Gwen's blog

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All new blogging! All new blog genre!!! Guess what, peeps. I'm the Houston Chronicle's newest mom blogger.
Are you shocked because you never thought of me as a mommy blogger before? Well, you know what that means, don't you? All new, never-before-told invasions of my children's privacy for your reading entertainment! Go visit and enjoy!

Pre-order my new novel, Lone Star Legend, now!

New kids' book: Sunflowers is on sale now. It's been oh sale, actually, but I haven't been keeping up with this announcement section very well. Know why? Because someone's making me a new Web site as we speak.

Right now: I'm about to start writing a new novel and will tell y'all the title as soon as we decide on it. :)

Monday, December 13, 2004
One of the Most Beautiful Places in Texas

It's unfortunate that it's so hard to photograph beautiful places. Also, it's unfortunate that I'm not very well-traveled. Because of the latter, I may be more easily impressed by watery landscapes that any given person. Either way, here is a link to the best photos I could find of where my kids and I went camping this weekend. Brian Greenstone did a very good job of capturing the rocks and the enormity. But no photograph could capture the sound, the movement, or the exact clean transclucent greenness of the water.

The other beautiful place I've loved in Texas is Lake Travis in Austin - the cliffy bit that looks almost like Hawaii. People say that Big Bend is beautiful, too, but I haven't been there yet. Some day.

Smeagol's Journey

Our cat ran away Thursday night while we were packing the car for our trip. I should have known he'd do it, because for a couple of weeks before that, he'd been sniffing the air through the open windows in a very excited way.

So he left, and he answer our cries that night, late that night, the next morning, or later Friday when we left town. Rory left his food bowl on the patio.

As we drove back home on Sunday afternoon, I remarked upon how much I was looking forward to seeing my boyfriend Tad.

"I miss Smeagol like you miss Tad," Rory said. All three kids wished aloud that Smeagol would be waiting on the patio when we got home.

He wasn't. Tad came over. We ordered pizza. We prepared to watch Saved! on DVD.

We heard pitiful meowing through the open window.

We ran to bring Smeagol into the apartment. He crept very slowly through the hedges and to our door. His torso was thinner and his white parts had become off-white. He had dried blood on his ear and his paw-pads were swollen red. His eyes weren't as sparkly as they used to be, when he was lolling around at home all day, bored and tearing up the furniture. He looked really tired.

We offered him food and petting. All he wanted was sleep. He slept through the whole movie (which was funny), right there with us, stretched out on the living room floor.

Later, he carefully stepped around the apartment, re-examining every familiar room. Tad and I surmised that he'd gone through some trauma over the weekend. Tad guessed that he probably wouldn't be so quick to run outside again. I wondered if he'd look back on all the times we'd kept him in against his will, this time with a new understanding and appreciation of our concern.

Who knows? Who can say if cats feel regret? Either way, Smeagol became a man this weekend. As much of a man as a cat without testicles can become, I mean.

Linkelodeon


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1:36 PM #

Comments:

 Yeah...so...I read this entry's blurb on DHAK and thought your cat had a sex-change operation.

Glad you had fun camping!


# posted by Blogger Ana : 11:16 PM  

 Poor Smeagol! Hope he has recovered!


# posted by Blogger MissCathee : 7:01 PM  

 Yes, life would be harsh on the tough streets of Houston for any cat, let alone one who was born in "da hood." I'm sure some of those stray alley cats kicked Smeagol's housecat's ass around. It's a good thing he didn't get hooked on crack or join a gang of hoodlum felines.
I'm sure he'll think twice before venturing out into your patio again. Some cats just weren't made to survive in the wild.


# posted by Blogger Datty : 11:10 PM  

 Hi Gwen,

Sounds like you and your boys, had a great time camping.
Good for you!
Sometime you just need to get away from it all just to refuel the o'l bain cells, not to mention o'l nerves too!

I'm glad your cat came back. Sometimes another gland will start to produce tetosterone, and your kitty will start acting like an uncut male. The reason he was sniffing at the windows, was because he probably smelled a female in heat.

Let's hope it dosen't happen again!

Jan-


# posted by Blogger Janice : 12:50 AM  

 Pedernales is the tip of the iceberg. I've a few more up my sleeve for y'all...


# posted by Blogger R.T. Lemur : 10:28 PM  

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