Cat-alogue of Pupdates

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Does this need anymore introduction than to say, PETS ON PARAAAAADE!!! No, it does not. 

 

Stephanie Michaels' bonded feral rescue cats. Not looking very feral, are they?

 

Roxanne Eflin's adventurous Shih Tzu Zoe is ready to tackle the Colorado Rockies (if you carry her.)

Margaret Turkevich's standard poodle Louie is "clueless but enthusiastic," while...

...Jazz waits for a mole to emerge. Good job, Jazz!

 

 

According to Pat Dupuy, 18 year old Jack loves his food, his walks, and his naps - and he lives to mess with his person, Frank.

 

 

Ann Mason has a FULL HOUSE when it comes to pets - plus an additional beautiful baby pic...

                                                                                                       

                                                                                          

Edith Maxwell/Maddie Day's big, gentle Martin. I bet he gets sooo many cuddles.

Here's fan favorite Koda, courtesy of Liz Milliron, who tells us her greyhound is saying, “I totally smell that brisket sandwich. You better remember to pay your dog tax.”

Kathy G's Roberto likes to "help" her while working, so her daughter memorialized him in a meme!

 

Flora Church says, "these are  the two youngest cats--siblings and full of personality plus. I included the pic of Baggins with me because it's my favorite photo of him. I don't think he realizes that he's a cat; he's more like a toddler and very loving! His sibling has been catnapped by a nephew and I miss her dreadfully. Whenever I go visit, she leaps into my arms and purrs in my ear.

However, including Baggie, we have five cats and six was too stressful on the older cats. Then there's Nemo, the elderly mini-dachshund who pays no attention whatsoever to the cats, but who comes to get me whenever they have the audacity to make use of his bed. 

"Paint me like one of your French girls, Jack."

I'm pretty sure Annette Dashofy's Kensi Kitty is saying, "No paparazzi, please."

This is Margo's new (deaf) kitten Prue, sharing space on "Geriatric Row" with Alf and trying to decide if she wants to be friends. Below, the Morning Walk, a train of up to six cats who follow Jack as he makes his rounds of the property. I'm sure he finds them very helpful, Margo.

These two sweeties belong to Audra Bayes. Look at those faces!!!!

J. Julian sent this to me with the caption, "Our Georgie Girl," and I immediately began singing the song. She is clearly the bestest earworm ever.

And now, my granddogs, courtesy of my daughter Victoria! On top is Janey, who's mellowed from an anxious street rescue to a placid Grande Dame. Below her is Karma, about whom we say, "You don't have to be smart, dear, you're can be pretty."

Coralee's beautiful quartet of cats: On top is "Kitsune. She is about 8 yo. Named for her color and for her fox like tail. Secondly, our oldest rescue, Major. She was a stray who lived as an outdoor cat until 2024. She is about 15-16 yo. You will recognize Kitsune behind her.

Last is Roshi (Japanese for "Old Teacher".) Our Zen cat stayed at the shelter for over a year before we adopted him. He weighs about 14.5 pounds. He is around 5 years old. Was dumped outside the shelter before they opened.

We love them all, they keep us grounded.

Maria Vetrano's absolutely adorable 4-year-old King Charles Spaniel, Mango Chutney. (What a great name!)

Cary Emig's 4-year-old Bernadoodle, Molly Moon, is obviously very sad because she never gets fed, not ever.

 

 

Maureen Murphy has a brand-new addition to her household: Oreo, a three-year-old terrier mix who was adopted on April 12. Welcome to your forever home, Oreo! 

Love the little teefies

Judi Purcell says, "These two black kitties are Rosie and Rowdy. This is an older picture and now I can't tell which is which. But their personalities are very different so when they are active I know which one is up to mischief. I'm not going to name names but usually it isn't the girl kitty. Surprise!"

I'll let Susan Emerson tell you about Jack in her own words. 

"My dear sister is a big dog lover and has always had a dog.  She is now in the early stages of dementia, and had already made the decision that when her current dog, Jack, passed, he would not be replaced. 

Sadly,  his end came yesterday.  We had to put Jack down, and we took him out to the farm of our nephew to be buried.  It was a heartbreaking day in many ways, but I think being able to bury him on a family farm made a lot of difference in how the experience felt by the end of the day.  

Jack was a mutt, seemingly some kind of miscellaneous terrier, poodle, mystery mix.  He had the sweetest personality and the most soulful eyes of  just about any dog I've ever known."

 

We're so sorry for your family, Susan. The great joy of a dogs life is that they can be with their best friend their whole lives, the great sorrow or ours is that we cannot.

On another side of that equation, Kathy Lynn Emerson sent a picture of Shadow, who belonged to the late and much-missed Lea Wait. Lea left her to Kathy and Sandy, where, Kathy says, "She's been the boss at chez Emerson ever since."

This sweet ol' muffin is Waldo, and he and Betty Fellows are coming up to their 13th adoption anniversary! That makes him somewhere between 15 and 17 years old, but clearly, he's living his best and  most comfy life.

 

 

 

Linda Rangus's foster cat Mac is waiting for Windows updates to finish. I feel you, Mac, I feel you. Mac is being sponsored by the Lulu's Locker Rescue, Frankfort, IL, so if any of you live near the Windy City and are looking for that special friend/ work supervisor, let us Linda know!

 

 

 

 

And finally, you may all remember Walker, the $15,000 cat. He's now living in The Hague (no, not as a prisoner) and enjoying life as a sophisticated, urbane kat.

