Our New Ginger Snap
Taking a short break from food to share some good news. Meet Hobbes, already cozy after less than a day in his new forever home.
Regular readers know that Barb and I learned on Thanksgiving eve that our cat Sami had a rare and terminal blood disorder. That Saturday we felt compelled to let her go to spare her from suffering.
Barb and I have been married almost 38 years and have had rescue cats for 35 of them. As much as we miss and mourn Sami, we knew it would be a matter of time before we filled the aching void with another critter to love. How soon we didn’t know.
In fact, we had no plans on Monday to visit the Anti-Cruelty Society shelter in River North, located a couple of blocks from where I used to work for FamilyFarmed. But we’d looked at their site over the weekend and there was this big-eyed, curious-looking orange tabby named Hobbes. Susan, our neighbor and friend with whom we were running errands, offered a ride downtown “just to look around” (famous last words there), so after some indecision, off we went.
They let us visit with this beautiful boy, and of course he stole our hearts. He was totally calm in the car ride home, spent about two minutes under the couch and quickly established that he now owns the place.
He’s an older kitten (10 months) but he’s already a robust 10 pounds. He loves to play and has a soft meow and he’s not afraid to use it. He doesn’t appear to have a mean bone in his body, wanting only attention and pets. Oh, and food. The folks at the shelter told us that when it comes to eating, he’s a grazer. Apparently they meant he grazes like a buffalo; we’ll have to keep an eye on that.
We were even fortunate with his name. Often shelters will provide rescues with theme names that don’t work. When we adopted our first cat in 1987, the shelter had named her “Buick” (they had a car theme going on); we renamed her Sweetness after Walter Payton.
But Hobbes fit this big orange tabby perfectly. I always loved the cartoon “Calvin and Hobbes,” and have often shared this finale online around New Year’s Day. It seems even more appropriate today.
Whatever Barb and I get each other for the holidays, it can’t possibly be better than this.
Farmer’s Fridge Founder Featured in Podcast
I’ve been a little tardy in promoting The Dining Table podcast with David Manilow, presented by Crain’s Chicago Business. David is the creator of the long-running Check, Please! restaurant review TV show.
As it happens, David’s podcast recently featured Luke Saunders, another of my longtime acquaintances. Luke is the founder of Farmer’s Fridge, which produces healthy and delicious salads, sandwiches and snacks and sells them to people on the go from vending machines, in retail outlets and by delivery.
Luke is also a great supporter of Local Food Forum.
Click the button below to listen to David and Luke discuss Farmer’s Fridge and why Chicago is such a hotbed for Good Food entrepreneurs.
Mazel Tov! We had a Hobbes for a few years along with his sister Molly. Pre-named, but they were already 7 years old. Our current girls are named Bootsy and Beedy, and while they are names I would never choose, we decided that those were their names and we had no business changin' 'em. So I'm glad you made that choice, although I probably would have made the same call with Buick!