Amazing how quickly time slips away when life becomes a hectic whirlwind of chaos and challenges!   However, I am trying to ensure that I find ways to bring little rays of sunshine into my life, to help drive back the darkness of Depression and frustration.   Although I have been spending almost every penny I have scraped together to make the Octagon livable and keep it progressing to completion, last week, I decided I needed to do something purely for me.    As it happened, I had, some weeks ago been poking through Ebay, marveling at the amazing variety of weird stuff available today, and, I ran across a small statue of a cat, perched on a stack of books.   Well, two of the primary forces in my life that keep it worth living are the cats I interact with,  and the books I am blessed with.   However, at the time, it was listed at $80.00, which was slightly more than I could cough up.   So,  with a sigh, I moved on.   Well, a little bit ago, I was, again, distracting myself from the stresses of reality with a dip into the Weird Pool of Ebay, and, to my surprise, the cat statue was not only still available, but, it had been marked down to $60!   While still a worrisome sum of money, I decided to go for it, and, did a “buy it now”.   The statue showed up today, and, I have to say that it comes closer than anything recently has to bringing a smile to my face.   It was claimed that it was sort of an antique ( supposedly carved in the mid-1950s).  I do not have proof of that, but, it is really nicely done, and, the cat has a very “cat-like” expression of concentration on its face.   I am very pleased with it, and, will enjoy having it around as long as I can.   Violetta and Tristan spent a little bit of time sniffing the “carved” cat….which was most amusing.   In any case, here are a few pictures of the sculpture.

There is a lot of detail on this well-carved item…

Violetta noticed the new cat directly and checked it out.
SHe rapidly lost interest when she discovered it was just a carving

And here is the carved kitty looking down at the floor…