Yes, it's an Air Tag. No more spontaneous escapes for Walker.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to share their pets with us, and to add a reminder: when hard times hit the economy, pets can suffer. Please consider donating to your local animal shelter or animal fund helping people pay veterinary costs. We rely on them, and they rely on us.💖

Charlie, Worms, and Camp Granada

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: When you read the title of this post, did a song immediately pop into your head? Maybe two? Whether you call them novelty songs or children's songs or camp songs, there's a whole universe of them out there, living long past their expected sell-by dates. Why? I don't know, nor can I tell you how they're transmitted from one generation to the next, but they are.

 

Let's take the first name mentioned - Charlie. Charlie, who will ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston. I won't ask you to raise your hands (since I can't see you) but I'm going to guess a LOT of you can start humming or singing at least part of the Kingston Trio's hit "MTA Song." I certainly can. Here's the thing: it was released almost three years before I was born. I know my mom's extensive record collection didn't include anything by the Kingston Trio. I'm pretty sure it wasn't in regular rotation by the time I started paying attention to the radio in the early seventies. And of all the places we lived, New England was not on the list. I didn't visit Boston until my best friend was a Smith College.

 

So how is it I know this song?

 

There is a sizable portion of this genre, if we want to call it that, coming from a long, long tradition of American children's songs and games. "Guess I'll Go Eat Worms," "Miss Mary Mack," and "Chewin' Gum" can all be dated back to the mid-1800s. I remember my grandmother teaching me the hand-slapping game and I thought it was about her, because she had been Miss Mary MacEachron! 

 

My mom would sing "Nobody loves me, everybody hates me," when I was sulky, and I, in turn, did the same to my kids. So we can see how it's passed on, between children and to children. But again, how many mid-nineteenth century songs do you know all the lyrics to? 

 

Then there's the classic (?) "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," which my own children encountered at summer camp. I have no idea how I picked it up, since I didn't go to camp. (It has a whole different connotation to Army brats anyway.) Written in 1963 by Allen Sherman, it was a huge success and won a Grammy the next year for best comedy performance. He also had a huge hit with the parody, "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas" (it starts with the receipt of a Japanese transistor radio, so you know how old it is.)

 

How many of you can sing Sherman's second hit, as compared to the first?

 

It is indeed a great mystery how some of these silly songs seep into the cultural consciousness and stay there, playing over and over as the decades go by. What are the silly songs you remember, dear readers, and can you identify when and where you learned them? 

Happy Conclave to All Who Celebrate

This Friday will be a Cat-alogue of Pupdates, so please send in pic of your furry friends to juliaspencerfleming care of Gmail, using the subject line "Pet pics."

 

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Today's the day the eligible cardinals (under the age of 80) get locked into the Sistine Chapel (and the Domus Santa Marta guest house) to pray, talk, argue with each other and vote - repeatedly - for one of them until they land on the man to be the next pope.

Why is this conclave different from all other conclaves? Because the October 2025 movie CONCLAVE has been seen by about a gazillion people all over the world (it's free on Amazon Prime right now! Check it out!) and now we are ALL experts on the whole Papal election scene. From the wax door seal, to the rounds of votes on very, very nice card stock, to the little groups of cardinals puffing away on cigarettes, we've got this down.

I grew up extremely Catholic-adjacent. My dad used his Tridentine missal his whole life. My sister and her family are Catholic, and my three kids attended Catholic schools. Despite this, I don't think I ever heard anyone paying much attention to a conclave, other than in prayers at mass.

 

 

But now, thanks to Robert Harris's novel-turned-movie (read the book, too! It's excellent!) everybody is tuned into the ancient and arcane process by which a group of mostly old guys (120 out of the 135 voting cardinals are between 60 and 80) discerns who next takes the Apostolic See (from the Latin sedes, meaning 'seat.')

Here are a few fun facts to throw around at your next dinner party (but make it fast, because over the past century conclaves have averaged 2-3 days before acclaiming a new pope.) 

 

Cardinals have been getting together to pick a new Holy Father since 1059, and the process is the oldest still-extant way of electing the leader of a state. It's a little state, but still.

 

 The word conclave derives from the Latin cum clave, 'with a key,' a refinement that started in 1274 after outsiders' lobbying became so noxious, Pope Gregory X decreed the medieval version of Project Graduation.

 

Gregory X himself had been elected after the longest conclave ever - a few months shy of three years. Eventually, the frustrated residents of the town the cardinals were meeting in locked the building, tore its roof off, and reduced their meal delivery to one a day. That got things moving pretty effectively.

 

Before the guest house was built in 1996, cardinals were put up in cots stuffed into rooms near the Sistine chapel.  Eventually, someone realized collecting a whole bunch of elderly men in an area with inadequate sanitary facilities was a bad idea. 

 

In modern times, the Sistine Chapel has been swept for bugs and wireless signal jammers are used to prevent any communication from the outside world. Which makes it tough for any cardinals who are regulars on Instagram, I guess.

 

 Apparently, one of the goals of the electors is to hit the sweet spot in papal age: old enough to lead for a time without being a generational presence, but young enough not to, well, you know. Throughout the history if the church, 26 popes were, unfortunately short-timers (3 days to 6 months) but 25 sat on the chair of St. Peter for  20-31 years. That averages out nicely, so good job, your Eminences!

 

Dear readers, this is where I usually ask a question for you to respond to, but honestly, I can't think of any that wouldn't have made me dad give me the side-eye. Tell me what you think in the comments!