Sunday, October 4, 2009

Francis


Today, according to Christian tradition, is the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi. He has always been one of my favorite saints and I am surely not alone here. He is known as having a special, intutive relationship to Nature, and is often depicted in pious renderings as having animals gathered around him, with maybe a bird or two perched on his shoulder. I bet you know who I am talking about.
I think the reason I always liked him is he always seemed to me like some sort of medieval hippy. A sort of wandering, tree hugging, mystic. And in todays world, with all of our environmental concerns, he takes on an obvious added significance.

But as cool as St. Francis is, it is another Francis who I want to honor today. For it was 17 years ago today that our beloved cat, named after this saint from Assisi, came into our lives. On October 4th 1992 I picked up a 5 month old bundle of energy from a friend who had way too many bundles of energy on hand. Francis has been a great companion to both Lori and myself. A real friend. And yes, at 17 plus years he is still going strong!
So today, on his day, I wanted to honor him with these few words. You have been a peerless feline and we love you buddy!
I have attached the above picture because this entry obviously requires a photo so everyone can see what all the fuss is about. It's a fairly recent shot, taken within the past year.
Feel free to use the photo as wallpaper on your computer.
C'mon. You know you want to ...

4 comments:

Judelay2 said...

You sound just like a proud poppa to me. Is that old biological clock ticking?

Anonymous said...

While you consider your cat a Environmentalist-Renaissance Hippy, I think of our dear Rorschach, as more of a Post-Industrial Furball Runt.

Happy trails to all of you.

Teva said...

Love Francis! Keep on truckin'!

ML1959 said...

Sad post script: Our beloved Francis left us on December 21st, 2010. He will be remembered with great fondness and will live in our hearts forever.