Buddying up and the morning run with my cats

Well, my plan has taken yet another positive turn. Not only am I all set to take on Nano, but I've found a buddy to Nano with. I've known Cathy for several years as we have both been long time members of an online writing group. Unfortunately for me, I've fallen out of touch with some of the wonderful people that have been part of this list for so long. Years ago Cathy, I and another writer,Peg,were writing buddies. We would email back and forth daily and share word counts, problems with stories and just our daily goings on.

The last few years I've moved away from my writing groups, rarely posting and talking with anyone.
However, yesterday I posted about a book that I was debating on using to help me set up my book when my old friend, Cathy, posted back. After emails back and forth, we decided it would be great for us both to sign up at Nano as writing buddies. What better way to stay motivated and accountable than with an old writing buddy?
So I'm ready to go and so looking forward to the experience.

It's a windy day today and thankfully cooler than it's been the last few days. It feels like fall has finally arrived! I set out my feral friends cat bowls this morning and waited to see their reaction.

I guess I've corrupted them that one morning when I treated them to a can of wet food. Now they come to the bowl, look at their old dry food and wrinkle their noses in disgust. Feral cats are smart. Let's face it. They would have to be to survive for years on the streets through all kinds of weather conditions. After seeing the boring dry food in their bowl they don't just stand around the bowl in protest. They've learned that the way to get to a soft touch like me is to just come right up the porch steps and peer in to my glass storm door. Too smart.

I walked into the livingroom to see Big Wiskers' big gray face smushed against the glass door and turned promptly around to go back to the kitchen. And of course I did what I always do --- grabbed a can of wet food for him and his companion, Noey, and headed right back to those bowls. I can't do it. I can't ignore the staring, the indignant look in their eyes as they glare at me as if to say "You expect us to eat that?". And so I walk back outside, tear open the wet food envelopes and pour what they want into the bowls. Before I can step on the first porch step they're at the bowls, hungrily gulping down chunks of food masquerading as turkey bits or chicken nibbles.

I've been told that I'm a sucker, that they're playing me like a fiddle but I don't care. Besides reading a good book, nothing gives me more pleasure than watching those cats relish a meal that without me they wouldn't have.

It may takes years to write and sell my book, it may never come at all, but taking care of those two cats, and any others that show up at my doorstep, has become something of a mission for me. It's a feeling of knowing that however small, I am contributing something to this world if nothing more than just being the local cat lady.