The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) will unveil its latest exhibit, “Pets,” with an opening reception from 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 7, at the Haywood Handmade Gallery at the HCAC in Waynesville. 

Come out Cartoogechaye School in Macon County for a rabies vaccination clinic. 

On Thursday, Nov. 30, the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Ambassador Team held a grand opening/ribbon cutting ceremony for the American Museum of the House Cat. 

The holiday season is among the toughest times in the animal rescue world. Adopting pets isn’t always front of mind for people, and harsh weather can create a sense of urgency when rehoming furry friends. 

Sometimes, the trip isn’t  about the journey — it’s about the destination. 

Rest easy, “Big Jack” (aka: “Jack Kerouac”). Goodbye to my beloved cat, who passed away this week back in my native Upstate New York. 

It took over 30 years, but Harold Sims can now show the world.

“It’s been very rewarding,” he said. “I wanted to have a cat shelter, I made that come true. I wanted to have a cat museum, and I made that come true. It’s like the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ — ‘if you build it, they will come.’”

Jamie Powell has a special talent. She can not only tell the 100 cats living at FUR’s feline sanctuary apart, but can even remember their names — despite the revolving door of cats being continually rescued and adopted out.

Sixth grade was not so kind to my daughter. She did better than she expected on the social part — and that was the part that really worried her, since she had heard so many frightening rumors about the chamber of horrors otherwise known as middle school. But the academic part proved to be much tougher than she had anticipated, and she struggled.

She would come limping in from school every afternoon around 4 p.m. with her enormous backpack full of heavy textbooks slung over one shoulder, causing her to list on one side. It was as if every burden of the earth was stuffed into that backpack, and she did not bear it lightly, oh no, dumping it with a thunderous thud on the kitchen floor and then stomping like Godzilla to the refrigerator, where she seized a pint of cherry vanilla yogurt as if it were a small car, ripped the top off, and then stabbed at the occupants with her shiny monster spoon until every last one of them was gobbled up completely. Tourists, probably.

By Michael Beadle • Contributing writer

Anyone who’s spent serious time with a cat knows there are a myriad of ways to describe the feline mystery. They are inscrutable creatures. At times, indifferent. At others, intensely focused. Adorable and affable when they want to be. Experts of stealth. Part diva, part zen master. 

The great Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.”

Indeed.