Losses and Strays

I have been continuing to do magic shows at night and on weekends. I continue to love my day job at Cedars-Sinai, now the number one hospital in California (and number 2 in the nation). It is great to have a job where I feel like I can make a difference. Then, with my magic, I just make people happy.

There has been some sadness this year, though, and some real loss. I lost my father-in-law at Christmas, then my beloved cat Leeloo passed from cancer and, then a close friend died from a brain tumor. She had her own events company and shared lots of great advice with me. My car was stolen. Although that was just a thing, it was pretty scary as the thief also broke into our house while we were home.

I went to the Magic Castle on Sunday and they had the memorial for Shimada. He was perhaps the best known Japanese magician in America, and I was fortunate enough to work with him on shows many times. I even got to play the role of one of the assistants all dressed in black for a television special, Shimada in America. His dragon act was amazing and I worked behind the scenes on the show when he premiered it. He was an incredible performer whose performances were also quite beautiful. The family legacy of magic continues on through his daughter Luna, who appeared as a princess on that same television special.

Before the memorial I went to the Erdnase class I have been taking at the Magic Castle for awhile. Magic involves lifelong learning. You are always improving your skills and adding new magic effects. Erdnase is a mysterious person whose real identity is not known. His book, The Expert at the Card Table, first published in 1902, has long been considered a foundational book for both card cheats and magicians. One of my husband’s favorite magic and science writers, Martin Gardner, called it, “the most famous, the most carefully studied book ever published on the art of manipulating cards at gaming tables”. Martin was right.

There is a lot of great information to study in this seminal work and the patient and knowledgeable instructor, Todd Karr, is not only a magician, but an author and editor. He’s currently writing a book about Erdnase, and the Magic Castle magicians taking his class are all benefitting from his dedication and hard work. I don’t consider myself a card magician. I don’t do fancy card flourishes in my performances. I intentionally handle cards like a regular person. I want it to be magic for the audience and this works well for my character. That said, I do love to do a few card tricks, and I can’t seem to stop collecting new decks of cards. In the class we are exposed to a lot of advanced techniques, and quite a few have snuck their way into my strolling magic act.

We got a new cat and named her Lily! She is a little different looking, with very asymmetrical coloration (one paw is light brown and 3 are black) and a bit of a spooky face, especially when she was in the back of the cage where it was darker at the pound. She looks like she is wearing a mask, has large gold eyes, and was very skinny. Most people were just passing her by and focusing on the abundance of new kittens, who were all adorable.

I am happy that we chose Lily for many reasons. She is turning out to be the sweetest of cats. She did not look particularly healthy when we got her, and while the animal shelter gave her a clean bill of health the vet we took her to did not. We have a habit of going to get a kitten and coming home with the cat who really needs us. She was a year and a half old and unbelievably skinny. I think the problem was that she had an infected gum and all she was fed was kibble, which was hard for her to eat. We put her on wet food, and antibiotics knocked down the infections.

Unfortunately, she also has an incurable, although not fatal, disease: Feline viral rhinotracheitis. It is more commonly known as Feline Herpes, and it is very common in cats, much like the human form is common in humans. It is not transferable to humans. You have to watch for outbreaks that can lead to upper respiratory problems and eye infections. Can she infect the other cat? Yes, she will be infectious during outbreaks. All we can do is our best to keep a close eye on her health and treat her with medication as needed.

We also have to deal with her video game addiction. It started innocently enough. She has been separated from the other cat and limited to the office areas of the house while she was recovering and building up her strength.. In my husband’s office is a 43 inch 4k computer monitor mounted on the wall above the desk. When we played a 4K bird video for cats, I thought she was going to leap through the screen. After looking behind the TV, she sat on the desk and just watched.

She is only mildly interested in most things are on TV. However, when we played a walk-through of the popular summer release of Stray, a video game where you play a stray cat in a humanless and decaying cyber city, she sat up and watched intently. Her head followed every move of the on-screen digital cat. She was totally engrossed by it, more so than the bird videos. I got bored with it before she did. Not that the game is boring, but this was not interactive, just a demo. The game itself looks pretty amazing, different, and wildly imaginative. When I went to look for a screenshot to use here, I discovered that cats watching Stray is a big thing. They love it. There is even a Twitter account called Cats Watching Stray. Finally, a video game that humans and cats can play together. Sales of the game also help raise money for animal shelters.