Personal Note: New Family Member Oreo

We have a new family member!  A spunky little kitten we named Oreo for obvious reason.

So here’s what happened.  I mentioned in a blog last year that a cat gave birth to kittens under our back deck and we fed them and they grew into our outdoor cats.  There were five kittens last year plus the Mama Cat.  We named the kittens Shadow, Star, Twinkle, Patches, and Witchy.  Shadow and Witchy were pure black cats.  Star was a black cat with a white star-like patch on his chest.  Twinkle was the same except the star patch on her chest was about half the size.  Patches was a black and white, almost in the tuxedo arrangement.  Mama Cat was identical to Twinkle.  Once grown you couldn’t tell them apart except that Mama Cat would hiss at you all the time.

Four of the five kittens survived.  Witchy either hurt her hind legs or developed some sort of physical problem.  She hobbled for a while.  I tried to catch her to take her to a veterinarian but couldn’t.  Ultimately she disappeared, either left or died.  The four kittens made it through the winter, grew into healthy strong cats, and commanded our backyard as their personal territory.  Mama Cat would come and go, but mostly stayed away.

Now I’ve used gender nouns so far, but frankly I can’t tell which of the kittens are male or female.  Come the end of spring, there were a bunch of kittens with the now grown cats.  At one count we had a dozen kittens running around our back eating the food we leave out.  How many different litters there are, we’re not exactly sure.  Mama Cat came back to deliver another set of kittens.  Patches is definitely the mother of another set.  It’s possible that Twinkle, who looks like her mother, is also a mother of a litter.  Here is either Mama Cat or Twinkle nursing her kits.

I can’t tell if that’s Twinkle or Mama Cat, but you can see the kittens are black or black and white.  Quite a few of the kittens are black and white, and that’s because I suspect the father is a big black and white Tom Cat that wonders the neighborhood.  Other colors of the kittens are either all grey or grey and white.  Here is an adorable grey and white we call Pickles.

Now we also have gone back through the pictures of the backyard and found Oreo with his mother.  That’s Oreo playing with the blue string. 

Only Oreo has that white ring coloring around the back of his neck.  So we know that’s him.  So his mother is either Mama Cat or Twinkle, I can distinguish the two. 

So what happened is Matthew wanted one of the kittens for inside for the longest time and was plotting to grab one when the opportunity presented.  One morning, while the kittens were feeding and Oreo was not on his guard, Matthew swooped him up and brought him in.  This was on Tuesday (Sept8th) just after Labor Day.  Rochelle and Matthew brought him to a veterinarian on Thursday who said he was healthy.  So in less than a week, he has become integrated into our home.

The vet assigned him a birthday of July 3^rd (7/3/26) which would make him eight weeks old, but frankly I think he’s closer to six or seven.  But July 3^rd is it.  The other important information we got from the vet is that he is male.  I can never tell with cats.

So here are some pictures.  Here’s Matthew with his new best friend.

Rosie and Oreo have gotten along from the beginning.  God bless Rosie for not being aggressively territorial.  However, Tiger, our cat of eleven years, has not.  He avoids Oreo, stares at him, and has even hissed at him.  If anyone has advice on how to get an older established cat friendly to a new kitten in the house, I could use it.  No pictures with Tiger yet.  Here’s Matthew sleeping with Oreo.

This recalls when Tiger was a kitten and would love to sleep in Matthew’s bed.  From eleven years ago when Matthew was five years old.

 

 

Let’s end with two more.  Oreo like most babies has bursts of energy and then crashes.  They seem to go in two cycles of two hours of running around and then crashing  Here he is crashing on top of the couch.

And finally what I consider a really beautiful picture, I’ll end with this.

One other note.  The name Oreo was Rochelle's idea.

Personal Note: Rosie Turns Twelve

For regular readers of Ashes From Burnt Roses, you will remember my Black Labrador Retriever, Rosie.  I have posted on her through the years, especially on her birthdays.  There are some great pictures and videos of her through the years in those posts.  It tugs at my heartstrings to recall them.

Last week on the twelfth, Rosie turned twelve years old.  She is now our longest living dog.  For nostalgia's sake, here are the life spans of our three dogs.

	Birth	Death	Life Span	Days
Sasha	Oct 5, 1991	July 18, 2003	11 Yrs, 9 Mths, 13 Days	4,305 Days
Brandi	Nov 4, 2003	Dec 1, 2013	10 Yrs, 27 days	3,681 Days
Rosie	Aug 12, 2014	Still Living!	12 Yrs, 7 days & Counting	4,390+ Days

We loved them all.

Rosie is still kicking!  To my surprise.  She had a bunch of ailments as a young dog.  She had Lyme Disease.  We were not as strict with her on the heartworm pills, and after Covid we rarely took her to the veterinarian unless it was an emergency.  She was not kept up on her shots, and frankly I wonder how good all those shots are.  She had seizures last year but it’s been a while since the last one.  She had and continues to have all sorts of benign growths, some very large.  Right now she as a growth on the right side of her chest about the size of three-inch-thick paperback, ten by six inches.  One large growth several years ago was on her rear end, and it grew so big that it obstructed her anus.  It had to be removed.  The surgeon said it came out as one large ball and it was all benign.  We suspect that large growth on her chest is benign also.

