A Year of Sweetness and Laughter: Happy Gotcha Day, Acadia!

One year ago today this sweet little imp joined our family.

Just a few days after she arrived here, when we were still keeping her confined to the laundry room when not supervised, Acadia figured out how to open the door at the top of the stairs in that photo-- climbing up the door jam, pressing the thumb latch, and, with all of her tiny six pounds, pushing open the solid wood door that tends to swing shut, then sauntering out as if cats open doors every day. We knew we were in for an interesting ride!

Acadia is still a sweet little imp, but now she also is the regal queen of the household.

She supervises all that happens here, including my artwork. When I'm painting in my studio, she is usually either purring on my lap or sitting on my table right next to my palette, watching every move I make, occasionally batting at my brushes while I'm using them. I have had to learn not to leave my brushes out, because loves to bat them off the table and carry them away. Once I left a kneaded eraser out, and when it disappeared I was afraid she'd eaten it. I was very thankful to find it down the hall, behind a door.


One of Acadia's favorite occupations is watching birds. She sits on the windowsills in my studio or the kitchen watching "Kitty TV," occasionally trying to enter into the show she's watching by leaping at the birds on the other side of the glass. It's a good thing she's entirely an inside cat, because I'm sure she would be death on all the birds in the neighborhood if she were outside. She is amazingly fast with the hunting she does do-- catching any flies or moths that are foolish enough to venture into the house.

Quick morning sketch of Acadia watching the birds from the window sill

Another of Acadia's favorite activities is playing with her favorite toys-- crumpled up sheets of paper. If you visit us, you'll likely see crumpled balls of paper in the corners of various rooms and you might hear them being batted up and down the hall, across the kitchen, under the chairs. Acadia also picks them up and carries them in her mouth, usually to one of the water bowls, where she drops them in! She then watches them briefly and usually leaves them there for me to fish out when I find them, but this morning she pulled the soggy paper out, dropped it on the floor, then walked away. We don't know why she does that, but I'm wondering if she's figured out that submerging the paper is the only way to make it go limp as if she had killed it.

Another water bowl amusement is to sit as still as a statue in front of the water bowl in my studio, staring at the water, then all of a sudden leap forward and smack the water with her front paw, causing the water to leap like a miniature tidal wave all over the floor and bookcase. (I don't have any photos of that.)

When our toddler grandson, Paul, was here over Christmas, I think they were fascinated with each other.

Best of all, what Acadia does is warm my lap and my soul. Often when she hears the creak of me sitting in my rocking chair, she comes running and leaps onto my lap, where she'll curl up and purr until she falls asleep. And because I don't want to disturb a peacefully sleeping cat, I end up sitting still and spending more time sketching, reading, or praying than I would otherwise-- a real plus since I tend to be a bit like a Jack-in-the-box otherwise. I am thankful every day for what a gift this sweet little cat is.

Squirrel Sketches

Winter is finally here, with its crisp, clear sunshine; blustery wind; and twittering birds flocking to the feeders to fill their bellies and keep warm. And with the always entertaining squirrels chasing one another in trees and scouring the deck for seeds the birds drop. I've had a fairly full schedule recently, so when I'm home, I savor the quiet minutes I carve out to sit, usually with either Petra or Acadia warming my lap, watching the lively world of our deck, and sipping hot green tea (I have a new favorite-- Dragon's Well green tea-- yumm! It has a mild chestnut-like flavor, and I love chestnuts.)

As always, I sit with sketchbook in hand (actually balanced on Petra or Acadia, who are remarkably obliging), doing many partial sketches, as my subjects are rarely still for more than a moment. I sometimes spend a few seconds here and there over a couple of days on each sketch, coming back to them as the bird or squirrel is again briefly in that same pose. 

I'm getting to know the three squirrels who regularly visit our deck- a large male, a large female, and a smaller female, who I'm guessing is a late summer baby from last year. The male is here the most, and when the female isn't here, he spends all his time eating. When the female is here, he spends almost all his time following her around. The youngster is a bit more reddish than her elders, and I'm wondering if that is a factor of her age or if she's just more reddish by nature. She isn't here as often as the adults, and she moves away if they approach here. I'll be watching her over the coming months to see whether she becomes more gray. 

Here I am at about 15 or 16 with Roy, a squirrel with a broken leg that my veterinarian asked me to care for