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Cats

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Dot

I know a cat-lady. She owns more than 25 cats. She’s not crazy, she just loves cats. And she has a sympathetic feeling for them, can’t stand to see one homeless. Never sends a stray or feral to a shelter.

Cat-lady lives in a house large enough to accommodate her family of cats and kittens. They have a room of their own. Each feline has been given a name that suits its unique personality. Their owner spends a good part of  her day feeding animals and cleaning and changing litter boxes. She spends a good part of her income at the vet clinic, because she is a firm believer of “spay and neuter your pets.”

This woman is unique. Most cat-ladies make it to the newspaper or ten-o’clock news when their neighbors complain that the cats are being abused or neglected.  This will never happen here. In fact, if I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as one of Lee’s cats.

Last week I visited my BFF, who I accuse of aspiring to become a cat-lady. She has one indoor cat, an indoor-outdoor cat and a bunch of ferals living under her house. She, too, is a proponent of spay and neuter and whenever possible she catches a feral cat and hies to the vet (who charges her an arm and a leg to neuter these strays, unlike vets in my small town who give folks a break for being such good citizens).

During my visit, I heard a strange high-pitched “meow” in an octave just below that which only animals can hear. “Who is that?” I asked. It was Boots, indoor-outdoor neutered male. “You fixed him too soon,” I accused. “Now you have a castrato!”

I will close with a verse I wrote many years ago for a teacher who insisted I write a rhymed poem.

My Kitty Cat’s in heaven with Grandpa and Uncle Ted.

He’s living there with Jesus. ‘Least that’s what Mama said.

I named my kitty Midnight ’cause he was black as black,

But his middle name was Trouble. So said my brother Jack.

Once Jack was playing checkers and winning fair and square.

Midnight pounced and checkers went flying through the air.

Midnight scattered Legos and drank from the potty bowl,

He climbed the drapes and shredded the toilet paper roll.

He knocked the trashcan over as he scampered through the house,

He scared the pretty birds away. But never caught a mouse.

My Sunday School teacher told me to do the things I should

And I will go to heaven, if I am very good.

I think about my kitty and it really makes me sad.

How can he be in heaven when he was always bad?

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Brimley for President

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Dot

As anyone who has not been in a coma is aware, election year is upon us.  I am a good citizen and fully intend to vote and I’ve given a lot of thought to just who might be the person best suited to be the next president. Who stands for Liberty and justice? Who is The Natural one for the job?  The answer of course is Wilford Brimley.

I don’t know Mr. Brimley personally, but every time I see him in action he steps into the situation quickly and with confidence. Then sure enough, in a short time everything is made right. His ilk is in A League of Their Own.

Who better than he can take The Firm stand on health care issues? Who else will go In and Out with the Good Old Boys in our senate and Our House? All with Tender Mercies and Absence of Malice?

My Fellow Americans, Wilford Brimley can help this Country to shed the Cocoon of indifference and partisanship.

Stand up for change! Join the grassroots movement and support Wilford Brimley as a write-in candidate for President of the United States. It’s The Thing to do.

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Was she blond?

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Dot

This is a story I heard about ten years ago.

My sister’s friend, Sara, decided to join the choir at their church. Her first night at rehearsal, she picked up the music and took her place in the soprano section.

Sara had sung in choirs before and she could read music pretty well, but she noticed right away that the soprano part was very high and she was having trouble reaching the notes. Also, she thought she might sound screechy because the woman sitting next to her kept looking at her strangely.

At the end of the page, the director stopped to ask if the sopranos were having problems. Sara told him perhaps she should sing alto because the soprano part was so high.

That’s when she discovered she was singing the notes written for the hand bell choir.

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Vacation Bible School

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Dot

Last week I did something I haven’t done in 12 years – help with Vacation Bible School.  VBS is something I did every summer for 30 years or more. But in 2000, I moved to Arkansas and a new church home. Since then I’ve been flying under the radar so to speak, lay speaking and teaching adult classes rather than working with children.

While I’ve been away, VBS has moved to a rotation format and evening hours, enabling more women and men with day jobs to help out. So, this year after about the third call for helpers, I decided this was something I should do. I volunteered for crowd control. Of course, the way things happen, I ended up responsible for a class of 11 five-year-olds. As “unit leader” I traveled with them through the rotation of classes and activities: Bible story, crafts, games and snack time. I encouraged them to behave appropriately during opening and closing exercises.

It was fun. I liked the kids and I think they liked me. (I got a big hug this morning.)  They were sharp – able to remember the Bible verses from the night before, if not the exact words then at least the “big idea.” With one run-through they could pick up the motions to the songs we learned. When I complimented them on how well they remembered, one little girl told me, “When people get real old they forget things a lot.”

‘Out of the mouths of babes . . .’

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21st Century Grandparent

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Dot

While on vacation a few weeks ago, I received the joyous news that I am going to be a great-grandma in January.  This baby (we don’t know gender yet) will live in Oklahoma. Six hours away. S/he will have to get to know me on occasional visits.  Thinking about this brought to mind an article I wrote a few years ago about grandparenting in the 21st century.  These examples are a montage of family and friends.  Some of them are me.

“Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house …” no longer applies. It might be across the side yard and between the hedges, or through airport security and above the clouds. But however the kids get to Grandmother’s house, they find special people with unique monikers chosen by the grandchildren. Grandparents’ roles might be as diverse as their names.

Grandma and Grandpa live right next door to their grandchildren. Throughout the day, little visitors come in and out of the house, bringing captured frogs or macaroni art to share. Every Saturday, the kitchen fills with youngsters who come over for breakfast. In that family, being Grandma means a toy box in the living room, a swing set in the yard and a calendar filled with dance recitals and soccer games.

Memaw, in Arkansas, has a granddaughter who lives in Oregon. Every summer, the child travels south for a vacation and at Christmas Memaw flies to the Northwest. Their times together are full of playing Scrabble and sewing doll clothes. Being Memaw means emails and phone calls, valentines and birthday packages in the mail. It’s all about cramming relationship-building into fourteen days a year.

Nana and Papa own a motor home. She’s a managing partner for a law firm and works fifty hours a week. He own a real estate agency. Time with family is squeezed in around work responsibilities and charity events. But whenever possible, the Fleetwood is loaded with Little Debbie snacks and Disney movies and the extended family takes a mini-vacation with Nana and Papa.

Grammy married when she was thirty-five and had her first child a few years later. Her daughter made some of the same choices in life; she pursued a career before starting a family. Now, at the age of seventy-five, Grammy is a new grandmother, while most of her friends are welcoming great-grands.

G-Mama had two small  children at home when she married a man with three of his own. Several years later, one of their daughters, mother of a three-year-old, wed a man who had custody of his two children by a previous marriage. G-Daddy’s son and daughter-in-law are foster parents. In the large blended family that resulted, there are no distinctions of step- or half- or foster. Every kid is a grand-kid to G-Mama and G-Daddy.

Then, there’s Granny who, out of necessity, has become “Mom.” And being Gran/Mom is a dichotomy. The joys attached to parenting at a later age are many. Gran/Mom realizes how fast childhood whizzes by. She is more able to relax and enjoy the “ages and stages” than she may have been earlier in life. She has perspective and wisdom about the many things that are part of every child’s growing pains. The hugs and kisses of a child who knows how lucky he is to have a Gran/Mom are priceless.

But, when she became Gran/Mom, she skewed the grandparent-child relationship. The child lost a granny. Who will give him sympathy when Mom is just impossible? For that matter, who will listen to Gran/Mom?

Gran/Mom’s adult friends are retired, traveling, or spending time with their families. She’s the only one in her age group whose plans for an evening out require a baby-sitter.

When one grandchild becomes her primary responsibility, Gran/Mom’s relationship with other grandchildren may be affected. Everyone in the family lost a little bit of Granny when she became Mom.

In the 21st Century, there is no set image of a grandparent. Each family situation defines what that role will be. But however it plays out – whether it’s Grammy, Nana or G-Mama – the word “special” still applies.

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Dot Hatfield

Dot Hatfield

Dot Hatfield is a member of the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame and a Certified Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church. She is the author of 7 books.

Dot’s Books

  • Worth the Candle
  • Did Anyone Read My Story?
  • An Ordinary Day
  • R.I.P. Emma Lou Briggs
  • To Find a Home
  • The Last To Know
  • Every Day a New Day

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