Category: Columnists

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Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Theo of Golden book
~ Sassy ~ 2 Comments


I am a dog. I write impressions of the books Momma reads to me each night.

Hugs, hi everyone! *Sassy wavy paws

Welcome to Meet Me At The Bookshelf. Today I am reviewing Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.

Theo is an 86-year-old, mysterious Portuguese stranger who arrives in Golden, Georgia. He loves the people there, so he decides to stay. A local attorney and his staff arranged for Theo to live above the office in a stunning, renovated, well-appointed apartment with a balcony.

Theo frequents a quaint coffee shop where he is enthralled by the insightful, well-priced, exquisite pencil portraits hanging throughout the cafe. He asks the owner and is told that a local artist, Asher Glissen, created the 92 portraits.

Theo wonders aloud why the subjects of the portraits don’t purchase the art themselves. The reader wonders that as well. The power of the pencil drawings moves Theo. It reminds him of something deep in his past.

Theo decides to purchase several portraits from the cafe each time. Afterwards, Theo arranges to meet the subject, hear their life story, and then convey what he felt the portrait showed him when he viewed the art. Theo calls these meetings a bestowal.

His first bestowal is to Minnette Prentiss. She feels surprised to receive this gift, but being seen and heard makes the strongest impression when she first meets Theo.

Theo calls it the “sadness in the seeing.”

Tony Wilcox, bookstore owner and a real scamp, was a favorite bestowal of mine. He gives a festive business and economic update every time he sees Theo. You can tell a genuine friendship has formed.

Each meeting’s elegant prose will remain with the reader.

The book is over 400 pages long. It might have been tighter, but I believe the author aimed for a broad link between Golden and Theo. This led to a stunning conclusion about who Theo is and why the town matters. Clever, I woof to Momma.

The most impactful portrait subject bestowals to me were the homeless woman, custodian, bookstore owner, accountant, musician, and the portrait artist himself, Asher. Theo shares little about himself in these exchanges, yet you can tell they matter to his life story. He starts to connect the dots to his own life.

Theo enjoys mystery and explains why this town and its people are central as the book’s bestowals continue. His elegant manners, eye for art, and generous wealth give clues to his true identity. Theo answers the call when any of his new friends needs him. He becomes a bit of a town legend.

I give this book five paws up. It was Momma’ s favorite book this year.

I loved the benefactor, Theo. He met every portrait subject with the art he purchased sitting right next to them, as they evaluated what he saw in them. Theo would sit, engage, and truly listen to them. The value of that exchange cannot be overstated.

Theo has a gorgeous life story to tell, but chooses to elevate the subject of each of the 92 portraits instead.

The hurry of today makes people lose this individual exchange. I loved it. I tried to imagine buying finely drawn portraits to give to perfect strangers and then chatting about what we see in the work. What a luxury to give the art, as Theo says, “to the rightful owners” and carefully hear the stories of their lives. Heartfelt random acts of kindness lead to the town’s emotional growth legacy.

What a wonderful book!

Thanks for joining me. Wuvu.

See you next time at Meet Me at the Bookshelf. *Sassy wavy paws

Da Nerve: A Column by Sassy

~ Sassy ~ 2 Comments

October 12 Da Nerve!

Hugs, hi everyone. *Sassy wavy paws. I am a dog and I contribute to the Fabulous Anipal Times. These are my insights about my fuzzy, doggy life.

What do you call a horse that stays up late? A Night Mare! Bahaha!
Da Nerve!

Knock Knock. Who’s there? Woof. Woof who? Woof you believe I forgot the punchline?

What do you call a car full of bison? A buffalo-load.
Da Nerve!

Why do TV shows and movies have more dogs than cats as pets, unless it is a show about witches?
Lassie, Because of Winn-Dixie, Beethoven, Bolt, Marley & Me, Airbud, Balto, 101 Dalmatians, Benji, Fox and the Hound, Rin Tin Tin, and well, just Carbonel and Bewitched.
Just reporting the facts.
Da Nerve!

Knock Knock. Who’s there? Paws. Paws who? Paws right there and rub my belly. Hee hee
Da Nerve!

What do you call a horse that lives next to you? A Neighh-bor.
Da Nerve!

A horse walks into a bar, and the barkeep says, “Hey.” And the horse says, “Yes, please.”
Da Nerve!

A snail buys a car from the dealer and asks for a custom paint job.
The staff writes down that a big letter S is to be painted on the new car for the new snail customer.
Upon delivery, the staff asked the snail, “Sir, why did you want a giant S painted on the side of your brand new car?” The snail says, “ Because when I go driving down the street, I want everyone to say, ‘Look at that Escargot!’”
Bahaha Da Nerve!