For the past year she has struggled with arthritis in her hips.  She hasn’t tried to run in over six months.  The video I posted on her eleventh birthday may have been the last time she ran.  It’s a struggle for her to go up and down the stairs.  Going up the stairs I have to help her rear half by placing one arm under her belly and the other on her backside pushing up and forward.  Once I give her a push she gets into a rhythm, pulling her back legs up the stairs as she pulls herself with her front legs.  We took her to the vet in April and he did not recommend any medication.  She also showed up with reduced kidney function in her blood test. 

At some point after her eleventh birthday, I started counting down the months to her twelfth hoping she would get there.  And she did!  It sounds depressing but she remains a happy dog. 

She, as all our pets, have been blessings to us.

We got her a floor mattress thinking she would prefer not to climb onto the couch.  In her doggy logic she refuses to lay on the floor mattress.  The best we could do was coax her to lay her head on it.

And guess who took over the mattress?  Tiger!  LOL.

She still gets on the couch, mostly by herself but sometimes with a little help.

 Being silly!

And with Rochelle.

In the snow in February. 

Here at the Vet in April.

Here is her most recent picture on her birthday last week.

 

Happy Birthday Rosie!

 

Personal Note: Tiger Turns Eleven

Our wonderful little cat, who we found as an estimated five-week-old kitten on May 14^th, 2015 turned eleven years old yesterday.  We date her birthday from five weeks before adopting date, which would put it on April 9^th.  He is still vigorous and outgoing, unlike our eleven-year-old Rosie.  I’ll post on Rosie’s old age in the near future. For now this is Tiger’s day.  He’s still a little devil and the king of this household.  Here are some recent pictures.

He still loves to climb.

He kind of matches our living room décor.  Here he is trying to get Rochelle to feed him early.

 

I recently found him sitting on my desk chair, looking kittenish and cute.

Being silly in the bathroom sink.

On occasion he will turn penitent for all his cat sins.

 Is there a feline priest to give him absolution?  But then again he can reign in his kingdom in the best of comfort.

If you wish, you can look at past posts of Tiger through the years. 

Happy birthday Tiger!

Personal Note: My Rite of Perpetual Profession

As some of you may know, I’ve been a Lay Dominican for a while, striving to reach Final Profession.  On January 24^th, I made my Final Profession.

If you don’t know what a Lay Dominican is, I wrote a lengthy blog post several years ago, starting with explaining what are religious orders, the Dominican Order, and finally concluding with the Lay Dominicans, which is also referred to as the Dominican Third Order.  You may want to read that if you don’t have a concept of the various orders and how they pertain to the laity.

The Lay Dominicans also go through similar steps as the religious of the Dominican Order: postulate, novice, first profession, final profession.  For the record, here are the dates of my steps.

Postulancy: March 2018

Novice: May 25, 2019

First Promise: March 25, 2022

Final Promise: January 24, 2026

Novice is supposed to be only a one year process, but Covid delayed that two years.  Between first and final promises, which I believe is called the “Perpetual Profession,” is supposed to take about three years, but because the fraternity in Staten Island had to merge and relocate there was some delay in keeping up with the various learning modules.

So last Saturday I became fully professed!  My religious name chosen at first profession is Br. John Catherine of Siena.

Let me share a video clip and some pictures.  The ceremony was within a Mass and took place at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Manhattan (E68th St, just in from 1^st Ave).  St. Catherine of Siena Church is our new fraternity home and is run by Dominican friars. 

 

The ceremony occurs after the homily and consists of an examination of the candidate—which is just a formal asking of his intention—an invocation of divine grace, the perpetual profession, the blessing and clothing of the large scapular, and final prayers.  In the video clip of the ceremony you will see me, Jennifer our fraternity president, and Fr. Joseph Allen O.P. who is our religious assistant at St. Catherine’s.

 

The large scapular—as opposed to the small scapular which consists of two cloths connected with strings that go over the shoulders and under a shirt which we receive at First Profession—is the lay version of a much more distinct version that religious Dominicans receive at their professions.  The lay large scapular is reserved for ceremonies and occasions such as this.  Jennifer is wearing hers.  I also have the option of having it placed on me at my funeral.

 

Pictures

Afterwards with Jennifer and Fr. Joseph.

With my wife and son.

And with some members of the Fraternity.

Thanks be to God.  To praise, to bless, to preach!  May I be worthy of the honor.

 

Merry Christmas 2025

I offer this as a Christmas card to all my readers.  Instead of copying and pasting a meme off the internet, I want to post a picture of the Christmas decorated altar and sanctuary at my parish St. Rita’s Catholic Church on Staten Island.  I took this myself today.

 

I love the crèche at the foot of the altar and yellow and red poinsettias rising up to the tabernacle.

Here is also a lesser played Christmas Carol that has its roots as a Negro Spiritual, “Oh Jerusalem in the Morning.”  Actually I think it’s a Negro Spiritual but I could not find any real information on the song. 

Here is a magnificent version where the spiritual has been modified with a version referred to as “Baby Born Today” or sometimes referred to as “Mary and the Baby.”  I must admit some of this information is speculative on my part.  There is so little information on the internet on this carol.  From the Vocal Ensemble, Chanticleer, with a special guest lead vocalist, Dawn Upshaw.

 

Absolutely beautiful!  Where would American music be without our beloved African-American culture?  They have added so much to it.

The lyrics are also somewhat speculative and have been modified, but here are a portion of them. 

 

Mother Mary, what is the matter?

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Father Joseph, what is the matter?

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Baby born today

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

There's a baby born today

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Born in a stable

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

A stall was his cradle

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Wrapped in his swaddling clothes

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Laying him in a manger

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Born in Bethlehem

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Baby born today

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

Baby born today

Oh, Jerusalem in the morning

 

I should add, the carol does get the facts of Jesus' birth wrong.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem.  But that doesn't matter.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours.

 

Personal Note: My New Backyard Family

We had unexpected guests this summer that have stayed around.  We have graciously fed them.  They are treating our home as if it’s their own.  They don’t really repay us in our kindness.  They just hang around thinking their cuteness is enough of a gesture to offset our generosity.  You know what, they are right!

The unexpected guests are a mother cat with five kittens.  I have a one-step platform deck in my back yard, and sometime around mid-July a mother cat took possession of underneath the deck and is raising her five kittens there.  I don’t know if she was pregnant and gave birth there or she brought her kittens over after birth.  I suspect she gave birth there but we only saw the kittens when they were small.  Tiger, our house cat, was estimated by the veterinarian to be five weeks old when we took him in.  When we first noticed the kittens, they seemed to be around the same size as Tiger back then, or maybe a shade smaller.

The mother cat is a black cat, and all five kittens are predominantly black.  Mama has a small white patch on her chest, so she is not all black.  Three of the kittens are completely black and we can’t tell them apart.  One kitten has a white patch on his chest like his mother.  Perhaps the white patch on the kitten is a shade bigger and from a distance looks like a star.  I call him Star.  The fifth kitten, the biggest one and perhaps the most skittish, is a tuxedo pattern.  He or she, I can’t tell the difference with cats, has a black overcoat with a white chest and belly.  He has white paws as well.  I call him Tux.  (Gender pronouns are a generic male because I can’t tell the difference.)

Rochelle started feeding them almost immediately. 

Let me share some pictures.  These are some of the early pictures when the kittens were really small.

Look at how tiny they are.  We have a couple of stairs from the deck to the backdoor and they love to scramble under there when we come out. 

 

I think that’s the mother all the way in the back, and that looks like Star up front.  I think I see the little white patch on his chest.

Here is a full view of Mama.

 

She hisses every time we take a step toward her or the kittens.  Here’s a little video clip of two of the kits munching away while Rochelle sits in the chair a couple of feet beside.

 

Matthew took that video.  Matthew and I want to take one of the kittens into the house for keeps but Rochelle won’t let us.  We have two pets already and she doesn’t want to take care of another.  Even though she has been feeding them twice a day regularly now for almost three months.  Plus I worry about how Tiger will react to another cat, especially a kitten.  Cats I understand don’t always like other cats.

Here’s a little one on the lounge chair.

 

One day from the deck above overlooking the deck below I saw the Mama nursing two of the cats in that lounge chair.  I did not get a picture unfortunately. 

Here’s a video clip of me intruding on them in the yard and the three or four of the kits scrambling to hide.

 

They are so cute.  You can see how much they’ve grown in that video, which must be around early September.  One of them is Star.  Here is a good photo of Star.

 

Here’s another video of two rough housing.

 

I think that’s Star and Tux.

We take a lot of pictures of them.  Here are a bunch.  Hope you don't get bored but I'm a proud daddy.

 

 

You can kind of get a view of my garden in some of these pictures and clips.  Most of my gardening is done in pots.  It’s been a magnificent year overall for my garden but especially for tomatoes and eggplant.

One of the all black cats has become the friendliest.  He might even be the smallest.  He comes close to me as I work in the garden.  I call him Shadow because he’s all black and because he sticks by me like my shadow.  Here are a couple of pictures of Shadow.

 

Here is Shadow playing with a toy with Rochelle.

 

 

Finally, they are getting big.  Here they are like a pack of lions feasting.

 

I must admit, they eat rather kindly with each other.  The mother has done a nice job of raising them with manners.  Finally all six in one shot.

 

Bless them.  I think they have blessed us.  I hope they stay in my backyard for a while.