Saturday, May 31, 2025

The Cutest Cat in The World

 Not two days after I posted the last entry, I had to say goodbye to my beloved cat.

This picture was taken that very morning. For the month leading up to this, I'd been leaving my house assuming it was the last time I'd see her, so it wasn't a TOTAL shock, but it still hit me pretty hard.

She made it to 18, much longer than the other cats I've had. It was a terminal case of O-L-D, I'm afraid. She was pretty blind and arthritic near the end, not going up and down stairs or up on couches as much. And she really liked going out of her way to avoid using the litterbox. Like, we put down a second litter box in the spot she usually went in, thinking that would solve it. But no. She'd go BEHIND them to do her business. That's usually a sign that the end was coming.

She came with the name Cleopatra, but had many others over the course of her life: Cleah (clee-ah), Gypsy, Miss America, Mrs. Peabody, Miss Prissy, Dummy cat, critter, or just Cat. She loved chewing on plastic, and sleeping in those boxes water bottles used to come in. She hadn’t been doing much in her later years, mostly meowing and drinking water. But she was always down to lay down next to me and watch tv with me or sleep on her favorite pillows.

She never liked being held, and mostly tolerated it when I picked her up. Only ate dry cat food, nothing else. I called her my picky little princess. We’ve been through so much together. She literally outlived a good chunk of my family, not to mention relationships, hurricanes, Covid, the whole nine. This is literally the end of an era for me. She literally predated this blog. I said there’s not many things I love more in this world than this cat, and I meant it. I’ll break down eventually.

Here are some other great pictures of her.
















Needless to say that she was my favorite subject. My muse, if you will.

And here are two of the first pictures I took of her. Yes, those dates are correct.



She had sass since day one. I miss you so much.

My one wish was to get more time with her, and I got it. My other wish is for all of you to see her how I saw her, the cutest cat in the world. Everyone thinks THEIR cat is the cutest one, and they're all right. But MY cat. She was the cutest one.

So...basically my month ended way better than it started.

Like, on Sunday I finally got to go to the flea market for the first time this year! And I hit pay dirt!
















"Bayou Billy? I hoped you saved the receipt!"






Yeah, you saw that right. I was VERY tempted to get it, just for the sheer novelty of it. But I didn't.

And here's what I ultimately went home with:


Yeah, you see a VHS copy of Mac & Me for two bucks, you don't hesitate to grab it. Even if I haven't owned a VCR in about a decade and a half. 

And I found a Ren & Stimpy comics trade I didn't have yet! You might remember last month's entry (scroll down) where I caved and went to eBay for issue 43 of the Ren & Stimpy comics, the last issue I needed. The booth I got that trade at had a whole mess of comics, and one box of licensed ones.

They had only a few Ren & Stimpy comics. And guess which issue I found?!

Number 43. AND the mini Wizard special issue. I was kicking myself, but the eBay ones were kinda cheaper, but it really DID feel like I cheated. But hindsight being 20/20 and all that. 

And that Maximum Occupancy sign was from a game store near where I live that closed down not too long ago. Not sure how it ended up with the guy selling the Coca-Cola memorabilia, but I wasn't in the mood to ask. He was kinda pushy and was obsessed with wanting the shirt off my back.


I mean, to be fair, it is a pretty sweet shirt. Got it out of a Teefury grab bag about ten years ago. And if I had a spare shirt in my car (I was absolutely NOT gonna trust the condition of a shirt off the rack at a train station flea market), I probably would've taken him up on the offer.

Here's hoping June is much better, for all of us.

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Finally. It's Done.

So April is over, so it's time for Justin Timberlake to say "me" in a way that everyone swears sounds like "May."

So what happened over the past thirty days?

Well...the Pope died.

This sucks. I actually liked Francis. I mean, he was 88 and been in poor health for a while. He'd been at death's door for months, and it took one visit from JD Vance to decide it was time to be with the other popes in the big conclave in the sky.

Definitely the best pope in my lifetime, and most likely ever. Definitely better than the one who exploded after he died, or the one that exhumed a different pope to put his corpse on trial, or the one that went all William Henry Harrison and died after 33 days on the job.

The man walked the walk when it came to his faith and humility. He actually preached compassion, snuck out of the Vatican to wash the feet of the poor, and was ultimately buried in a simple wooden box with his old worn shoes. Hey, if I was facing eternity, I'd wear my trusty comfy shoes, too. 

This of course made many so-called Christians here in the States angry. Since the majority religion in this country is some version of Protestant, it's not surprising. Catholicism is weird, but not the weirdest form of Christianity.

But that's a story for another time. Time to show off something I got.

The Ren & Stimpy Show comics #43! Why is this one so special? 

Well, it took literal years, but this was the last issue I needed to complete my collection of the original main run of 44 issues. I've had a lot of the early stuff as a kid back when it was being printed in the 90s, but about six or seven years ago I sought to finish the set.

Not my image, fyi

I actually already HAD issue 44, bought it right off the newsstand when it was new at an airport as I was leaving for some vacation, and was horrified to learn it was indeed the last issue.

And since it was the last one, it fetches a pretty penny these days. I got it for the low low price of roughly two bucks in 1996 money.

You see, for licensed Marvel comics, especially the Ren & Stimpy run, the early issues are incredibly common and thus, pretty cheap. Like, three dollar bin cheap. Issue 1 of course being the exception, for being a Number 1 and that it had a scratch-n-sniff feature that was sealed and the whole thing is worth more intact. It's when you get to the later part of the run, past issue 30, is where you run into trouble. 

And so for years I scoured every comic shop and comic con I could find, I found comics here and there. coming up empty on the later stuff but ultimately finding most of them. Except issue 43. 

Last week I finally cried uncle and went to eBay for this one. It feels like I cheated. I like hunting on my own, finding booths and stores that carried these comics was challenging enough, and it was an even bigger gamble to find specific books. There's that real rush that comes from actually finding one. So going online feels...less special?

Either way, it's finally in my hands and I can rest easy.

...except I went down a rabbit hole and discovered special issues I hadn't even heard of and now I need THOSE to finish the real complete set.

I did manage to score a few on that same eBay binge, but thankfully they didn't run me too much. Like, "pretty much just paying for shipping" cheap.

You got your requisite Christmas special.

An issue filled with mazes, puzzles, and craft ideas. Naturally, it's important if it's intact like this one was.

And a mini comic that was included with an issue of Wizard.

Incredible to believe that Dan Slott worked on this before becoming the Spider-Man guy.

It comes to no surprise that he wrote my favorite issue, number six, where a mind-controlled Powdered Toast Man fought Spider-Man. The very first time he wrote for Spidey!


Of course Powdered Toast Man wins.

All in all, there's about four specials I'm missing (Four Swerks, Frankenstimpy, Powdered Toast Man Special 1995, Sports Special), so the hunt continues.

And on the subject of comics and hunting for them, this Saturday is the annual Free Comic Book Day!

So if you have local comic shops, swing by and buy stuff from them, and pick up some free comics! I'm lucky that I have three shops within five minutes of my house. I'm gonna clean up.