Fab-U-Lous Halloween!

~ BOB W ~ Leave a comment

Well ello efurryone and I have received a dilemma that prob affects lots furs this month. So let’s me put the dilemma here …

Dear Uncle Bob,

Helloo! It’s that time again! Halloween woohoo! Pumpkins to pounce, kids to woof at, and costumes to wear.

Here is my woe. I want to wear several different costumes on the big day. So many looks! I want to be Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and Peter Pan. Is it OK to do costume changes during the day, or is that way too much? What are the most popular costumes where you are? I have a closet full of Halloween looks and only one day to wear them!

Signed, Currently Dressed as Doggy Marilyn Monroe

Well, woof woof, my fab-u-lous fashionista! If Marilyn can turn heads with a little white dress, just imagine what yous could do with Elvis’ quiff, Dolly’s wiggle and Peter Pan’s tites! A triple threat if ever there was.

My advice is never let anyone tell you that one costume is enough when you have a whole wardrobe. Life is short, treats are plentiful, and Halloween comes but once a year. If hoos can change outfits several times like at a wedding, or Oscar’s or summat, then us furs most definitely can and I say deserves a quick costume change between barking at postie and demanding our sixth treat of the day.

So go fur it! Start off in the mornin as Elvis shaking those hips and tail, then change into Dolly in the aft and give it some western sass, then in the eve change into Peter Pan where at the end of the day you can flys off to Never Never Land in search of more deserved treats!

Jus one fing be mindful of – comfort – noffing too tite, nefur cofur your eyes and defo noffing that would holds you back from your ability to sniff, wag or run if needed (e.g. if need quick getaway from a pesky vacuum cleaner ).

And as you asks I would says the most popular costumes around my part of the world does be witches, pumpkins and skeletons but der lots more finkin out da box nowadays too with lots of imagination and different creations. So defo go fur it, pal!

Also, on a final mention may I add – if like you says you has a closet full of costumes and only one day wears them – don’t leave to just that day and don’t waste any opportunity to wears and strut your stuff!

Memba yous born to be Fab-U-Lous!

The Black Dragon

~ Mr. Breeze ~ Leave a comment
The Black Dragon
The Black Dragon
by kittehboi and ChatGPT

The Uda tennō gyoki (宇多天皇御記) is the personal diary of Emperor Uda, the 59th emperor of Japan. It contains the oldest surviving written record of a pet cat in Japanese history.

In a quiet hour, I find myself wishing to write about my cat.

There is one black cat.

Minamoto no Kuwashi brought him to court when he returned from his service in Dazaifu and presented him to my late father, the Emperor. His coloring is unlike that of any other cat I have seen. Other black cats are only somewhat dark. This one alone is black as ink.

His appearance is rather like a fine hunting hound. He is a foot and five inches long and perhaps six inches high.

When he curls himself up, he becomes as small and compact as a grain of black millet. When he stretches himself out, he is long like a drawn bow.

His eyes glitter brilliantly, dazzling as the points of needles. The tips of his ears stand perfectly upright and do not tremble.

When he lies down and curls himself into a circle, neither his feet nor his tail can be seen. He looks for all the world like a polished black jewel resting in its hollow.

When he walks, he makes no sound at all.

He moves like a black dragon passing silently through the clouds.

By nature he seems fond of stretching and exercising his body, almost as though he understood the ancient exercises of the Five Animals. He lowers his head and tail toward the ground and arches his back astonishingly high. Perhaps this is why his coat has such a beautiful gloss.

And he is an excellent hunter. At night he catches mice more swiftly than other cats.

My late father delighted in him for several days and then gave him to me. I have cared for him now for five years. Every morning I give him milk porridge.

It is not merely because he is unusually clever and agile that I cherish him. He was given to me by my father. Though he is only a small creature, for that reason especially I have grown deeply attached to him and have taken particular pleasure in raising him.

And so I said to him:

“You possess the forces of yin and yang within you, and you have been given a body complete with limbs and senses. If you have a heart, surely you understand how I feel about you.”

At this, the cat sighed.

He raised his head and looked up into my face.

It seemed as though his breast were full of feeling, but he had no words with which to speak.

Book Review: An Immense World

~ Mr. Breeze ~ 3 Comments

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong

An Immense World
An Immense World

I read An Immense World because I am interested in how my animal friends see the world around them.

The author, Ed Yong, defines Umwelt as an animal’s lived sensory world, the parts of its surroundings it can detect and that matter to it. The book provides many examples of how animals senses differ from humans’. And it also provides examples of senses humans don’t have.

