There’s still a Vashti-shaped hole in our hearts, and I know there will be for quite some time, but I’m told that life must go on.  Indeed, I have no choice–the paperback edition of Homer’s Odyssey goes on sale on Tuesday.  To say that I’m frighteningly behind on everything related to the launch would be an understatement.  My editor called yesterday to see how things were going, and I had to confess that I’d done exactly nothing this week–unless you count eating TastyCakes, watching Gilmore Girls reruns, and lying in bed with Homer on my chest and Scarlett on my belly as doing something.

Mostly what I’m struggling against is the feeling that “moving on” is somehow disrespectful to Vashti’s memory.  But, as Laurence says every day, nobody who’s remembered is truly gone.    The paperback edition of the book contains a new Afterword and new photos of all three kitties.  I wrote the Afterword back in January, just before Vashti got sick.  I’m so grateful for that now!  I want the world to remember the Vashowitz the way we do–as our happy, gorgeous girl.  And next week a whole new group of readers will get to know our Vashti from the beginning again, when she was a kitten.

So, as Wordsworth said, we will try to grieve not, but rather find strength in what remains behind.  There was all kinds of hooplah I’d planned for my blog and website this week to promote the paperback launch, but I’m still not quite ready for that.  I’ll save everything for after Labor Day.

For now, I’ll leave you with this photo of Vashti taken just over a year ago, back when the hardcover first came out.  Her eyes are half-closed because, like so many of us, she had a tendency to blink when the camera flashed.  Still, I love this shot.  Such a beautiful girl, she was!

Long live Vashti.

UPDATED: I’m updating  to add this picture of Vashti, at Laurence’s insistence.  This is his favorite photo of her, and the one that he used to make her poster for our wedding.  When I protested that there were better photos of Vashti–because she only has three legs and no tail in this shot–Laurence responded, “Who needs legs and a tail when you have that face? Look at her!  She’s so perfect.”

Who am I to argue?

I wrote my very first blog entry for this website almost exactly one year ago today, noting that I was five minutes late getting to the newspaper that morning and this is what happened:

It’s good to see pictures of the three of them playing together!  Vashti had been keeping more or less to herself these past few months.  Scarlett and Homer have been begun sniffing cautiously around the areas that had become her designated spots since January.  I think they’re starting to realize that she’s gone.

Thank you all so, so much for your kind words and your great wisdom in the comments you’ve been leaving and the emails you’ve been sending.  Knowing that there are others to bear our grief with us makes it that much easier to bear.

And thank you to everybody for remembering that Laurence grieves too.  It’s funny–Laurence’s friends and family have been very supportive of me, but I think they truly don’t realize how much Laurence also misses Vashti.  He loved her so much, but it wasn’t something he talked about very often.  I’ve never seen Laurence as broken up as he’s been the past two days.  He’s told me several times how much it means to him to be acknowledged by all of you.

We’ve also talked a lot these past two days about how hard it is for most people to cope with the loss of a beloved pet–how often people are forced to mourn alone because others, however well-meaning, will say to themselves, “But it was just a cat!  Why are they taking it so hard?”  We haven’t had to be alone through this, and even in our sorrow we know how extraordinarily lucky we are to have all of you.

Thank you.

UPDATE: Many of you have written asking for my mailing address so as to make donations in Vashti’s name.  That is very sweet, although completely unnecessary (believe me when I say that I will see to it that Vashti is remembered by many, many kitties in the years to come).  But here’s our address:

Gwen Cooper

353  Third Avenue

New York, NY 10010

This morning, Laurence and I made the very difficult decision to put Vashti to sleep.  Without dwelling on morbid details, I’ll just say that the past few days have been very bad.  It was time.  We were both with her in the vet’s office until the end.  It is a credit to both Vashti and the medical team that’s been caring for her that there wasn’t a single dry eye among the staff.

Vashti was 14 years old.

I’ve been trying to think what I would write about her that I haven’t written already.  This time, though, I think Laurence put it best.  “The eternal feminine,” he said.  “That’s what Vashti will always be to me.”

He was quoting something acting coach Lee Strasberg said about Marilyn Monroe at her funeral.  I typically resist investing cats with too many specifically human traits, but I have to agree with Laurence that there was something distinctly and almost humanly feminine in Vashti’s beauty and sweetness.  Laurence is the kind of man who’s half in love with every woman simply for wielding a mascara wand, and this I think is at the heart of the wonderfully special relationship that sprang up between the two of them.  I’m feeling many things right now, but mostly I’m overwhelmingly grateful that Vashti’s last few years were spent with Laurence.  I never saw her happier than she’s been with him in her life.

For my own part, I can only think to say that Vashti was beautiful and gentle, and she was loved.

Next week we will bring her ashes up to the Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park and scatter them off the Palisades and into the Hudson River.  Vashti loved being outside so much, and she always especially loved the water.

Thank you to everybody for being here for us these past few months.  I’ll never be able to fully express how much it’s meant to me.

Vaya con dios, my beautiful, beautiful girl.

Greetings, all!  Sorry for the long silence since my last update…the paperback edition of Homer’s Odyssey comes out two weeks from yesterday (gulp!), and I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.  (Thank you, Dolly Parton, for that colorful colloquialism…)

Ahem.

So…a few items of interest: First, you can find the paperback edition–with a new Afterword and never-before-published photos of Homer and the Gang–in bookstores on Tuesday, September 7th.  Or you can pre-order it online now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Tell your friends! 

