Sophie's Story

     One week ago Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, broadcast a video asking people to post messages of gratitude on social media for the next seven days. He asked that the posts be marked with #GiveThanks.     I'm sure thousands of people from around the world posted in response to this message. Certainly many of my social media friends did, including a few that don't post on social media very often. I did as well. (Scamp also joined in.)    This was not my first time doing this. Two years ago I wanted to do something to help me feel the spirit of gratitude. I thought about posting something for which I was grateful once a day for seven days. I posted pictures of my yoga mat, my furnace, my fridge, washer and dryer. We take these things for granted sometimes, but many people live without these conveniences. It helped a lot. I enjoyed doing it. At then end of seven days I felt better and some of my friends had commented on what I h

   My mother asked me to stop by her apartment last week. She's been doing some housecleaning and had given me  all her knitting things since she no longer knits. I already got a nice knitting bag, some patterns, needles and other knitting accessories.  I stopped by after work. She had a large bag of yarn.    When I got home I opened the bag. There were all sorts of yarn. There was eyelash yarn, wool/mohair yarn, fine cotton/wool yarn, wool yarn and one small hank of something that I think might be mohair. There's also various odds and ends of things that I'm not sure what they are. All of it is beautiful. The colours are lovely and a feast for the eyes.    I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.    I'm not an ambitious knitter. I like to knit flat things. I tried knitting hats once. It did not turn out very well. I still have one I knitted. It's way too large. I make it work though.   I asked my mother what she knitted. I know that she knitted sweaters bec

   C and I went for a bike ride on the last warm day that we had. We had a good time. Something happened during that ride that hasn't happened to me in nearly 40 years. I...wiped...out....    There's a difference between wiping out and falling. I've fallen off my bike a few times, mostly when I haven't been able to pedal fast enough to keep my balance. (Like going up a steep hill on riding on grass.) This was a full on, hit the pavement, wipeout due to my front tire going off the edge of the trail.   Fortunately, I landed belly down and kept my head from hitting the asphalt. Fortunately also my bike was just scratched a little. I got up slowly and assessed the damage to me. The heels of both my hands were scraped because I had used them to catch myself. I definitely had a bruised thigh. I had not torn my pants or shirt. I got on my bike and we kept riding.    My knee felt a little weird. It didn't hurt, it just felt like it was oozing something. When we got to our d

     Many people I know and others identify themselves as "pro-life". I've never really been comfortable with that term because it seems to imply that anyone who disagrees with them is "anti-life", which I don't think is true of anyone.   According to the online dictionary I've consulted, pro-life means "Opposing abortion and euthanasia". They believe that life begins at conception. I wonder sometimes if they understand that life begins at conception, but it doesn't end there. To me being pro-life is a larger issue than just opposing abortion. It's caring about the quality as well as the quantity of life. In other words everyone should have a a good quality of life.    A pro-lifer should be in favour of accessible and affordable health care for all starting with prenatal care. Statistics show that maternal death rates have risen in the United States. While no one can point out one cause, an article in the Scientific American (Has Matern

     Hi! This is Skamp!    I'm taking over the column for today. I thought that some of you may want to know how I am doing.     I'm doing pretty good. The humans are home and we are mostly back to our usual routine. There have been a few changes. Sophie has been getting up a bit earlier than usual. When this happens she spends time scrolling through Facebook on her phone. I don't think this is a good thing so I'm training her to play with me. I found a cool toy in the store room last week. It's a long strip of fleece on a stick. Sophie's job is to lay out the strip and pull on it so I can chase it and stalk it. She's pretty good at it. Sometimes she makes the strip run under pillows. I like this because then I get to practice my digging skills. I like getting my workout in early before breakfast.     Another change is that I've taken over Colby's job of Chief House Cat. The CHC job means that I am responsible for alerting my humans  to dangerous int

    Hi! This is Skamp!  As many of you already know, a few weeks ago my humans thoughtlessly went on vacation for a week. I was  not consulted about this and if I had been I would have strongly advised them not to go. Not because I'm afraid of them getting this virus thing that all the humans seem to be concerned with, but because I was left alone. I really don't think it was very nice of them to do this to me.    I'm very disappointed in them. I thought I'd trained them better than this. Colby and I spent a lot of time properly training our humans. I know some setbacks are inevitable, but this is inexcusable. It's not like this is something minor like forgetting a grooming session or serving a meal late. In their defense, they did have June, the cat sitter, come in to feed me and clean my litterbox. Sometimes she brings toys. However my routine was interrupted. Not acceptable.    I had to figure out some form of punishment for the humans. I peed outside the litterb