Tag: cat

Margerumalia – Kittens!

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – June 19, 2026

About two months ago I promised pictures of kittens in two months. The little darlings arrived on schedule!

I was sitting on the welcome mat at the front door like I do every morning, petting Rocket while she eats, when a cute little face peered out at me from the plants.

“Debbie,” I hissed in a stage whisper, “Kittens!” She heard me from the kitchen window and checked the opposite end of the house to see more.

I went inside to get a bowl of kitten food and we waited by the windows to take photos and videos of their antics. My favorite was when the little imps jumped up onto the window well covers I had installed last month, using them like slides in a playground.

We eventually counted six of them, five tabbies—like their mother—and one black kitten. One of the tabbies has white ears and white fur between the black stripes. The other four are indistinguishable from one another.

You can just barely see the difference in the photo below. The dim light under the bushes makes it difficult to see.

Look at that cute furry face! Can you resist the impulse to touch those soft paws? Shall we reserve one for you?

Last year we sent five kittens to the Humane Society. We were glad to learn that they were all adopted.

My story does take a turn, though. The kittens showed up on a Thursday morning and we spent two days replenishing their food bowls, giving them fresh water, and taking more pictures.

On Friday night at ten o’clock there was a terrible cat howl from the front steps and I raced to the door, flicked on the lights, and stepped onto the porch. All was quiet but I could barely see an animal circling the bushes in front of the house.

Was it Rocket? A predator? Maybe a pesky raccoon looking for a bite of cat food? We’ll never know. 

The next morning I petted Rocket on the welcome mat but didn’t see any kittens. I asked her about what had happened but she didn’t have an answer.

Then from the shadows of the bushes I spied the little black kitten who had a few things to say. His mother replied and I moved the bowl of kitten food toward the edge of the deck. The little fellah decided to brave my presence, having seen me pet his mother, and jumped up to eat. After a few seconds I moved my petting hand over to the kitten and petted him for about a minute solid.

I can’t tell you how amazing that was. Kittens born in the wild are not inclined to trust people but he saw the lay of the land and figured if it was good enough for Mama it was good enough for him. 

Since he was watching from the shadows, I decided his name was Shadow.

Since that morning, only Rocket has arrived at our front step to enjoy a bowl of food, fresh water, and a good dose of affection. We figured that she led the litter back into the ravine where they were born. Hopefully their need to eat more kitten food will bring them back soon.

Stay tuned!

TTFN

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If you were wondering why the June 12th Margerumalia didn’t appear in your INBOX until later in the day, there were two reasons. 

First, I accidentally set the delivery for PM instead of AM.

Second, I couldn’t fix the problem because a storm took out the internet service for a large part of the county. Metronet got it up and running early in the afternoon and I sent it out then.

Apologies for my role in the delay.

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – The Birds & The Bees

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – April 17, 2026

Photo: Debbie Margerum

Spring has sprung, as they say, and the woods are full of life, so I thought I’d share a bit of it with you.

Debbie is so good at getting nature photos that I’m using some of hers. I tried to capture a bee on a purple flower from just two feet away, but I wasn’t close enough, so she let me borrow hers. It’s an art! The uncredited photos are mine.

This pair of Mallard ducks arrive every year about this time and enjoy paddling around in the stream. I’ve never seen them with youngsters, but this is their mating season. Fun fact: the Mallards are a sub-family of ducks called dabbling ducks. Isn’t that cute? 

Question: Are you a real duck?

Answer: Naw, I’m just dabbling.

The Redbuds are the big show-offs every spring because, you know, they can. Hillsides are covered with these audacious blooms, bringing a symphony of color to the woods before the maples, oaks, and birches can break out their greenery and soak up all the sunlight. 

As I was walking, I was wondering how to describe the color of these trees using only words. It can be really hard to capture—as are taste and smell—but I think I gave it a pretty good go with this sentence: 

The blossoms are a jubilant shade of pinkish purple normally exclusive to the domain of children’s toys and clothing.

Photo: Debbie Margerum

The squirrels are dashing everywhere digging up acorns they buried last fall. How do they know?! They must have a built-in geolocation app. This photo is from a couple years ago, back before we had to have the old oak tree removed. It’s like he posed for this portrait, it’s so perfect.

That old white oak was situated on the lot when my parents decided to build the house so they had the architect draw up plans in an L-shape to preserve the tree. We estimated that it was about 250 years old when we took it down. The hollow inside made it a danger to the house, but it lived a long grand life.

On my morning walks I constantly see red squirrels chasing away grey squirrels like the one in the photo. “Hey,” I say, “why can’t we just all get along?”

The bluebells opened up the other day. Can you tune in your faery senses to hear them ringing? It’s a subtle tinkling noise that calls to the pollinators, “We’re here! We’re here!”

I love that I could capture the morning dew glistening on these flowers. I’ve learned a few things from my talented photographer wife.

And just as the Easter egg is a symbol of fertility for this fecund spring season, our outdoor cats went into heat a couple of months ago enticing several tomcats to haunt the premises. 

That’s Tabitha on the left eating from the bowl. She’s brought us eleven kittens over three years. We’ve found them homes or had them taken to the Humane Society where they were adopted. She’s walking with a distinctive waddle now. We think she’ll give birth any day.

Her daughter Rocket—from the second litter—is seated on the Adirondack chair where the old oak tree used to stand, watching the early morning activities of the neighborhood. 

She’s also got a full womb. I know because I pet her every morning while she eats, and I talk to her about finding a good nesting spot away from predators but not too far away so she can still come to eat every morning on our front porch. Gotta be able to produce enough milk. 

It’s her first litter so I figure any information is only going to help.

From past experience we know we won’t see the kittens until about two months after they’re born. So watch this space for some adorable kitty pics in June!

TTFN

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – Molly the Maid

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – October 10, 2025

Tabitha Deferred

The saga of Tabitha has reached a stalemate for the time being. She will not re-enter the cage to eat food and spring the trap, but after several days of not eating she showed up at our back door looking thin and forlorn. So we fed her…with medication. She ate more than one-and-a-half cans.

She still needs to have her sutures removed, but her rear end didn’t look swollen last time we could see it. Maybe she bit through them while cleaning herself?

Hopefully she’ll trust us once more to provide food and care and have her stitches out at the vet, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Meanwhile, I have an excellent book to recommend:

The Maid, by Nita Prose

Like me, you’ve probably seen this book cover several times over the last few years. It was selected for the GMA Book Club, among other things. I saw the audiobook on sale and decided to give it a spin.

I like whodunnits and, having worked retail, served coffee and bartending, I figured I could relate to the service aspect of a hotel maid. 

But Molly is a maid with a difference. 

Molly is the first person narrator, so her perspective isn’t entirely explained. She seems to be on the autism spectrum, as she admits to having difficulty discerning other people’s emotions. She is also obsessive about cleaning rooms, her clothing, and her apartment.

Molly is also very observant, like her TV hero Columbo. She and her Gran used to watch that show together all the time, making her a perceptive detective.

When Molly enters to clean a room in The Grand Hotel she discovers the dead body of a very rich man. She becomes a prime witness, and later the prime suspect. 

Molly’s point of view is delivered with perfection by Lauren Ambrose in the audiobook, conveying her confusion, frustration, and emotions. I suspect that if you read the book yourself, you’ll also hear Molly’s voice in your mind. The narrative is written that well.

No spoilers here, but I will say that I was surprised by a few twists and turns near the end of the novel and even got a bit choked up by the sentiment in that part of the story. 

Speaking of the end, do not skip the epilogue. Writers these days are discouraged from presenting a prologue or an epilogue because, they say, it should just be part of the book. I don’t have an opinion on that, but if you skip the epilogue of The Maid you’ll miss the most interesting twist of all.

I see that Nita Prose has written additional books for this character, but this first book is completely self-contained, no cliff-hanger or unanswered questions. You could start and stop with this first book and feel very satisfied. 

