G’aw | Koi Scribblings

As I noted a couple of months ago, the classic Backyard Bowl has been discontinued in favor of daily offerings to the various Gods of Feral Critters, over on the other side of the house, near the catio.

However, we* do maintain the water bowl in its historical location, and it continues to get visitors.

* Although I say “we”, 95% or more of the actual maintenance is done by Maggie.

Meet Marbles.

Named, as local tradition has it, by appearance. He*’s a marble tabby, so the name is pretty much inevitable.

* Conjecturally. We haven’t gotten a good look at putatively his hindquarters.

He’s not as consistent in his visits as G’aw; sometimes weeks will go by without a sighting, but we’re always happy to see him. He’s very skittish when it comes to humans. Where G’aw will keep a cautious distance, but say “hello” and “can’t you fill that bowl any faster”, Marbles will vanish if he even thinks someone is looking at him.

Which is perfectly fine. Not everyone needs to be friendly–and to be blunt, it would be highly hypocritical of me to cast aspersions on someone for being a curmudgeonly anti-social grump.

That said, we do seem to be the only ones in the area who are pleased to see him. G’aw faces him down if they both show up at the same time.

And as for the other neighbors, well…did you notice the bird sitting on the fence? It did its best car alarm imitation the entire time Marbles was in the yard.

The new year is supposed to be a time of change. Hanging a new calendar. Making resolutions to improve oneself.

What we often forget is that it’s also a time to renew the old.

“Auld Lang Syne” is, after all, a reminder to cherish what’s behind us–those who have passed, those places we won’t visit again–and drink to their memories. It’s not an invocation of what’s coming.

So take a moment today for your own auld lang syne. So what if it’s a day late. Even a few days, weeks, or months don’t matter. As long as you keep those memories, they’ll keep you.

New Years is also a time to renew traditions. That song is one, certainly, but so are spending time with friends and making new friends.

There are personal traditions as well. Our original Backyard Bowl is long gone, but Maggie continues to put out food every day. That’s a tradition that goes back to at least 2013.

Meet G’aw.

He’s the most reliable visitor to the current Backyard Bowl; most days he’s waiting when Maggie takes the food out.

We continue our tradition of naming visitors by appearance. He’s Grey tabby and white, but that’s unwieldy for daily use, and the acronym is unpronounceable, even to one who grew up reading science fiction about aliens whose names generally lacked vowels. So, one quick apostrophization, and “G’aw” he has become.

Let me clear: we have no plans to lure him inside. Indeed, we continue to make plans so as to not lure him indoors, or even into the catio.

He’s acceptably friendly: he says hello from a cautious distance; waits for Maggie to come inside before approaching the bowl; and hangs around in the yard when he’s done eating, but quickly abandons even the best patches of sun if he hears us come outside. That’s about right.

Old tradition, new friend.

Happy New Year. May it be better than the last one; indeed, as the old-and-possibly-faux Irish proverb has it, may it be better than you deserve. Because really, at this point, I don’t think there’s anybody reading this blog who deserves the kind of years we’ve been getting lately.