GIFT SHOP: Wooden Cat Pile Set

Wooden Cat Stacking Game is Like Playing Jenga, But With a Pile of Kitties

Cats

(Eleanor Farjean)

Cats sleep
Anywhere,
Any table,
Any chair,
Top of piano,
Window-ledge,

In the middle,
On the edge,
Open drawer,
Empty shoe,
Anybody’s
Lap will do,
Fitted in a

Cardboard box,
In the cupboard
With your frocks–
Anywhere!
They don’t care!
Cats sleep
Anywhere.

Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan

Traditionally spooky felines
by Zack Davisson

An in-depth exploration of the sometimes charming, sometimes gruesome feline creatures and ghosts of Japan. Davisson illuminates the vast realm of kaibyo, or supernatural cats, with historical and modern cultural context. Lushly illustrated in full color with dozens of ukiyo-e prints and drawings. A must-have book for the Japanophile and cat-lover alike! First in a forthcoming series about the supernatural animals of Japan.

The Ad-dressing of Cats

by T. S. Eliot

You’ve read of several kinds of Cat,
And my opinion now is that
You should need no interpreter
To understand their character.
You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse —
But all may be described in verse.
You’ve seen them both at work and games,
And learnt about their proper names,
Their habits and their habitat:
But

How would you ad-dress a Cat?

So first, your memory I’ll jog,
And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG.

Now Dogs pretend they like to fight;
They often bark, more seldom bite;
But yet a Dog is, on the whole,
What you would call a simple soul.
Of course I’m not including Pekes,
And such fantastic canine freaks.
The usual Dog about the Town
Is much inclined to play the clown,
And far from showing too much pride
Is frequently undignified.
He’s very easily taken in —
Just chuck him underneath the chin
Or slap his back or shake his paw,
And he will gambol and guffaw.
He’s such an easy-going lout,
He’ll answer any hail or shout.

Again I must remind you that
A Dog’s a Dog — A CAT’S A CAT.

With Cats, some say, one rule is true:
Don’t speak till you are spoken to.
Myself, I do not hold with that –
I say, you should ad-dress a Cat.
But always keep in mind that he
Resents familiarity.
I bow, and taking off my hat,
Ad-dress him in this form: O CAT!
But if he is the Cat next door,
Whom I have often met before
(He comes to see me in my flat)
I greet him with an OOPSA CAT!
I’ve heard them call him James Buz-James —
But we’ve not got so far as names.
Before a Cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream;
And you might now and then supply
Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie,
Some potted grouse, or salmon paste —
He’s sure to have his personal taste.
(I know a Cat, who makes a habit
Of eating nothing else but rabbit,
And when he’s finished, licks his paws
So’s not to waste the onion sauce.)
A Cat’s entitled to expect
These evidences of respect.
And so in time you reach your aim,
And finally call him by his NAME.

So this is this, and that is that:
And there’s how you AD-DRESS A CAT.

Van Cat Meow

Happy World Tourism Day! meow 🙂

Full of adorable photos featuring one little black adventure cat, Van Cat Meow tells the charming and inspiring story of the trip of a lifetime that became a whole new way of life.

LUKE

by Mary Oliver

I had a dog
who loved flowers.
Briskly she went
through the fields,

yet paused
for the honeysuckle
or the rose,
her dark head

and her wet nose
touching
the face
of every one

with its petals
of silk,
with its fragrance
rising

into the air
where the bees,
their bodies
heavy with pollen,

hovered—
and easily
she adored
every blossom,

not in the serious,
careful way
that we choose
this blossom or that blossom—

the way we praise or don’t praise—
the way we love
or don’t love—
but the way

we long to be—
that happy
in the heaven of earth—
that wild, that loving.

Happy National Dog Day!

Lady White Snake

Lady White Snake

Retold by Aaron Shepard

Illustrated by Song Nan Zhang

Pan Asian Publications

Lady White is a thousand-year-old snake who, through centuries of meditation and self-discipline, has managed to attain human form. On a visit to China’s famous West Lake, she falls in love with a young man and soon becomes his wife. But when a Buddhist abbot discovers her true origin, she must fight for both her marriage and her freedom.