Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher

Amber’s Mewsings: On Thunderstorms

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I love being an indoor cat.  I spent the first year or two of my life outside, and that was plenty for me, thank you very much. I prefer the pleasures of indoor living.   I’m particularly glad that I didn’t have to be outside in all this rain this week.  Enough, I say!  I want my sunny spots back!  Mom took this photo of me the night we had a really bad storm move through.  I hate thunderstorms, the noise scares me and I can feel the vibration of the thunder all through my body, and I don’t like it one bit.  I go to my safe place in the shower in the downstairs bathroom and wait until the storm passes.  Mom gives me Rescue Remedy when she knows storms are coming, and I love her for it because it helps calm me down a little, but I still hate storms.

Aside from the weather, though, this has been a really great week for us.  Mom got exciting news about her book on Monday.  She got something called “Editor’s Choice” for it.  She was so happy she couldn’t stop crying.  I was happy because she was happy.  I think it means that the book is really good.  It’s about my sister Buckley, but I’m in it, too.   This morning, Mom sent the manuscript off to the copy editor.  I don’t really know what that means, but it made Mom happy, so it must be a good thing.  And this afternoon, we got the photos the photographer took of Mom and me a couple of weeks ago.  I look really good in them, and so does Mom.  She says one of them will be used in the book.

I like it when my Mom is so happy.

A First Peek at “Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher”

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Today is a difficult day for me – it’s the six month anniversary of Buckley’s passing.  It’s hard to believe that six months have gone by already.  I still miss her each and every day. 

“Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher” tells the story of how one small cat changed my life in ways I  never could have imagined.  It’s the story of Buckley, a joyful, enthusiastic and affectionate tortoiseshell cat I met while managing a veterinary hospital.   Buckley challenged me to overcome long-held emotional patterns and taught me and everyone who came into contact with her universal lessons about opening the heart, following intuition, and living a life filled with joy.

In her memory, and to celebrate her life rather than mourn her passing today, I would like to share a small excerpt from the book with you.  This is the description of our first meeting:

“I went to see Buckley for the first time. And I fell in love. Hard. And fast.

   She was a small cat, and she immediately came to the front of the cage and rubbed up against the bars. When I unlatched the door to her cage to pet her, she practically threw herself at me – something I came to call “full body love” as I got to know her better and realized that this was one of the many ways she would demonstrate her affection. This little cat loved with her entire being. It took several minutes of talking to her and petting her before I even noticed her deformed left hind leg. It bent upwards at the knee at a ninety degree angle. Our veterinarians were unable to determine whether this was a congenital birth defect, or whether it was an old injury that had never healed right. It certainly did not seem to bother her, nor did it slow her down. She barely had a limp, and she used the knee of the bent leg to push off when she ran and jumped. Her “disability” definitely was a non-issue for her – she didn’t know the meaning of the word. After a while, I didn’t notice it anymore, either. It was just part of who she was, and I was always surprised when people asked about it.”

“Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher” will be published later this year.

Amber’s Mewsings: First Post

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Mom said I could ocassionally write something on this blog – after all, I’m the wise one who inspired the creation of it.

So this afternoon, Mom made me pose for pictures for a professional photographer.   It wasn’t the most fun I ever had, but there were treats involved, so I was being a good sport about it.  I mean, come on – the photographer’s assistant was holding these squeaky dog toys over the photographer’s head to get me to look at the camera!  For God’s sake, I’m a cat!  I look when I feel like it, not when you try to get me to look.  Anyway – I knew how much this meant to Mom.  She wants a really good photo of the two of us as the author photo for her upcoming book “Buckley’s Story – Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher” , so I played along.  The book is the story of my “sister” Buckley, who left us in November.    She was pretty smart and between her and me, we taught Mom a lot of stuff that she shares in the book.  And even though the book is about Buckley, I’m in it, too.  The three of us had (and still have) a very special connection.

Mom says that’s enough, I can’t say more about the book right now, but she says that soon, there’ll be more information about it.   I have to go take a nap now anyway – posing for photos is pretty tiring.

Here’s a picture of me with Buckley (she’s on the left).

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