My world takes place during the daylight, not at night. But using a night vision scope I have seen my cat walking easily in total darkness. Due to their tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer behind a cat’s retina, cats see better in the dark than humans do. Actually seeing her in action made it real.

I had trouble visualizing a duck’s field of vision, because they can see over their own heads as they fly, but that’s still vision.

Ditto spiders. Their eyes go all around the turret of their head and each has a different function, and that is how they visualize their world.

Bats use echolocation to navigate and to hunt. This is still plain old hearing, though at a higher frequency. Blind humans can learn to echolocate with taps, clicks or by snapping their fingers.

But the ability to “feel” magnetic north is unimaginable to unenhanced humans. I have a pretty good sense of direction, but knowing would be cool.

Having organs in my face that detect bioelectricity sounds cool too. Can you imagine detecting dinner by its electrical aura?

Yong’s style is casual yet engaging. I would like to read his other books, especially Life Beyond Measure: Nature’s Hidden Wonders at Every Scale.

I highly recommend An Immense World to anyone who is curious about the parallel worlds the animals around us live in.

Whistler by Ann Patchett

Whistler book
~ Sassy ~ 2 Comments

I am a dog. I contribute to the fabulous Anipal Times.

I write my impressions of the books my Momma reads to me each night. I hope you like my book review.

First, I want to explain my rating system for the books I review.

Five paws: A must-read. So good that all my paws are waving. So good that I borrowed a paw from Momma, who types for me, plus added all four of mine.
Four paws: A great read. Enjoy it in the tub.
Three paws: Eh. To read or not to read, if you have extra time, then read it.
Two paws: Likely skip it. Drags on, characters are silly, or just not a good read.
One paw: Seriously, skip it.

Today we have a novel by Ann Patchett called Whistler.

The book starts with a private school teacher, Daphne Fuller, and her hubby being slyly followed by an older man at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Daphne, in her 50s, is married to Jonathan, in his 70s, and jokes that older men just like to follow her.

The stalker is Eddie Triplett, a Random House editor and one of Daphne’s many childhood stepfathers. Daphne has lunch with Eddie. They rekindled a friendship. Life is in the details, and this book beautifully proves it.Daphne agrees to attend a 50th wedding anniversary dinner with Eddie later. He introduces her to the entire party as his daughter, despite only knowing and being married to her mom for just over a year.

Eddie was indeed responsible for a car accident where he broke his ankle and nine-year-old Daphne dangled from the roof for a bit, but was blessedly not seriously injured.

They reminisce. Daphne says if she put six stepfathers in a lineup, she could have picked him out.

I wiggled at that line.

They also crash a wedding and consider dancing in a water fountain.Eddie is stuck. His life never moved far from a college roommate named Skip and his wife, Polly. He explains his choices to Daphne, who kindly listens. Daphne knew him only as a child, yet tried to help him as an adult. They became fast friends.

Daphne asks if Eddie remembers the horse story he told her in the car after the accident.

Eddie does. He invites her to visit him one day at his editing job.

Daphne goes and sees a framed picture of a horse on his desk. Eddie asks if Daphne remembers the entire horse tale he told her oddly, as she dangled bloodied from the roof in their car accident.

She says yes, yet she thought he invented the story. Eddie tells her no; it was a book proposal his agent found in the newspaper about a Wyoming woman and her horse.

Eddie says he tried to buy the book idea from her for years, but the woman would not sell it. It was about a horse named Whistler. At the time of the car accident, the dire story almost scared her.

It is, like Eddie’s life, stuck in the neutral gear of a car, my momma says.

Eddie gifts Daphne the framed photograph of the horse instead. For years, Eddie has kept it on his office desk. Eddie never turned the proposal into a book, but he has kept the horse’s picture framed and on his office desk for decades.

Yep, you heard me.Daphne states Whistler would have made a splendid book with a little effort. Eddie again tells her the tale of Whistler. A horsewoman on a ranch could call her horse with a whistle, and he would run to her.

One day during a storm, she trots out to find her other horse, Nutmeg, but she loses her way and the horse bucks her off. For days, she lies in a heap talking to long-dead relatives, friends, and her darling OTRB dog, Marty, who told her to just whistle for the horse named Whistler. She finally does, and he comes and finds her. She gets on him, saving herself.I tell Momma, nice story to tell a nine-year-old kid dangling from her seatbelt in a car accident. Woof. Daphne understands now why he told her the story.

Eddie found Daphne in her 50s to save himself.

Daphne is a great pal to Eddie. He teaches her a lot.

Momma wonders why Eddie gets stuck so much, but Daphne has her life enriched by knowing Eddie.

Details make the story.Ann Patchett is a PEN /Faulkner award-winning author of Tom Lake.

