I'm holding hope for Midwest pets caught in the recent floods. May they all stay well and be reunited with their people.

On a personal note, I'm feeling grateful today that I've been able — for the first time since my spinal trauma — to raise a front paw this morning to wake dog-ma and then roll over for a tummy scratch.

I'm feeling even more grateful after reading how Midwest humane societies, HSUS rescue teams, the American Kennel Club (AKC), AKC Companion Animal Recovery (CAR), Midwest region AKC clubs, shelter volunteers, and others are helping animal victims of the recent floods.

The AKC and CAR reported in a 6/18 news article that they've donated supplies and coordinated shipments to temporary shelters housing displaced pets. They're also working with officials and their own club members in the region to offer assistance and help coordinate volunteers. Needed supplies have included crates, portable kennels, bowls, leashes, collars, harnesses, food, and other items that help volunteers care for hundreds of companion animals in major temporary shelters. AKC President Dennis B. Sprung was quoted as saying that "Since last week we have been contacting AKC clubs in the affected areas as well as local disaster officials in order to provide assistance for the benefit of any dog or companion animal displaced by the floods. . . ."

AKC CAR has a permanent Canine Support and Relief Fund providing resources, support, and other assistance to non-profit animal shelters and similar non-profit organizations that provide care for domestic animals orphaned or displaced as a result of natural or civil disasters. Woof!

Imagine what it takes to rescue pets and to staff and run temporary shelters that can safely house and feed every little buddy. How many pets must be frightened, or have special needs, or even acute health conditions to be attended to.

For the past day, Ms. Anisonya Siamese has been sculpting up a storm. It's been so hot here that I wish she could literally produce a storm. It is strange that she would choose this awful weather to work in, as she so often feels blocked artistically.

The real surprise came when I went out to do my business this morning (being careful, of course, to place my feet just right, as I'm still recovering). When I got myself sit-uated, I looked up at the sky and saw that the morning clouds were puffy little things quite resembling the shapes Ms. Anisonya is working on. Either the heat's gotten to my canine faculties, or this cat's a genius!

Ms. Anisonya is a California Neo-Synthesist who works in sculpture and painting media, most often in watercolor. Her current palette shows mature restraint and favors the subdued range of early Andrew Wyeth. It has been deemed "quite tasteful."

Even though Ms. A.S. is quite young, she's already being shown locally and is producing works of value to the serious collector of Neo-Synthesist art.

Commenting on the history of couch-derived sculptural motifs in the lovely book Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics, authors Heather Busch and Burton Silver tell us, "The widespread domestic use of upholstered furniture, from the turn of the century on, has had a profound effect on the development of a feline."

Oh woof! Now I understand that both the palette and the palate of the young feline should be carefully nurtured.

Detail from Ms. Anisonya's work in progress.

Night of the summer-solstice full moon in the Valley of the Moon . . . Dog bites of domestic, washed-rind cow's milk Muenster cheese accompanied by intense, fruity, young Sonoma Valley Cabernet sauvignon. <sigh> I got to taste only the cheese. But I hear that the bottle was a nice guerrilla vino from wine writer and former Gundlach-Bunschu guru Lance Cutler.

Many palate-educating and palate-educated humans and four-footeds have pawsed in areas around the Valley of the Moon. Jack London's dogs and the author himself pawsed to write his 1913 novel The Valley of the Moon. The late M.F.K. Fisher, author and esteemed pioneer of the culinary memoir, is perhaps the most cherished Valley human. She lived in Glen Ellen and liked cats, you know.

Fisher wrote about "receipts" a lot. That's old school for recipes. A very old term. For me, good recipes are woofable heaven. But my paw-point here is that, to recognize good recipes, you've got to have an educated palate. You get one by trying new things all the time. A young cat, says my vet Dr. Jordan, is very in need of having her pussin palate educated by eating a variety of foods. I think this applies to all of us, pets and people, but it's crucial for cats.

Pawse here. Read that quote again. Think about how smell conjures up memories. The more I sniff, the more I want to sniff everything. But I dog-gress.

I like what author Joan Reardon, expert biographer of Fisher, said of Proust's writings on nostalgia: "In pursuit of vanished time, he found a transfiguring moment in the taste of a madeleine dipped in a cup of lime flower tea."

In purr-suit of vanished time. Eee . . goosebumps.

Ms. Reardon has extensively researched nostalgia and gastronomic writing. She reviewed a nice book entitled The Future of Nostalgia by S. Boym. Reardon wrote, "Harvard professor Svetlana Boym says that the word was coined in 1688 by the Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer to identify the homesickness of Swiss soldiers who reacted physically to the hearing of certain folk melodies and the eating of rustic soups while on missions away from home."

Ah, food and music!

Back to feline palates. There are ways to prevent pussins from being overly fussy eaters. One way to entice pussin to the table that we understand now, thanks to Dr. J, is to make sure to educate the young palate by feeding a variety of good foods. Another way is by making sure the food is FRESH and species-appropriate. Woof? Big concepts. What I've learned from cats — experts would agree with this —is that they're responding to instincts that help nurture and protect them. Cats are merely expressing their need for SAFE, FRESH sources of protein and other nutrients.

I'm sure cats would rather eat the way they did back in the day: whole-prey dining. . . . Ain't that nostalgic? By the way, we dogs have different intestinal ecology than cats do. A cat's digestive system and instincts render her unable to tolerate stuff that we dogs inhale without a first or second thought. I think Ms. Fisher would say, "A pussin always displays good taste."

The last word goes to a recipezaar blog groupie: "MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating contains her most famous 5 novels in one! Anyone who loves food should try and get a copy, it's paperback. My cat scratched the index pages to shreds. . . ."

I've discovered that Anisonya Siamese, my fast young feline, is a fierce fly shredder. And she has a pawtner in crime: Jack-be-nimble, Pembroke Welsh corgi buddy.

Nature's way, is this? . . . Nature's way for flies to be in a house? . . . Nature's way for a pussin to fly at window panes and across counter-tops? . . . Nature's way to cause me to constantly be distracted from blogging and sleeping?

Oh howl! Why don't Anisonya and Jack go bug dog-ma for a while? They don't realize that a dog like me who's recuperating from surgery needs rest, not a couple of crazy fly shredders jumpin' around.