Happy New Year, East Coast!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t even TRY and send you each an individual Happy New Year, I know I would leave someone out, so very Happy to all of you!

Only another hour to go for us here in the Midwest!!!!! We are, if things go as planned, rocking at Charlie’s Pub with the Minneapolis Fiends! We’ll try and get Aleta and Gayle to confirm that with their I phones….

I think we just watched the Ball drop on Times Square. I love that. Not enough to want to BE there, but I love it on TV.

Back to Rock…

(hee-hee, due to the magic of post-Posting, I am writing this on Tuesday Evening….MMMwwwhahahah!)

Happy New Year, England and Ireland and Scotland!!!!!!!

Now it gets harder, to Majorie, Louisa, Martin, K, and anyone else, including Lurkers!!!!

(Should have borrowed the Skull Map, shouldnt I???)

I’m getting worn out with all this New Years Partying and we aren’t even to the US yet…

Love and the New Year,
Lorraine

Happy New Year to Nathilie, and anyone else in Italy!

(getting good, I am hoping, at this time converting, thanks to Dan and his stretchy time!)

Welcome, as you may have guessed, to the Fiends All Around the World Happy New Years Party!!!!!!!!!

Love and party on!

Lorraine

Happy New Year, Estonia! I may be mis-remembering this one, but don’t we have a Fiend in Estonia, Nathilie’s friend, Martha, is it?

If I got the country wrong, this one is for you, my dear!

Love and Happy,
Lorraine

Happy New Years!!!!!!!!! To Sally and Jaquib and any other lurkers Down Under!!!!!!!

(You were nearly FIRST!!!!!!)

Love and Hugs,
Lorraine

If I have done my math right, and only time will tell, it is Happy New Years now in New Zealand!

I can’t name everyone, as I know I will forget people, there are Fiends everywhere, but the only one I know who is in New Zealand is Hera!!!!!!

Happy New Years, M’dear!

Love and Many times zones,
Lorraine

I’m home!!! And it’s getting COLDER here, going to be evil cold tomorrow. Way below zero, with hateful windchill.

No new hair today alas, have to wait another week, or so. Could have made it down fine, but back would not have been fun, way too much snow. Ah well, I still have HAIR, just not as much in as many colours as I wanted for the show…

Lots of comments to read thru with evening tea….

Wait. LOTS of comments to comment on. My replies, views and comments on these comments today could well be a new post! I’m so clever.

Adriana! Glad you are back, I figured you were out of town for the Holidays. Boss asked me if I had written you, and I did mention I had but you must be gone. He then said “The Endless are so good…” How’s that for an endorsement? I did very much Get It about After The Gold Rush, again, really well done, and everything a cover ought to BE. An original version of the song. Is the cd not out yet? I had thought it was? Where are people getting it from, and when? It’s beautiful to look at and wonderful dreams to listen to. (Fiends, you want this)

And on…Slink is definitely a word. And one of my favorites!

Pratchett, and Austen. Having troubles with both, but love the way they put words together, if that makes any sense. And I can’t figure our WHAT is stopping me from reading them! Vexing it is, grievously vexing!

The Flash Girls third cd “Play Each Morning, Wild Queen” came from something someone, who can say who, wrote on my filing cabinet with word magnets….Emma and I just liked it. (speaking of covers, I seem to recall we paired A.A.Milne’s Buckingham Palace with a fiddle tune, not exactly ART, mind you, but fun.)

Mistress, well done on getting the paper into the publisher! I am quite sure if you told me what the paper was about, I would have no idea, tho Dr. Score might, but well done none-the-less!

There, I think that covered replies to most of what I missed while hanging out with Tubes, I mean working today. Tube-wise, I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel. One more day ought to see most of it done.

And since it is going to be a long time before I at least get tired of talking about Magic, he is really starting to be interested in me! I hear him now, every time I come in, getting into position for pouncing should the toys come out. He has yet to eat while I am in there, but we have all the time there is.

I feel so good about him. He was a cat no one wanted. Some people felt sorry for him, but he was not a cat anyone wanted to take on, and there wasn’t anyone else available to take him on, if they did. The shelter he ended up at refused him, saying they would never be able to adopt him, he had no chance.

He had the option of going to a sanctuary, and I am glad these places exist for Bengals who have no other option, so many are put down, but as he has NO claws, front or back and would have had to just be in a cage.

My decision last year, to make a difference, somehow, lead to this. To him on the way to being happy, loved, and loving in return. I saved him. And not just him, tho he was by far the worst off I have ever worked with. I am not trying to blow my own horn here and say “oh look at me! how wonderful I am!” but, just, when I decided to try and make a difference, I had no idea what MAKING a difference would do to me, and the way I am feeling now inside.

If you have anything you really want to try and do. DO it. You can’t know how it will end up, but I can tell you one thing…

You will be loving the feeling.

Love and more Magic,
Lorraine

I’m still all about the Magic tonight, got some pics, but as I have to do it one handed, with no flash, and he doesn’t exactly POSE, well, you can get an idea….

It’s hard, in this light to get a picture of how beautiful he is. When I went in tonight, I’d brought food, but forgotten the Feather Stick. I went back for it and came in, and he was already out and ready for the game! It was Boss, actually, with the Jungle Loves, you know, who first got them to come out, when he was visiting one day, and started playing with the stick. I remembered that last night.

His eyes, an the FEEL of him are so very different now. He feels wonder, and curiosity, not hate and fear.

That’s his “Cave” sometimes he is under it, and sometimes under the blanket on it. I am feeling a lot of wonder myself. I can’t quite explain this feeling, but for something so damaged, and so hurt, to be able to trust me enough to come out, and be happy…There’s nothing like it. There aren’t words.

It’s a lesson of sorts. When Janet first heard of him, she was WAY honest with me about his chances, and the state he was in. I didn’t know if I could help him, but I did know I was going to try, and there wasn’t anyone else. After he came, and over the next few months, I still didn’t honestly know if I could reach him. But I wasn’t going to stop trying. Ever.

It doesn’t matter if you think you can do something, it doesn’t matter if you believe if you can do it or not.

It just matters if you DO it.

Love, and Wonder,
Lorraine

I can’t think of any compelling and storytelling way to say this, the words are so simple, and sometimes, the simple words are all you need.

Magic came out tonight. He came out and played with me.

Not just poking a nose out, like I thought the first steps might be, but full on all the way out and interacting. He is surely the most beautiful Kitty ever born. I hadn’t really got to look at him before, he was so scared when I brought him home, I kept him covered and he has been hiding ever since.

Until tonight.

I was going to show you a letter I got from my Jungle Loves new Friend, which made my heart so happy, and indeed, we may end with that, but first…

I un-tangled the feather sticks, and was having a game with Venus and Mim, which is sort of full on chaos, lots of fun, and I thought I might take the sticks up to the New Bengals, King Lear and Little Queen Mab, and Mab of course came out and was gently batting the feather about.

Lear, an over 20 pound F2, thinks about things a little more. Until he decides what needs to happen. 20 pounds of POUNCE onto the feather, ripped from the stick and destroyed. I laughed so hard, and got something a bit stronger.

No one, I thought, can resist the Feather Stick.

No one.

I took the Sticks down to Magics room. Magic, as most of you know, is my sadly abused F1, who hasn’t, from the day I brought him home some months ago, come out of his cave when I am in the room. I was thinking about him, and how to reach him, and very, very sure I would not for anything give up on him, and sat on the floor, and started Feathering.

A head came out. A body came out. He left the cave, went to the cat tree, chased, and pounced. Until every so often he would recall that he was OUT and I was there, and hissing would happen, but I just kept playing and he would forget again.

Magic. Pure and simple. We named him right.

I can reach him. I have reached him.

Tho it makes this post kind of long, I want to share some pictures and a letter I got. The Jungle Loves were badly off when I got them, and it too, took months of work, and longer until I found the right home. But if you want to know why I foster, here it is…

They are doing better than great.. Better than I had even hope for at this time.

Spirit ( the spotted one) sleeps on my lap every time I sit in my chair. She sits on the back of my head rest if my feet are not up, and follows me from room to room to be were every I am.

I have also taught her to “give me five” when she gets her treats. One day I will have to send you a video of that. She is so good! We rub her fur and she purrs, and rolls in every direction like she is in heaven. Especially when you rub her tummy or brush her. She really likes to be pet.

Angel ( the marble one) is VERY active. Gary calls her Fallen Angel when she gets into things.It has taken her longer to settle
down and like being touched and petted. But she has started laying on my lap like Spirit ( I think she get jealous) and slowly she has allowed us to pet her.

They do the funnest things, and are so much fun to have around. They have made us laugh till we cry and entertained us for hours. When Angel wants your attention she goes behind the entertainment center and steps on the power outlet strip for the TV and turns it OFF! Trust me they are smart and know how to get your attention and let you know what “they” want.

Spirit paws my chair when she wants something. If she wants to play she paws at my hand. If she wants a treat she jumps on my lap and looks at the jar sitting next to me. They run around and around the house and chase each other. You never know which way they will be coming from. They have made a “runway” so they know just where they can go.

Thank you! K.J.

Never say never. And go for it.

Love and Magic,
Lorraine

My friend Mel is the best. In a lot of ways, but what I am thinking of today is in connection with horses. She is really, really good with them. And with people.

She knows I have been kind of nervous, and she knows I want to learn to ride. Today she mentioned that Rommy was kind of sore as she had been jumping a lot this week. And she was grumpy. Great, I thought. Just what I want, which must have showed on my poor face, because Mel said, well, she thought maybe Rommy needed a day off, and did I want a nice ride on D’Exotica, aka Tess.

True love. I didn’t get any really nice pictures of her, but here she is wondering what Mel is DOING with the clippers..

I like riding English best, as opposed to Western. (how can I be a haunted gothic lady, riding the moors endlessly thu the night, dressed in black and lace, with high black leather boots, and my dark hair steaming out behind me, in a Western saddle, I ask you??? Can’t be done.)

Rommy isn’t so good with an English Saddle, it slips around on her, and you kind of feel, at least I do, like you are about to fall off at any moment. And she has been kind of a brat lately.

D’Exotica was lovely to ride. She knows what she is meant to be doing, and does it, leaving me free to think about riding. I can’t think “Thumbs up, elbows in, heels down, hands in line, shorten the reins, move your hips, back straight, use your knees, post, bring her head in, sit back, and oh, relax” when I am trying not to fall off and the horse is not at all interested in doing what I want.

So Mel is leasing me D’Exotica aka Tess for at least the next month or two. I can work on my riding, which certainly needs work, and learn to relax, and communicate with the horse. Then we will see. Lady May needs some work with a better rider than I, and I need the confidence.

I love being with horses, and the horse people I have met. I know enough about riding now, to know how good it can be, and what it might feel like to do it well. Like dance, or music, or spooky words.

I know it’s a great workout, and I may get fit doing it. (if only people would stop bring Goodies to the stable!)

Love and New Horses,
Lorraine

PS…This just in, a picture of our friend Jen showing Tess last summer…Thanks Mel!