Sweetness and a Crazy Cat

As I said in Monday Smiles, on Saturday, I took a hike in the hills of the Weir Canyon Wilderness Park behind our house.   The local flora has little in common with the neighborhood I grew up in in East Haven, Connecticut, with one exception … our local trails and the paths I followed through the woods as a boy were both sweetened by the scent of Honeysuckle.  There are twenty species of Honeysuckle that are indigenous to the United States but a number of species are also sold in nurseries as landscaping plants that are attractive to hummingbirds.  Have you noticed how often a certain scent from the past can bring a flood of memories?  According to an article on Discovery fit and health, this is because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system which is closely associated with memory and emotion.   As kids, we used to drink a tiny drop of nectar from the Honeysuckle blossoms.  How would it taste to a sixty-six year old curmudgeon?   I found a slightly yellow blossom (remembering those were the sweetest), pinched the base of the flower to carefully pull out the stamen, and touched it to my tongue.   Yes, it was sweet, a little taste of a childhood long ago.   The practice is apparently more common than I thought.  Not only did my son tell me he did it when he was a kid, there is a website with step-by-step directions, here.

Of course, Sunday was Mother’s Day.   My son’s adolescent years were, to put it euphemistically, a challenge, especially for Muri.  His Mother’s Day card both acknowledged that and sweetly thanked her for sticking by him.   On the front, it said, Mom – Raising me couldn’t have been easy, but when other mothers would have said, “I give up!” or “I can’t take it!” you said …   When opened, the card played this song

followed by the words, Thank you for sticking by me and loving me, no matter what.  Happy Mother’s Day.  Very funny and very sweet.  However, our son’s cat, Elvis, didn’t appreciate the moment.   The minute she heard the music, she transformed from the cute little Burmese we love to the Demon Cat, hissing at everyone and trying to tear the card apart.   It took her fifteen or twenty minutes to settle down after we put the card away.  What could she possibly have against Gloria Gaynor?  Here’s my theory.   Elvis was rescued as a kitten by my son after being abandoned in an apartment building.   While the smell of Honeysuckle brought sweet memories for me, I Will Survive reminded Elvis of her days as an abandoned kitten.  I suppose some time with Carole Wilbourn, The Cat Therapist would be in order … but I think we’ll just put away the card.   Cats, like sixty-six year old men, are more fun if they’re a little crazy, don’t you think?

You’ve probably guessed from the title that it’s Top Sites Tuesday #101  – Two Thoughts on Tuesday and, of course, my thoughts are of Sweetness and a Crazy Cat.  It would be very sweet it if you’d push my button … gently … to make me Number One on Top Sites Tuesday #101. and, of course, it will make me crazier if you don’t.

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Tags: cats, family, holidays, humor, memes, Mother's Day, nature, nostalgia, postaday2011, Top Sites Tuesday

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