We love her. She brings to life the tiny moments of your past that stick, as demonstrated by this quote by Daphne’s husband, who glibly states, “Every teacup comes with a short documentary film.”

Momma guffawed over that one.

Daphne spends her time icing the cake on this one tiny part of her past.This book gets five paws up.

First, it has a horse, but second, it has gorgeous sentences and a meaningful conclusion.

Whistler is an examination of how seemingly insignificant past relationships can come back at you with either a dose of delight, or someone else’s human regrets.

Whistler is worth reading.

Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the fall season, eat some twigs, and roll in the grass until we meet again at Meet Me At The Bookshelf.

*Sassy wavy paws

Get Off My Sidewalk

~ BOB W ~ 4 Comments

Well, ello efurryone I have just received a right dilemma in my inbox, I tell you …

“We have old and young alike riding electric bikes on the sidewalk in my area where I walk each day with my peeps. It scares me. I am just a wee thirty-pound dog. Am scared. Is there a leash I can get that glows in the dark? Can you suggest? Is there an air horn I can buy to blast at them so they move off and let me use the sidewalk? Can you suggest? Should I report them and make em mad at me? Please advise. SIGNED GET OFF MY SIDEWALK”

Oh, my dear pal, I quite understands. Gifting you a very big hug. Totally understandable when sumfing whizzes past you like those electric bikes.

Firstly, let’s say you are totally not being unreasonable. Ordinary bikes and electric bikes should not be on the sidewalk/pavement.

And I fink I can say I speaks fur all of us here – THE SIDEWALK/PAVEMENT IS FUR WALKIES, SNIFFIES AND FURRY IMPAWTANT PEEMAIL – NOT FUR PEEPS WHIZZING PAST AT A MILLION MILES PER HOUR!

But don’t worry, you dus not need to become Sheriff of the Sidewalk and be blasting an air horn at the cyclists!

In fact, I wud strongly advise against dat as it might frighten the cyclist who may lose control and dat mite frighten yous even more.

Your peeps is the key here.

Chats with your peeps and asks dem keeps you on a short, secure lead when you is sumwhere dem bikes dus appear.

And totally you can get glow-in – the – dark, reflective or LED collar, lead and/or harness that is a great idea – in particularly fur the early mornings and late nights. Choose summat to makes you easily seen.

Also if sumone repeatedly rides dangerously on the sidewalk and comes close to you or behaves aggressively, yes defo your peeps can report it. Dey do not haz confront demselves.

And impawtantly your peeps are not trouble makers fur reporting genuinely aggressive behaviour. Dey is looking afur you whos can’t speak up fur self.

If poss make a note of date, location, approx time if anyfing happens.

And memba my pal, you do not has make the bike peeps angry. Your peeps can deal with all that stuff.

You can simply walk next time by your peeps safely on sidewalk, sniff approx 4752 interesting sniffs and answers approx 3921 peemails.

And simply continue being your fabulous self.

Yours Woofly, Bob’s Your Uncle

Extra Ears For Listening to the Autumn

~ McPusspusses ~ Leave a comment

by Angel Alma

Summer sounds in nature fade once birds have migrated or plan to migrate. Nests are empty; chicks have grown and hang out in their own flocks without parents.

Still, if you listen carefully (not wearing headphones whilst walking) you can hear a lot. Tiny tweets and chirps, as tits who are staying, keep checking their old places for seeds. Jackdaws are noisy as always, gathering and flying around.

When traffic is light, you can hear a lot more.

Mum likes to wander around the old cemetery, which is quiet, except for the garden workers with their machines and rakes. Anyway, it’s one of the best places to listen to nature in the town. Woodpeckers shout their warnings, and so do squirrels if you walk too close.

Mum jumped high as she didn’t notice a busy squirrel on a nearby twig. Chatting was almost as loud as when I, Alma, tried to make friends with them in our backyard. They are so fussy! I was just watching!

Our home street is mostly calm, so that you can hear ripe apples bumping down to the lawn. Trees are changing colour, leaves falling one by one, making a nice scratching sound.

Wind helps, sometimes yelling as a gale.

Raindrops are essential in autumn, and listening to their drumming can be very soothing.

When I had to wear a cone after my vet visits, oh my cat, how much more I could hear. That’s why Mum and other birdwatchers spread their hands behind their ears to make the ears bigger.

It helps a lot, really.

With her extra ears, Mum spotted a rather rare pair of Eurasian hobbies at the cemetery. They had been nesting in a high spruce, sounding very much like woodpeckers.

Soon there’s no need for extra ears when migratory honkers are returning from the north. Instead, you can use your hands to cover the ears!