Book Review: Dee Ready's "A Cat's Legacy: Dulcy's Story"

As a little change of pace, I've got a book review for you! This book is by blogger Dee Ready, who blogs at Coming Home to Myself. If you haven't visited Dee's blog, you must! She has led such a rich life and has so many stories to share.

Okay, so now for the review of:

A Cat’s Legacy: Dulcy’s Story

by Dulcy & Dee Ready

I am delighted to review and recommend this wonderful book! It’s a slim volume at just 76 pages, yet it is packed with wisdom, love and spirituality. Yes, Dulcy is a very spiritual cat!

At first you might think, “Oh, how cute! A book supposedly written by a cat and her owner – I’ll get that for my cat-loving friends.”

But please don’t underestimate this book, because it is SO much more than that. It’s about longing and disappointment; it’s about hurt and heartache. It’s about caring, compassion and commitment. Most of all, this book is about love and learning to trust in love. It’s a love story and it’s a handbook for LIFE.

Dulcy’s commitment to loving her human, whom she hopes with all her heart will someday also love only her, is moving and poignant. Dulcy is wise, she is proud and sassy, she is steadfast and true. She is clear about who she is and what she wants. We are mere humans, and so it is Dee who must learn from the example that Dulcy sets.

Dulcy and Dee’s lifetime together unfolds through 12 chapters in which Dulcy reveals her feline wisdom, meant to be helpful to “kits and cats,” and Dee shares how Dulcy’s guidance transcends species and can help us human beings live richer, more loving lives.


Here are a few of my favorite moments from the book:

Dulcy: “Find your heartwish and begin to dream. Everything is possible for a kit – or cat – who dreams.”

Dee: “…Given freely, love can make us unique .... But more than my love has made Dulcy special. She knows how to listen and how to give delight. She knows the possibilities of silence. But most of all, she knows herself to be loveable.”

Dulcy: “I am old now and one day the great god of cats will call me. But I have planted memories in my human’s heart. When I am gone, she will discover them there, and they will comfort her.”

Dee: “How can we let another see the deepest, darkest secrets of our life? How can we let another see the yearning, the longing, the dreams, the heartwishes? … How can we step off the cliff and trust ourselves to the abyss of another’s love?”

As you can see from just these few snippets, the book is beautifully written. Dulcy’s personality is so real and vivid that you will quickly forget she is a cat! And there are many, many more beautifully expressed words of wisdom for life from both cat and human, but I want you to have the chance to read them for yourself.

I really loved this book – so much so, that writing this review made me want to read it again - which I am doing!.

So YES, this is a GREAT book to give to your cat-loving friends, but it’s simply a wonderful book all around. I hope that you’ll enjoy it for yourself too.

The book is available in paperback and ebook from Amazon.com. Here are the links:

A Cat’s Legacy: Dulcy’s Story - Paperback

A Cat's Legacy: Dulcy's Story - Ebook

Dee's Blog: Coming Home to Myself

On the Road Again

Although I just wrapped up telling you about our trip to England and Wales, we've actually been back in the U.S. for three weeks. We spent two more weeks in Elkhart, Indiana, where Nexus continued our warranty work. The delay was caused by new cabinet doors that had been ordered, but not received. The finish on the first cabinets was not properly sealed, that's why we needed new ones. Turns out, the company doing the cabinet work never actually delivered them to Nexus - at least not before we left. Good thing that someone at Nexus had the forethought to order a set from another cabinet maker, because those did come in and got installed.

I think I told you that we had the leveler system removed - the new one malfunctioned (third strike!) so out it came. And, our third Magellan GPS failed so we sent that back. We picked up a nice little Garmin GPS and so far I like it much better - mainly because it WORKS!

Last week, we finally headed back on the road. Our first stop was in Battle Ground, Indiana at the Prophets Town State Park. This is one of the best parks we've been at in terms of how it's laid out. Nice big, flat spaces (important now that we are traveling without levelers), with lots of trees in between for privacy. Pretty country too.