Also, I’ll be traveling a bit with the book upon its release.  On Saturday, September 18th I’ll be in Raleigh, North Carolina to do a reading, and in Fayetteville, North Carolina to donate $10,000 from the book’s proceeds to Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary, Inc.  In September/October I’ll also be doing readings in Milwaukee, Chicago, Kansas City, and Miami.  I’ll post exact dates/locations next week.

And now…on to the kitties!  Vashti continues to hold her own.  She’s been losing a bit of weight and, to be honest, I’d like to see her just a tad livelier.  But she’s still eating (always a good sign!) and still cuddling with us like crazy, so we’re grateful for that.  Here’s a picture of Vashti staking out a corner of the guest bed this morning while I was trying to change the sheets.

I didn’t have the heart to shoo her off!

Also, Homer celebrated his 13th birthday on August 1st.  Here’s a picture of him enjoying a catnip-filled cupcake toy, sent to him courtesy of his “Aunt Gaby” in California.

And this last picture truly baffles me–because if you were to ask Scarlett what the one great annoyance in her life is, she would undoubtedly say, “Homer!”  And if you were to ask Homer what the one great annoyance in his life is, it would almost certainly be, “The way Scarlett’s always so surly to me!”  And yet…wherever one settles down to nap, the other will follow within minutes.  I used to think that maybe they just independently liked the same spots/furniture, but now I’m convinced that they follow each other around over the course of the day.  Here’s some photographic evidence:

Scarlett never sleeps at the base of the “cat condo” unless Homer’s tucked in to his little cave above.  And Homer never sleeps on the couch unless Scarlett’s sleeping there first.  And, somehow–despite how much they avoid each other when they’re awake–you never find either of them sleeping anywhere unless the other one’s there too.

Cats!  Who can explain their eternal mysteries…? 

Happy Monday, everybody!  The paperback release of Homer’s Odyssey is two weeks from tomorrow (gulp)!  Hard to believe it’s already been a year since the book came out…

In other news, the international editions of the book continue to do well–check out this review from Sunday’s Mail in the UK!   (You’ll have to click on the image to make it large enough to read.)

Updates on Vashti, Homer, and Scarlett (with photos) by Wednesday…although Vashti continues to hold her own (for those of you anxious for a quick update)…

Happy Monday!  I’ve posted an interview I did with Temple Grandin–New York Times bestselling author of Animals Make Us Human and Animals in Translation–over on DiscDish.com.  We discuss the HBO biopic Temple Grandin and, of course, animals.  Check it out!

http://www.discdish.com/index.php/2010/08/16/interview-temple-grandin-of-the-hbo-film-temple-grandin/

At long last, the superheroes the world has been waiting for…

Thrill to the adventures of two crime-fighting super-felines!  Learn the REAL story behind the capping of the Gulf oil spill!  Watch as Homer the Fearless Feline, along with Ajax the Bionic Kitty, swoop in to save mankind in its darkest hour!

When all hope seems lost, when human strength has tried and failed, that’s when it’s time to call in

Click here for Episode #1: Of Origins and Oil Spills:

www.thehandicats.com

Click it, read it, SHARE IT, love it! 

Last week, I went in for the first of what will be a series of outpatient “procedures”–completely elective, completely minor, and completely cosmetic.  Also, intensely frakking painful. I pride myself on my high pain threshold–I even get cavities filled without Novocaine because I’m just that butch–but this…yowza.  So painful is the procedure and the recovery that they sent me home with Vicodin and codeine.

Now, I’m the kind of person who takes half the recommended dosage of Benadryl and immediately falls into a twelve-hour mini-coma.  This is something I have in common with my dad, actually, and it’s become a family joke over the years.  We can’t handle our drugs.  A cold medicine for children will knock me on my backside for the better part of a day and night.  What can I say?  I’m a lightweight! 

So you can imagine the effect that Vicodin and codeine have had on me for the past week or so.  The phrase “drooling idiot” comes to mind.  Laurence has been torn between amusement and claiming to feel that he’s in some kind of Valley of the Dolls retread.

(Note: I do make sure that I have at least two sentient hours per day, wherein I care for Vashti.  And Laurence has been doing an outstanding job of monitoring her while I’m out of it.  And she’s been doing great!  Plus, she looooooves having me for a human bean-bag for a good 15 hours per day.  Actually, all three cats do!)

I have pictures, I have updates, I have maaaaaaaaany unanswered emails, and I’ve received packages and birthday presents for Homer from some of you–all of which have gone un-posted and un-responded-to.  As you can tell by this entry, I’m slowly rejoining the world of the compos mentis.  I promise new photos and replies to your emails within the next 48 hours.

Thank you for your patience! 

Hey!  It’s a review of the book from all the way in Scotland!  Finally a review of one of the foreign editions written in a language I can understand. 

(It’s particularly vexing to me, by the way, that with all the foreign sales we’ve made, there still isn’t a Spanish edition of Homer’s Odyssey–because that would be the one foreign-language edition I’d have a shot at being able to read.  Sigh.)

Anyway, it’s pretty thrilling to read a review of the book from overseas!  Here it is:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/non-fiction-reviews/gwen-cooper-homer-s-odyssey-bantam-press-12-99-1.1043770?localLinksEnabled=false