wherein shar concludes that, while some things are important only relatively, some things are objectively Pretty Noteworthy.

so i've had this domain name and this blog-shell up for a while now (a week at least, maybe more) but i haven't been able to think of exactly what to fill it with. mike over at astoriedyear has this rad project going where he's putting up a new short (sometimes short short) story every day for a year. i've got nothing as creative in mind, and, if i did, i prolly wouldn't be able to birth it uponst the world quite so eloquently.

so this blog-shell has been sitting here, empty. gosh, i don't ever think anything that's worth being the first post, with all of the historical importance that title carries with it.

and then, there's this: for the past month-or-so mike and i have played host to a rad gentleman of a cat known affectionately as Stumps the Cat, on accounta his half-a-tail. pretty immediately after he demanded to be let into our apartment one 2 am in early May, we fell in love with him. we spent the following weeks alternating pretty much daily between wanting to get rid of him and wanting to make him a permanent addition to our little family. on the one side, he was loud and annoying and made us both sneeze and the bathroom floor a sandpit of misplaced litter. on the other hand, he liked to curl up on our toes and would sometimes bite our chins gently when he was really really happy with a petting he was getting. so we continued to grumbly grow more and more attached to him.

tonight, i let Stumps in when i came home from L.A. he lept up into my lap as i tried to type on my computer and wouldn't shut up till he was scratched to his content. then he sat in a shoe box. then i let him back out. shortly after mike came home, we heard him meowing alarmingly outside, like he was scared or being hurt. and i heard voices outside on the sidewalk. i ran out the door and approached the people, two girls and a guy. "have you seen our cat?" "actually... he's our cat. we lost him about a month ago. we've had him since he was a kitten."

goodbye, Stumps the almost-was-our Cat! we were happy to have you and glad to have been a safe place for you while you explored the world beyond your own apartment complex. the apartment that was just a little too small for the three of us will now be a little too spacious without you underfoot.

a buddhist lesson about non-attachment here would be trite. i'm glad i loved that cat, even though it hurts that he couldn't stay forever. when i started writing this blog, i had something entirely different in mind for it. something about how something doesn't need to be really important to be noteworthy. it's all a matter of perspective, after all. but, Stumps, you are truly a cat to be remembered. so this first post is for you. and especially for your half-a-tail with the seahorse hook on the end. i love you still.