Then we moved on to the Dale Hollow Lake State Park Resort in Tennessee - this too is a beautiful park, well-laid out and in a beautiful area. Here are a couple of pictures:

RVPainter relaxing in his chair behind our RV

The marina at the state park on Dale Hollow Lake

Next we head for Nashville, Memphis and then down to Florida. We'll be stopping again at Ft. Pickens State Park in Pensacola - one of our favorite stop-overs when we first set out and were heading east. We'll stay longer this time. Then we'll be heading further down into Florida for the winter months.

I'll be heading back north on my own (by plane) in late November for more classroom visits and some book signing events - I've got a pretty full schedule of those booked!

Today is a rainy day, so I'm just piddling around with this and that ... I've got a new Louise Penny mystery to read - always something to look forward to!



Three Days in Beaumaris - The Final Chapter of our Trip to England and Wales

After the Old Blues left us on Tuesday, September 4th, RVPainter and I stayed on in Beaumaris until Saturday the 8th. Over those three days, we enjoyed our accomodations at the lovely Churchbank Bed & Breakfast; we wandered around the town (it's small, but very charming as you'll see); visited the castle and the Old Gaol; sat on the pier, drank mochas and ate treats from the Castle Bakery; shopped for gifts; and just generally enjoyed ourselves. We hoped that, before we left, we would learn the name of the woman Mom lived with in Beaumaris - all the mysteries had been solved except this one. Did we? Read to the end to find out ....



Beaumaris Castle - a castle with a moat even! Right there in the middle of town. Very cool!





Our Inn - straight across - the white building.



St.Mary's Church, right across from our Inn
When Mom was in Beaumaris, on Sundays, all the students from her school put on their uniforms and marched through town like a parade to attend services at St. Mary's Church. When I booked our accomodations, I didn't know the church would be right across the street!


The streets of Beaumaris:

Along the Menai Strait - In her essay ( a few posts back) My mother described jumping in the cold water early in the

morning, and the view of the mountains across the way:

 

The house where Mom lived: 4 Green Edge - it's the one with the white door.




On our first full day in Beaumaris, we got word that Jackie from the town council office thought she had found information for us about the woman with whom Mom had lived. The town kept records of deaths by address, and there was one that seemed like it might fit the bill. Jackie gave us the location of the woman's grave in the town cemetery, and we went to take a look. But the grave listed the names of children, and we knew the woman that Mom lived with had been a spinster. It didn't fit.

On our last evening there, we strolled once more past 4 Green Edge. Lawrence Roberts, who lives at 3 Green Edge, was outside, staining a bench. We'd met Lawrence and his wife Mildred (the lady in the gray pansuit in the previous post) at the luncheon with the Old Blues. Lawrence is a former mayor of Beaumaris, and that day he'd pledged to see what he could learn for us.

When he saw us walking by, Lawrence called out, "OH! I thought you were gone! I have information for you."

 He gave us the name Alice Ridsdale, a spinster who had lived with her maid, Harriet Jones at number 4 Green Edge. In fact, Alice was Lawrence's godmother, though I had the sense he didn't remember her. This fit perfectly with my mother's description of having lived with "an old lady and her maid."

Lawrence and Mildred gave us a tour of their lovely house at #3 - #4 would have been exactly the same except in mirror-image. This gave me a sense of the home Mom had described and I looked through the third floor bedroom windows at the views of the Menai Strait that she would have opened her eyes to each morning with delight.

So, yes, the questions were answered! All the mysteries solved! Our trip to England and Wales was perfect in every way - including the beautiful sunshine we brought them - our friends there say it has rained incessantly ever since we left! But most importantly, we got to see dear old friends and make dear new ones. We were so cared for all along the way, and it was a lovely feeling. Sometimes we feel so much like we are out there on our own, taking care of things, so when suddenly we are being taken care of, it is both a surprise and a delight.

I'll close with one more view of the Menai Strait on a sunny day in Wales: