I was invited by Garrison Keillor to be part of A Prairie Home Companion today at the Fox Theater in Detroit to read some poems. I really enjoyed being on the program a few years ago. It was a warm experience. I remember it fondly, it wasn’t a good fit this time. A friend is coming from California to visit this weekend and we were invited to another friend’s lobster party, I am proofing my essay book. In addition, flying is extremely difficult for me with my two new artificial knees. I’m depressed as I write this. We went to Dunni, the new vet we’ve changed over to, on Thursday for our huge tabby Xena to get her initial appointment with Dunni and her rabies shot. Dunni also wanted us to bring Puck back. She had cleared his blood of FIV and feline AIDS. She wanted to do more tests. She came over in person that afternoon to give me the news after X-Rays and Ultrasound. Puck has cancer. It is in his lungs, his intestines and his kidneys. In other words, it was not caught for so long that it metastasized. There is no cure. She gives him two months at best, probably one month. He is extremely anemic. He is not in pain yet. He alert, interested, affectionate but just skin and bones. He has lost not only weight but muscle mass. He will eat only babyfood. I will give him anything he wants and try to make him comfortable as long as possible. Puck is a blue so called [actually brownish grey] Abyssinian, only 14 years old. He is bright, probably would have preferred being an only cat. Sugar Ray, Mingus and Xena are all very close. Any two of them will cuddle, sometimes all three. Lately they have been cuddling with Puck when he will let them. Usually he does. It’s a new thing, as he would only cuddle with us before getting sick. He was always omnivorous, liked chicken, beef, salmon, cod, lobster, shrimp, mango, persimmons, papaya, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, brie, pizza, etc. He always had a great appetite until two months ago but never gained weight. My assistant Melenie used to say she would kill for his metabolism. He was playful and adventurous. Three times he escaped and once spent three days in the woods. Each time he came back and after the 3^rd time, lost interest. He said that no one fed him chicken in the woods. He was a great hunter but never ate his prey. He seemed shocked when Xena did. He has always slept beside me and usually demands to be a part of any activity. I spent yesterday afternoon crying. Now I am just attempting to spoil him as much as I can in the little time we have left. I have been proofing my newest book, MY LIFE, MY BODY, part of the Outspoken Author series of PM Press. It’s a combination of essays and some poems that will be out in the fall, the same time as the paperback of THE COST OF LUNCH, ETC with two new stories and an introduction I wrote for this edition. I’m still reading mss. for my juried intensive poetry workshop in two weeks but I’ve also begun writing my own poems again. Now I have to go out and plant herbs in the herb garden. Woody just pulled the last of the spinach – it was bolting. I’ve frozen 13 lbs. For the last two nights, we’ve eateb local oysters from our favorite Jewish oysterwoman. She raises the plumpest and best. Tonight a lobster party on Wellfleet Bay at a wonderful turn of the century house called the Elephant House because of its profile seen from the water.