Mom has been sad this week. I know that a number of things will have her thinking about Dad. I tell her that I’ll always listen if she wants to talk. I’m also ready to snuggle close when the tears come. Miko and I watch the pictures of him that sometimes show on her TV when she leaves the room. I like to reach out to pat his face. I long ago learned that the pictures are part of what she calls a screen saver. I don’t know what that means, but oddly, they make her smile rather than cry. I told Miko that they must bring back good memories. That makes me happy for her. She needs that.

Her sadness this week is for more than Dad. Her favorite OC (Outside Cat) passed away this last week. He would cross our street daily as he made his rounds between our house, his old home and the Cat Lady who lives on the other side of the street. Mom and the Cat Lady had been afraid that the OC’s might be hit by a car. It happened to him. Missy was the first to notice that he was gone. He always liked to rub against Missy when she and Mom would go for a walk in the backyard. I know this is why Mom has decided that Missy must be on a leash when they go out. Missy also likes to dash across that street to the Cat Lady’s house in the hopes of finding cat food that had been left out. For now, the other OC’s have been staying on the other side of the street. Mom is concerned that they will be back to crossing once the weather warms. They like to take naps on our front porch. I may growl at them when I see them, but like Mom, I don’t want to see them hurt. Life is hard enough for an OC. I’m very lucky to have regular meals and a warm home. Because Mom and Dad took me in when I arrived in the back yard, I have not had to live my life as an OC

The night Dad died, Miko, Missy and I stayed close to Mom. We knew she needed us there. Dad had needed us earlier in the day, but we then needed to devote our attention to Mom. The hospice lady told Mom that she was about in embark on what they called the Year of Firsts. A few days later, Mom had her first New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day without Dad. She has since survived her first birthday and Valentine’s Day without him. Last night she hosted her first dinner party alone. It was a small group of just three of her friends who had often been here for dinner. She did her thing – table cloth in the dinning room, cloth napkins, pretty plates, fancy glasses and the special silverware. (The last may have been because the every day things were in the dishwasher and that water line is currently frozen.) I hate that she closes the French doors so Miko and I could not get in to inspect the things on the table. Miko tried to sneak in and onto the table during dinner, but Mom removed her and closed the door again. Before that door closed, however, I heard one of her friends say, “I feel Harry’s energy here with us. I picture him in his chair at the end of the table.” I was surprised that she didn’t cry. When we discussed it later, she did have tears when she told me that by only have the four of them at the table, no one needed to sit in his chair. She may have hosted her first dinner party without him, but she isn’t ready for a full table of friends. That will be a first for another day.

The is no way around it – my mom is weird. I love her dearly, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is weird. She is a published author. I like that because she helps me write these posts. I suffered through listening to her romance novels as she edited them. I didn’t mind the kissing parts, but there are parts I don’t understand. I also listened to her first two mysteries. I’m her cat and listening to her is part of my job.

I know it had been hard for her to write when Dad was so sick. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that she was able to focus more on her current mystery. That isn’t the weird part. It is that today, she started dancing around, throwing her arms in the air as she kept saying, “I did it! I finally murdered the no good XXXXX!” I assume that she didn’t personally murder anyone. She had told me that one of her characters in this book is not a very nice person. I’ll bet he is the one who was murdered. I’m fine with that, but does she have to dance because she makes takes place? Like I said, she is weird. Are all authors weird or is she special?