided to take an adventure outside landing on my colon, forming a tumor that had to be removed. Rather than getting home around 5:00 p.m. that day, I awoke to my surgeon telling me I was in the hospital, and would be there for about a week. Excuse me…WHAT?

The next day while lying in the hospital bed and staring at the ceiling, memories of Bobcat’s antics and his healing ways went running through my mind like a vivid slide show. Images of his frequent concerned stares at me in my exhausted state of being haunted me. I cried knowing I’d be going home to an empty cottage. But realized that if Bobcat were home, he would be all alone, wondering what happened to me, and in my post-surgery daze, I would’ve had to figure out who could take care of him. There’s no good time to say goodbye to a beloved, but maybe the timing of Bobcat’s passing was actually good. Or was it?

My initial recovery went much quicker than my doctor anticipated. I was released from the hospital after only two and a half days. The weeks following were filled with lots of reading and bird watching out the French windows while resting on the sofa. I also did some writing, binged-watched my current favorite TV shows, When Calls the Heart and Heartland, and started taking walks around the neighborhood. The pain was manageable with Tylenol, the fatigue with lots of rest, but the loneliness was incurable. I wasn’t sleeping well at night and waking up at 2:00 a.m. without Bobcat to talk to and snuggle created an immense emptiness for which there was no remedy.

I’ve taken to spending probably too much time on Instagram watching cute cat videos, but it’s helping me get my feline fix; a little anyway. I started following the “cutest goat”, which, well, who can’t be uplifted by a spirited baby goat leaping, jumping and head butting with his pals? A friend and fellow Blue Bell Foundation volunteer gave me a kitty stuffed animal. I named him Bobcat and he hangs out with me on the sofa, but sometimes prefers the vintage chair. I’ve learned that one is never to old to snuggle with a stuffed animal. It’s been very comforting—thank you, Lynette!

These are Laguna’s fire mitigation goats and in this location are a hike from the cottage. The spotted baby goat leapt over the little white one. Easter 2019.

Today marks the two-month anniversary of Bobcat’s passing. I miss him every day and every night, but I’m not quite so sad. Some loneliness still lingers, and I suppose it will probably hang around as long as I am a cat lady with no cats, but I don’t think I can go too much longer without hearing the pitter-patter of paws on the hardwood floor.

Who knows what spring will bring…

Hippie Cat, Horned Cat

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Pamela Knudsen

“If you’re going to San Francisco / Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…”

Lyrics from “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie

Oh the decisions we must make during the Halloween season. What to be…a faerie, cat lady, a hippie or a devil? Lucky for me who loves to dress in costume, I got to be my top two choices: a faerie and a cat lady. Lexington and Bobcat watched with intrigue as I crafted a flower faerie costume that I wore to one of the most sensational soirees I’ve ever attended. The theme was “Samhain” the ancient Celtic celebration of harvest and those who’ve passed (which eventually became Halloween as we know it today). The gathering of witches, wizards, Vikings, elves and faeries was held in a rustic outdoor canyon setting in Laguna Beach. I felt as though I’d been transported back to the days of Lords and Ladies, to a time when people believed in magic.

On Halloween day, I transformed myself into my alter ego, Cat Lady and had fun at the office acting the part by threatening co-workers with my claws.

Yet, the hippie and devil costume ideas would be not be dismissed. After all, I had Lexington and Bobcat who would of course partake the dress-up-in-costume Halloween ritual. At first Bobcat resisted. He just wanted to hang out with his new friends who took-up residence on the sofa during the month of October.

Lexington, although not eager to become a flower child, agreed to participate in the costume ritual, and in his tie-dye and flowers, looked like he could have been seen at Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love.

Bobcat, not wanting to be left out and knowing that he was at times, a little devil without the horns, thought it might be fun, for a moment, to be a devil with horns.

The Blue Bell Foundation for Cats had a Halloween party for the volunteers—or was it really for the cats?

But a month before Halloween, cats and dogs were already in costume at the 23^rd Annual Pet Parade & Chili Cook-Off, a fundraiser established by the Laguna Board of Realtors Charitable Assistance Fund. Blue Bell was selected as one of the beneficiaries and had a booth at the event to promote its purpose, which I ran with two other volunteers. This dog-centric event was graced with the presence of two cat participants, Cody, a Blue Bell resident and Rolo, cat companion of Elizabeth and Cole who adopted him while at CatCon this summer. Cody handled being in a crowd with cautious curiosity. Rolo, the epitome of a cool cat thrived among the event-goers. The fact that he was completely at ease wearing a cowboy costume also spoke volumes to his laid-back purr-sonality. Both cats entered the contest, and Cody, festive in a sport t-shirt thrilled us all by winning first place for most gorgeous senior.

Rolo didn’t place in the contest, but he got plenty of adoration and as far as I’m concerned, a cat that wears cowboy boots is a winner despite the judges’ lack of sensibilities.

And despite the initial “rolling of the eyes” by my two felines when I suggested they get costumed-up with me, they were secretly into it…