Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Monday, December 31, 2012

The Long Tail of Willy Big...

 The Long Tail of Willy Big…how he was once Willy Little and was always Willy Soft, Willy Sweet, and Willy Good. He just got Willy Old and it was his time to go. He will be so missed by those who loved him. July (?) 1997-December 30, 2012

Portrait of Willy Big

Willy Big with his older brother Fatty Woo Hobbes
Tiggy-Pooh loved his buddy Willy Big
BFF!
Willy Big, son of the feral tortoise shell barn kitty, Miss Charlotte, half-brother to Fatty Woo Hobbes, cousin to Crouching Tigger-Hidden Pooh (aka Tiggy-Pooh), and good friend of Max, Charlie, Popeye, and Butters passed away after a long life on Sunday, 12/30/2012 at 11:37PM, he was 15 years old. Predeceased by Miss Charlotte (disappeared in 1999), his litter brother B.B., (hit by a car in 1998), his litter sister, Miss Molly (RF, 2004), and his older half-brother, Fatty Woo Hobbes (old age, 2012).
The Big Three on the bed
Looking outside...all three together
When you have a multiple cat household there’s certain personalities who demand attention (even if it’s bad attention) all the time…and then there are those quiet individuals who are like little ghosts, you don’t see them, and sometimes the question pops out “Have you seen…?” Willy Big was always a quiet, pensive fellow, he had the manner of a poet, and he had a rich rumbling purr. He had exquisitely plush smoky gray fur with four white paws, a blazing white bib and fluffy white belly, a small white stripe in between his green eyes and a white tip at the very end of his tail. It is the legend, that when they were passing out the white markings, he got the tip of his tail mixed up with his paws and dipped it in the white marking bucket.

Willy Little in the middle, siblings George on left, Miss Molly on right, August 3, 1997
Back before he was “Big”, when he was Willy Little as a wee kitten, he was discovered one August Sunday morning cautiously toddling out from under a wood pile by our shed. He was born to a feral tortoise-shell lady named Miss Charlotte late summer of 1997. He was a bitty fellow, smaller than a grape leaf on the vine that twined around their little home; fuzzy gray with white markings, including a few white hairs at the pointy tip of his tail, and his pale cornflower blue eyes had blurry vision at best, he hissed at me when we first met, but soon enough we became friends. Then at the tender age of 6-8 weeks old, he had one of those nasty maggots living underneath his skin in his side and we had to run him to the vet on a chilly Sunday morning, and after a bit of finagling, the critter was removed from his side and he, along with his four wee litter mates (five total, four boys and one girl) were put into our studio so that he could recover…Miss Charlotte, was nowhere to be found for a few days, but suddenly returned, waiting at the door, she chose to come inside to nurse her kittens, and then leave as soon as she was done (funny how she knew right where they were being kept.) As we were dispersing the litter to any takers, I insisted on keeping Willy...as I paid a pretty price for having that grub removed from him, I wasn’t going to part with him willingly. Willy recovered from his trauma, and grew to be Willy Big.

The Long View of Willy Big...
Willy Big had a wonderful life...my most favorite memory...on Christmas Day, many years ago, Willy caught a cherry pie that he found on the stove…when my mom and I came out to prepare dessert, we discovered him, coveting the pie on the floor, it was still firmly wrapped in foil and saran, and he was growling at the other curious kitty cats who wanted a piece of that pie…but Willy was very proud of his catch, and did not want to share it with them…we were pleased that not a crumb was touched and no damage done…my mother famously said: “We won’t say anything about it, he didn’t get into it.” After that, she’d always inquire “How is Mr. Cherry Pie?” These last few days, I’ve talked to him about his greatest catch, and he’d purr...
On my writing table by the window...
He was always a dramatic sleeper…
A very soft and plush bit o' belly fuzz!

...sprawling in interesting positions...
One basket wasn't enough...he needed to spill into the second...

Willy sleeping with the dog's toy piggy
…somewhat undignified...
Why do the biggest think they can fit in small boxes?

 ...for one so solemn and proper.

Waiting...so patiently...easily mistaken for a plush toy...

...our quiet, sensitive little boy had a sense of humor whether he knew it or not...he was my little buddy...and he loved to watch television in the living room beyond the French doors (the cat free zone), snuggled on any available lap...

Such Pretty Green Eyes

Willy Big, who was once Willy Little, and then later became, Willy Old...he had many names...
A Willy Big baby in the high chair...

Mr. Cherry Pie
The Little Hippo (just because of the funny way he would run...)
Bunny Feet
Willy White Whiskers (Willy White Tip, Willy White Mittens, etc...)
Willy Soft
Willy Quiet
Mr. Plush
Mr. Pensive
Willy Mouse (or The Mouse...he was a very good mouser...it wasn't just Cherry Pies he could catch!)
Willy the Gray
The Poet
The Thundercloud (the rumbling purr)
Dust Kitty (or Dust Ball, or Dust Bunny)

On Thanksgiving, Willy was "helping" me find my dust cloth by being the dust kitty caught in it...
Sleeping in the sunshine for the last time. 12/30/2012


the Willy White Tip...and a Willy White Sock...