Jana Remy
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Jana Remy

  • Writing
    • Disability
    • Making History
    • Digital Humanities
      • dayofDH
    • Canoeing
    • Creative Nonfiction & Essays
    • Feminism
    • Bibliographies
      • Pacific Worlds Bibliography
    • Social Media
      • Mentions/Links
  • Scholarship
    • Awards/Fellowships
    • Conferences & Invited Talks
    • Collaboration
    • Workshops
    • Conference Planning
    • Technical Skills
  • Teaching
    • Blogposts About Teaching
amputeeJohn

on cats & crutches

written by Jana May 24, 2006

John asked (as he was simultaneously petting ellycat and toweling off after his morning shower):
“What if humans had fur like cats all over their bodies?”

Jana: “Then we would have riots and wars over the fact that some of us cats have different-colored fur. Can you imagine how snotty the Siamese-cat humans would be?”

John: “Me, I’d be a hairless cat”

John finished drying off and the conversation drifted off into another direction. But as I was doing dishes this afternoon I thought a bit more about what type of cat I would be…

I think I would be like the B&W three-legged cat that we used to meet on our walks to the garden. That cat was agile and strong. His missing leg caused him to lurch from side-to-side a bit, but never slowed him down.

Being a three-legged catwould mean I would have no need of crutches like the new ones I bought yesterday. For 22 years I’ve used hand-me-down or thrift store crutches. For the first time I bought my own. They are of the space-age folding variety because I’m sick of having to hand-carry my full-size crutches every time I travel. They always cause problems at security checkpoints and they don’t fit in the overhead bin (thus, they usually ride in a posh first class coat closet while I’m relegated to coach). Because I like to travel light (e.g. two weeks in Europe w/one small daypack), the crutches really slow me down…

But no more…(purr, purr)

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0 comment

Gray May 26, 2006 - 6:41 pm

You certainly got a log of mileage out of those crutches!

I have a good friend who accumulates them as accessories, about the same way my wife collects earrings. She has different colors, lengths, and designs for different purposes, shoes, and outfits. My parsimonious Yankee soul recoils from her expensive excesses, but I imagine that you could even allow yourself a second new pair that pleases you after all these years.

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rich May 27, 2006 - 8:56 pm

I have a friend that made a binocular parallelogram mount out of old aluminum crutches — very cool use of resources (and the parallelograms work fabulously).

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About Me

About Me

Hi there friend, and welcome to my blog. I started writing on the internet two decades ago. Since then I've started and finished a PhD program, left the Mormon church and became a Quaker, got divorced, remarried, found full-time work in academia, took up rock climbing and outrigger canoeing, and traveled across the globe (China! Belgium! Italy! Chicago! Montana! Portland! Gettysburg! and oh-so-many points in-between). This blog is eclectic and random--it has poetry and cooking and books. And cats. And flowers. And the ocean (my ocean). But in that sense it's a good reflection of me and my wide-ranging, far-reaching, magpie curiosity.

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