Our cat Mimi lived for almost exactly seventeen years and three months—a venerable age for a cat. She graced my various households for all but the first two months of her life. (I agree with Lovecraft that one does not “own” a cat; one “entertains” a cat. The cat, as Lovecraft wrote in “Cats and Dogs,” “adorns our hearth as a guest, fellow-lodger, and equal because he [or she] wishes to be there.”
I remember bringing her home, in late November 2007, from the horse farm in upstate New York where she was born. The poor thing was quivering with fear as I held her close to my chest, enclosed her in the folds of my leather jacket as my first wife drove us home. But she quickly found a place in our house. Our other female cat, three-legged Phoebe, took her under her wing, actually washing her from time to time; she was a sort of surrogate mother to her. Big Henry recognised that Mimi was something of a spitfire and gave her a wide berth, even though he was two or three times her size.
Mimi made the long trek across the country (along with five other cats) to Seattle in the fall of 2008. We first settled in my mother-in-law’s house, then in our own house in the Pinehurst neighbourhood. Sadly, her sister Lily died at the age of one and a half when she was hit by a car. The amiable Taffy also bit the dust in that house. But upon the dissolution of my marriage, I quickly found in Mary a far superior companion and fellow cat-devotee. By early 2012 we had decided to fuse our households, and Mimi, Phoebe, and Henry moved into Mary’s house. Her own cat Paolo was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden infusion of so much felinicity, but he bravely adjusted. One by one, though, these cats went the way of all flesh.
I have so many memories of Mimi … How she would glare in outrage at some real or fancied insult to her dignity … How she would recognise, by the mere turning on of my second computer (which is connected to my scanner), that it was time to play with me as I scanned page after page … How she would go ballistic when we tried to put flea medicine on her … How she would know, by my putting on my sneakers at 5 P.M. for my customary walk around the neighbourhood, that this was another occasion for a play session. Her peremptory meows (“Come on, Daddycat! Hurry up and finish tying your shoelaces!”) were endlessly amusing. … How she almost had to have her tail amputated when she got into a fight with a vicious feral cat stalking the neighbourhood. The tail was saved when the vet treated it with medicated honey, even though this required her to remain in a cage at the clinic for all of twelve days. (We providentially caught that feral cat and released him in Discovery Park, far from here.) … How she would claim various pieces of furniture as her resting and sleeping area (toward the end she appropriated our brown ottoman in the living room, which had formerly been Henry’s perch). … How she would walk all over Mary and myself in our bed, basically asserting ownership of her “parents.”
In other words, Mimi had more personality than most human beings I have met.
It is strange to be in a catless household. I have not lived without at least one cat in the house since the fall of 2001. But we will secure more cats presently. We are eyeing a pair of ragdoll kittens, whom we shall keep indoors to lessen the likelihood of injury or fatality. But that won’t happen for a few months.
Meanwhile, work continues. I have now issued, via Sarnath Press, a volume entitled Atheism and Agnosticism: Selected Readings (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS2XTQL9). This is a combined edition of my previous anthologies, Atheism: A Reader (2000) and The Agnostic Reader (2007), with some items omitted. It should make a good pendant to my history of atheism. On that note, I would be grateful if anyone who has obtained volume 1 of The Downfall of God were to write a review of it, either for Amazon or for Goodreads or any other such venue. There is one review on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Downfall-God-History-Atheism-Prehistory/dp/1634312589), written by my colleague Travis S. Metheny; let’s hope for more! The Goodreads page for the book (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219255557-the-downfall-of-god) has 2 “ratings,” but no actual reviews.
I am involved in much other work and will make note of it in due course of time. Ambrose Bierce … H. L. Mencken … Weird Tales writers … August Derleth … and a major undertaking in the crime/mystery field that I shall announce at the appropriate moment.