Thanks, Nita, I appreciate that. I don’t like those stray hairs any more than Molly does.

TTFN

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – Tabitha, Part 3

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – October 3, 2025

PHOTO: Debbie Margerum

When I left off last week, Tabitha had stepped on the metal plate to trigger the door spring and we whisked her off to Purdue Veterinary Clinic. Then we made the decision to bring her back and release her so she could go nurse her kittens somewhere out there in the woods.

We had decided to trust her to trust us. 

Now you’re caught up.

After feeding her the canned food with the stool softener, we lifted the cage door and she pulled back like the photo above from when she was captured. 

“C’mon, Tabby, we brought you back to feed your little ones. Go.” 

I pressed my finger against her backside through the bars of the cage and she dashed out, crossed the deck, and disappeared into the brush. 

“Just please come back, so we can give you more medicine.” 

A moment after she left I realized that I had touched her for the first time since she was born over two years ago. In the past she had been willing to touch her nose to my finger, and I’d settled for “butterfly kisses” from her whiskers but I always wanted to pet her. She was soft and furry, of course, and a little bit scrawny, but mostly I felt her warmth and the moment of connection that came with it. Interesting what your finger can tell you in a brief touch.

It was a bucket list moment. Brief but meaningful. 

God bless that cat, she’s returned to eat every morning since. And I know the medicine is working because I saw her in the neighbor’s yard a few days later when she lifted her tail to spew brown liquid generously across the grass. Sorry, Cindy.

The current conundrum (or cat-nundrum) is our need to catch her again to have the sutures removed. On Monday morning she sat by the cage staring at the food for twenty minutes hoping to get her daily bowlful, then gave up and left.

No food. No medication. Did we make a mistake by letting her loose? Or did we save her kittens? 

The vet checked her for lactation and was uncertain whether she was actively nursing because of the low amount of milk they could express. We chose to let her feed them if at all possible—these kittens we’ve never seen.

I started writing about this series of events two weeks ago with “Fear of the Unknown,” and we’re still fearing the unknown. A reflection of our times, isn’t it?

Meanwhile I finished writing the adventure of the two girls in The Most Amazing Museum of Chicago and got them safely away from The Great Chicago Fire. More unknowns ahead for me and my characters!

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – Adoption Time

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – Oct. 18, 2024

I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.

Marcie met her forever Mama today and Debbie and I said our good-byes before she drove off to Pennsylvania. Our next door neighbor and her husband actually live in PA not in their house next door. It’s a long story. We really like them and hope they move back soon.

I’d gotten used to our little rescued ragamuffin warming my lap as I typed one-handed at my computer, my other hand cradling her behind to prevent her from sliding off and plopping onto the floor. Cats land on their feet and this little kitten developed her agility in the wild climbing trees and wrestling with her siblings, but she’s also bumped her head against my desk a couple times. 

A few days ago I woke Marcie up by coming downstairs and she mewed at me about twenty times. She’d finally found her voice, but what did she want? She was purring fervidly so I knew she was glad to see me. Eventually I asked her if she had woken from a bad dream and she pressed her nose against my lips. That was a yes. We sat quietly together for a while after that. 

I’ll miss the daily routine of visiting her four times a day.

I’ll miss Marcie’s spectacular leaps at my hand weights while I’m working out.

I’ll miss finding Marcie on the couch downstairs in her favorite napping place.

I’ll miss the warm spot in my lap where she used to curl up.

Aw, shoot. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.

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We were planning to rescue one or all of the other three kittens, but Debbie did some research and learned that no one wants more cats. Not the Cat Cafe, or PETCO, or the no-kill shelters. Now we’re thinking about a catch-and-release plan to get them spayed and neutered. We already have an indoor cat who needs an insulin shot every twelve hours, with a feeding schedule to match. 

Wherever you are, I urge to consider adopting a cat or dog if have any room in your home, your budget, and your heart. They really could use your love and attention. And your love will be generously repaid with interest. 

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The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles