Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thursday Theme: Focus

Whew. What a week!






It has been so busy for me that I have had very little time to spend on anything except school work. As a teacher, MANY things divert my focus away from my family and home. Lesson plans, meetings, paperwork, parent conferences, etc. Even though middle school dismissal is at 2:40 every day, many evenings I do not get home until 5:00. Even then, I oftentimes bring more work home with me... I adore what I do, but I am usually exhausted and kind of cranky when I get in.



When I arrived home Wednesday evening, the sight below is what greeted me. (This bin is where I store my winter scarves...by the door, in the area we refer to as the breakfast room.)







I have a shadow; his name is Horatio. When I am not home, he finds something of mine to snuggle, or he sleeps on my side of the bed, waiting for me to arrive and give him some attention. If I am at home, he follows me from room to room, sits right on top of whatever I am doing (books, papers, keyboard, phone book...), and sits not just in my lap, but sort of on my chest trying to get closer to me than just on my lap. At night, he snuggles my left side in the crook of my arm at the elbow or he rests on my pillow with his paw on my head. I have a shadow.




You might need to know the whole story to really understand.




We have five cats. (Yes, I said five.) Somehow, THEY have become our focus...I never considered myself to be a pet lover. (I used to make fun of people who treated their pets like family. Sorry...but it's true.) Now, I have five other members of my family, and people most likely make fun of me. (It's ok. I can take it.) You might be wondering how this happened to someone who did not really like pets. Well, Horatio happened. He is my heart...I ADORE this cat. We got him for my daughter, when she was much younger and was begging for a sibling. (After having our daughter when I was 17, I did not want other children while I was still so young, and then when we finally decided we wanted others, I found that I could not get pregnant.) Hence, the cat...something for her (the daughter) to love and take care of...except that this cat REALLY loved me. I became his focus. Seriously. To try and make this ridiculously long post shorter, I will just say that we got the other four cats trying to find one that would focus on our daughter. Evidently, I am a cat magnet. (Now, the daughter would like a dog.)




What I love is that when I return home after a long day, with my mind elsewhere, this sweet cat can be my focus. He loves me no matter what I have done, or not done. He does not really want anything from me just my attention (except for food...he has an eating disorder...he overeats like me!) He oftentimes makes me smile. Just like those of you that have multiple children, I love ALL of our cats. Really I do. But somehow, Horatio has stolen my heart...and my focus.





Need more focus? Check out Stacy's lovely photos and comments. Also, drop by my dear friend, Natalie's blog for a fantastic giveaway!

8 comments:

Bonnie said...

Ok ... first things first. Horatio is the coolest name for a cat ! I love it !! How funny that he finds something of yours to snuggle in when you aren't around !! Five cats is a lot. We had two but one died a couple years ago. Sad. Now we just have the one. I just posted this photo of her the other day.

As for the Theme Thursday ... yes, she does post them early. She posts the themes on Saturday. It will be in the form of a photography tip with the theme in BOLD letters. I can't get into her old site to put a link for you to see but check her new site on Saturday or Sunday and you'll see it there !

Yeah, I didn't know what DOF was either. But then someone said one of my photos had it (DOF) and I had to know. Mind you, I didn't ask ... I googled it ! I google everything !! (google doesn't look at you like you're a dork !!!) ha ha

Brittany said...

What a great cat!!! And he has the name of the character on one of my favorite shows (CSI: Miami). nice nice! :)

Great shots!!!

Andi said...

Just to let you know...Horatio was named long before we ever got him. When I was a kid, I had a book about an orange kitty named Horatio. I read this same book to the daughter when she was little, and she said if we ever had a cat, we should name him Horatio. So we did.
All of our cats have great people names: Horatio, Chloe, Clark, Vivian and Norton

natalie said...

I LOVE the story that goes with focus...I should have guessed that you'd take a linguistic approach, where I take the visual approach. Horatio is a beautiful, sweet cat! And M sure does like to growl at him!

Stacy said...

I love the name of your kitty and the picture of him sitting in your scarves is so cute! He sounds a lot like our kitty...only she loves everyone but she is more interested in me for some reason. It's nice to get some kitty snuggles in sometimes. :)

Fingers To Toes Photography said...

What a sweet little kitty! I love them, so much - I wish my sister was not allergic and my dad did not hate them or I would totally have one!

Rose said...

I love the photo of your kitty. My hubby is allergic to cats.

As for his name, how funny to read the comments because I was going to say that I had two birds named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who died a tragic death. (that is a story I will have to share some day...) They were also characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet, along with Horacio - they also met a tragic end there as well. But my birds were actually named after the Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. See the problem?

At least I now know that Horacio is NOT named after the character on CSI Miami. Because really, the original CSI is truly the BEST. But I digress.

Arizaphale said...

I so wish our cat focussed on me. Or on anyone really. Himself calls him 'the Anti-Pet' because he is so aloof. He is always around the place, meows constantly for attention but will not settle on your lap or sleep with you. He tends to plonk down in the middle of passageways or anywhere inconvenient. His name is Pippin from LOTR. We also had a gorgeous fluffy, grey kitten/cat called Merry (also LOTR) who was incredibly affectionate and put his arms around you when you picked him up but he was killed by a snake (we think). We keep talking about getting another but I don't know if I could face another loss.......kittens are so inquisitive and we have so many nasty things here in Aus.