Fostering Maya

Peggy here. Maya joined us on Friday night. She is a beautiful 18 month old red iggy who has been mistreated in the past. She is shy and uncertain but came out of her shell a bit last night. She and Jay get along well and it is possible that Jay has a crush on her. We know that Bea has a crush on Maya because of her keen interest and shyness around her. Taylor as usual couldn't care less, although Taylor does not run to escape her. Maya has been to the dog park twice in the past 2 days and has also been put to work as an iggy ambassador. She will go to Spawz tomorrow.

Jay feels overworked. He has had to go to school at Spawz all week, worked as an iggy ambassador on Thursday night, a host to new guest Maya on Friday night, and then iggy ambassador on Saturday. Apparently he wants a nap and some time to himself. Bea thunders down the hall and jumps at him and he just stares at her in a fog of fatigue, although he did drag her around by the neck for awhile this morning.

Taylor gets combed every night. Bea gets to play Mr. Laserlight and is so worn out that she does not keep the non-kittens awake all night.

Kathy continues to rescue little iggys and to build a practice. She loves her new job.

I continue to submit my novel to literary agents who send awfully polite rejection letters that make me feel more and more like a fiction writer. Here's an excerpt:
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When the moving truck jerked on and swerved off the courtyard, there stood Cookie Lancaster and her little brother Georgie. “Catherine Lee, nickname Cookie,” the skinny girl said. “You should call me Cookie.” She had a blonde pageboy haircut that was uneven. Her clothes were worn out, like they had been through a million washes, and too short. But it was her skinniness that you noticed first. She was a year younger than me. Nickname Cookie. Everybody in her family had one. Don’t you? She named off her aunt’s nicknames, Bootsie, Kitten, Missy. I had never heard of getting a name that was not your own. Cookie was happy with the names, laughing. So why would you want a plain old regular name like “Catherine” anyway. As she told her nickname story, she looked me full in the face, not talking in that way that other girls had, where you talk to someone and look the other way with your radio to your ear. Cookie twinkled when she talked. Her skin shone, her eyes were bright, and she laughed. She couldn’t stand still.

Cookie kept talking and smiling at me. As though I wanted to be there. As though I had planned to listen to someone talk about nicknames all day. Or to come up with one for me. I wanted to send her away with my new sarcastic way. But Cookie stood talking and smiling, and I laughed and looked where she pointed. She was like the little magnet terrier puppies the old neighbors had on their coffee table. You held one in each hand and the magnets worked, locking one terrier to the other terrier, like there was a spell. She’d better go, and I asked why don’t you stay and I’ll show you my books. Cookie didn’t like books and anyway it was time for Georgie’s lunch. Sure, she’d come back later.