Cat Constipation — A Hard Problem to Solve

Sosa

Sosa, my eight-year-old cat, has her share of neurotic Siamese issues, and some of them are making me neurotic. The two biggies are her meowing jags and her random attempts to fertilize my carpet. It has taken about a year of scat tracking to figure out her problems. We’re making progress, but we both may end up going crazy before we finally get this mystery solved.

Piecing Together the Clues

During Sosa’s annual check-up in October 2011, I told the vet that I was occasionally finding cat poop on the carpet. The doctor’s words stuck with me: cats don’t do this to be naughty. If a cat has normal litter box habits, and suddenly she doesn’t, you can bet a bejeweled cat collar she has a legitimate reason. Seeing Sosa couldn’t simply tell me that reason, I’ve been struggling to interpret her cryptic cat code. Continue reading

Ice Follies Story Wins Gold

My Ice Follies feature story, originally published in the January 2012 issue of Tonka Times, won gold at the Minnesota Magazine & Publishing Association 2012 Excellence Awards. One of my best memories about working on this story was meeting Jean and Joan Pastor, twin sisters who were bubbling with excitement to talk about their experience skating in the Ice Follies. This family-friendly entertainment show got its start in Minnesota in the 1930s.

Click the link below if you’d like to read the story. Enjoy!

Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies: A Minnesota Class Act. Tonka Times, January 2012

Published version of the story posted with permission of the publisher of Tonka Times magazine.