Welcome, Carmella!

Hi everyone,

Carmella is not a cat, but she likes laps just as much as the rest of them! Carmella, our honorary guinea piggy Kitty, used to live at a school and play with all the little kids there, until she retired to my sister's house and shifted to playing with cats.

Carmella can do this all day. 

Carmella never backs down from a challenge, and as soon as she moved in, she gravitated toward Stephen. She considers him an interesting project and tests him with lengthy staring contests.

Carmella always wins these battles because (1) Stephen has a short attention span, and (2) one of  Carmella's eyes is always open, due to an infection she caught during a cold. (To be clear, she doesn't purposely trick Stephen with her trick eye, but she says he has to learn someday that he won't win every fight. Besides, I think that eye gives her some sort of magic powers.)

Sometimes, she turns to the other side and blinks to make him feel better; regardless, she always rewards him with positive reinforcement, letting him share a spot on her favorite blanket.

Carmella is a born teacher, caretaker, and overall wise piggy. She's always reading and learning new skills. This week, she's taken up knitting because there's only so much to do in her cage condo. She just finished reading Michelle Obama's Becoming and wants to grow an organic garden like she did but full of her own favorite lettuces, carrots, and most importantly, strawberries. Everyone comes to Carmella for advice, and she's usually right. When she's not, she spins it into a valuable teachable moment.

When Carmella wants to relax, she spreads out on a lap or under her favorite fleece blanket on the couch, with a snack, ready for a movie or a podcast. She loves Pixar cartoons, anything with Cate Blanchett in it, PBS, and a daily dose of Jeopardy. She also listens to a lot of NPR and can tell us all sorts of stories from the day. (She is a great storyteller, like all old, wise women.)

Carmella's waiting the show to start.

Carmella prefers to listen to instrumental music because she says, while she appreciates great songwriters, the overused bass in pop songs and club music gives her headaches. Instead, she likes the unpredictability of jazz and intricacies of classical. Her favorites are Jason Marsalis (and all the other Marsalises), George Winston, Vivaldi, and Beethoven. Her idols are Toni Morrison, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and – obviously – Cate Blanchett.

Surprisingly, Carmella dreams of the beach life. Someday, she says, I'll be spending my days and nights in a hammock between two mango trees, next to my organic garden, by a private beach in the Caribbean. She pictures enjoying the sun, sound of the waves, and a good book during the day and studying the constellations at night. (Did I mention she's writing the definitive textbook on stargazing? She's become an expert, on account of the eye that never closes.)

She says we can all join her there whenever we want, but I'm pretty sure she's only knitting one guinea-pig-sized hammock right now. The rest of us are on our own.

Welcome, Carmella!