MSI Press Blog

  Sula's cubby at the Misson Gift Shop On September 5 , we celebrate National White Cat Day , a tribute to the luminous companions whose snowy coats and quiet presence bring light into our lives. Often overlooked in the swirl of feline folklore, white cats carry their own symbolism—purity, wisdom, and spiritual grace—and deserve a day of recognition all their own. 🧬 Beauty with Complexity White cats are more than their coats. Their genetics can carry unique traits, such as increased sensitivity to sunlight or congenital deafness, especially in blue-eyed individuals. These quirks don’t diminish their worth—they deepen it. Caring for a white cat means embracing nuance: shielding delicate ears from sunburn, tuning into nonverbal cues, and honoring their quiet ways of communicating. 🐾 A Different Kind of Mystery While black cats are often cast as mysterious, white cats embody a different kind of enigma. They seem to glow in low light, their movements soft and deliberate. Their p...

  This is not the first time we have written about cat cancer in a Caturday post. We learn more about it over time, and it seems that more in general is learned about it over time.  Blind Cat rescued share the following interesting and information post about cat cancer:  Feline Carcinoma (blindcatrescue.blogspot.com) . Cat cancer not only occurs, but at least in our household has become common as our cats have aged. Among our cats, three have died of it, and two are living with it. The breed does not seem to matter; it appears that cancer is blind to breed. Intrepid was the first to be diagnosed with cancer and the first to die with it. In his cancer, it was small cell lymphoma. He lived only a few months after diagnosis. His vet missed the cancer -- that happens with people, too. After describing Intrepid's late night howling to a friend who works at the SPCA, he gave us the name of a vet with excellent diagnostic skills. She immediately intuited the problem, scoped Int...

The cats in the window, Intrepid (tabby-mau mix) and Murjan (red & white Turkish van), were the best of friends. Murjan "raised" Intrepid after he was found as a small kitten crying in the grass after his mother died. Both were born in Jordan and were brought to the USA when we moved back home to California. Both were diagnosed at the same time with lymphoma though the vet said that it was pure coincidence. Intrepid was the younger by four years, but he had the worst case: his kidneys and liver were already damaged when we found out he was sick. Both began chemotherapy in summer of 2018.  Intrepid In October 2018, Intrepid , named for his daredevil approach to life, died. He was only 11 years old. As the days went by and the chemo did little more than make him loopy--actually, it was difficult to know whether the progressing disease was causing him to walk drunkenly or the chemotherapy side effect or both--he ended up on IV at home at times and IV in the pet hospital at t...

  What is a  book jewel ? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Car's Story , an award-winning book beloved by many.  Description: A cat with a divine mission, Sula has an uncanny ability to sense which parishioners at Old Mission San Juan Bautista (California) need her attention at any given Mass. But...is it really uncanny, or does St. Francis give Sula tasks during her daily conversations with him? Or is she led by God?Sula has developed a special bond with cancer surv...

  Excerpt from Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat's Story (Sula)   Greetings, World! My name is Sula. I am told that I am a very attractive cat. A bit rotund, I am a domestic shorthair with a very luxuriant and fanciful white coat, accented by greyish-black bangs and a greyish black tail. I am almost ten years old, a big girl now. I live by choice at Old Mission San Juan Bautista, the latest in a long line of mission cats, and I am a cancer survivor. Supposedly, I am a Turkish Van cat by breed, but I doubt that I came here from Turkey. On the other hand, I don’t know where I came from. I don’t think it really matters. I am here, and I like being here. Moreover, I have a mission and a Mission. What more could any cat want? As a cancer-surviving Mission cat, my chore is to heal people who, like me, must overcome burdens in their lives. (I am so very glad that I do not have the same mission that previous Mission cats had: ridding the Mission of mice and rats. I think they...