FREE Tarot Readings Enchanted World Amy Zerner and Monte Farber

I've been writing a blog every few days lately in preparation for a book I'm doing, so if you like this one - and even if you don't - I'd like to invite you to read those of the last few days because I think you'll find them useful, especially the one about falling asleep. I've been astonished to learn how many people have trouble falling asleep and Amy and I have an easy and extremely beneficial technique that works. Try it!

Those of you who read my blogs know that when it comes to our cat Zane, Amy and I are somewhere between "in love" and "maybe we're too in love with him?" and we know a thing or two about what love and being in love is. Today is the 31st anniversary of my moving in with Amy here in the same house that we've always lived in and we're more in love today than ever. If this sounds a bit too good to be true and/or sickeningly sweet, that's just too bad for you on a whole bunch of levels; it's true and the truth shall set us all free. Be happy for those who have what you want and you're well on your way to enjoying it, too. That's a spiritual truth..

But this is a story about a spiritual truth learned by Zane and me, just the two "big boys" going out on our nightly walk. Like I said, Amy and I know a thing about love and one of them is that you've got to enjoy the person as they are and give them support to become themselves fully. If you love them, then that will be a good thing. If you are too fearful to help them become themselves fully because you're afraid that they won't want you in their life anymore, then you are not really in love and you never will be unless you "build a bridge and get over it," as our friend Cindy's mom likes to say.

Zane and I go for a walk every night, rain or shine. I have a whole closet of jackets (Bless you, T.J. Maxx!) that enable me to brave whatever weather nature throws at us. We've been out in -0 degree freeze outs, Zane bounding up and out of the deep snow, pouring rain, wind storms that broke off big tree limbs, tropically humid nights, but he's my boy and I'm honored by his wanting to go out with me. When he's ready for our walk he comes into my studio and rubs against my boots because he knows I need them. But the pleasure is equally mine, if not more so, because I get to interact with my favorite connections to the natural world, Zane and the night sky. Many nights had starry skies the likes of which are not found anywhere else on the eastern shore of the USA - we're thirty miles out to sea here on the eastern end of Long Island and you can see the Milky Way.

Zane is truly my best male buddy and no, we don't need no stinking leashes. He's a free-spirit cat who went through two dozen break-away safety collars (he must have figured out how to catch them up on something, thereby opening them and freeing himself of any restraint - there must be a pile of them still out in the woods behind our house) because he doesn't like to be trapped in any way, Aries that he is. His birthday is March 23rd, just like Amy's. He's five and she's got a five in her birthday this year, two of them, in fact, and she's more beautiful than ever.

So off we go the other night on our nightly walk, following, of course, a snack of Temptations eaten on his mobile cave, the back deck of our Audi Allroad Quatro station wagon - it's license says it all: MR ZANE! I'm willing to take the stares and the extra police scrutiny of my driving habits just to be reminded of him when I see my car. It's a great car, by the way, if you're in the market for a car, though I think they're being discontinued.

Zane and I walked up the street one night and found ourselves in the presence of The Orange Cat. Now Zane is a big, strong house cat with rather big paws and he is not afraid of any animal as far as I have seen. I've seen him spy a dog in our yard...ok, in his yard and go shooting through the house and out of his cat door like a bullet shot straight at the intruding canine who is usually so startled that it runs away as fast as it can. On the occasions where it doesn't run immediately the result is the same because Zane runs right up to it and puffs his little body up like a Halloween Cat, all hisses and low moaning growls. It's enough to make me want to run away!

One time I was looking out the window late one night and saw a raccoon trying to get in his cat door to get at his premium food and running cat fountain water. I looked down the backyard and saw Zane watching the spectacle of the racoon's rump as it tried to squeeze into his small cat door. But Zane, like a true Aries, wasn't content to just sit there and watch some masked bandit try to steal his beloved food. He ran full speed at the racoon's butt and as he got to it he raised both paws up in the air like a lion bringing down a gazelle and as he sank his sharpened claws into the constrained racoon's butt he bit it, too! Cats are amazing creatures, the perfect delivery system for teeth and claws.

Raccoons can run pretty quickly when they've been bitten and clawed on the ass, as this one amply demonstrated to me and Zane. No one believed me, including my veterinarian, who knows well that raccoons can kill dogs, let alone cats, but Zane is a cat that is like a dog so maybe he gets a pass. He comes when I whistle for him, every time, no exceptions unless he's in the house asleep. This year our niece Heather confirmed my story when she pulled into her driveway next door and saw a concerned raccoon making tracks and running right across the beams of her headlights, very uncharacteristic of the species. She couldn't believe her eyes at that sight and was further astonished to see little Zane trotting behind the raccoon, driving it away! Our brave guard cat!

I think they've become friends lately because the other night our motion-detector lights went on and there was the raccoon with Zane bringing up the rear and then ten minutes later in was Zane running from the raccoon and then they reversed roles again! It was like watching the animal version of a silent movie chase! Hilarious.

So now you know why I was so astounded that Zane just sat there when our nightly walk brought us into the path of The Orange Cat. Zane didn't attack him, he didn't make a move or a sound even though The Orange Cat was growling up a storm. I stepped between them when it looked like The O.C. was going to spring at Zane. One of my least favorite childhood memories is getting beat up in front of my apartment house by one of the local Brooklyn tough guys and my father the NYPD patrolman taking his sweet-ass time getting downstairs to defend me. I wasn't going to let Zane get attacked by anyone or anything, not then or ever. In fact I fervently pray that no being ever causes him harm in my presence, the result would not be pleasant for any of us, to say the least.

I'm not afraid of animals, I love and respect them and they know it. Animals know if you're afraid of them and, if you're not, then they are wise enough to figure out that you must believe that you are capable and willing to cause them harm if they push you too far and in my case they are correct. The Orange Cat backed off and slunk away and I thought all was right with the world as Zane and I continued up the street. I was wrong.

The next night The Orange Cat was waiting for us near the same spot and this time they sat like two Sumo wrestlers for what seemed like twenty minutes. Now Amy and I have never been busier. We just completed a series of twelve little astrology Sun sign books called "Astrology Gems" that will be published this fall by Sterling Publishing, a division of Barnes and Noble. Amy and I are excited to announce that we've signed a multi-year, multi-book deal with them that will guarantee that our work will be in every Barnes and Noble store, and available through your local bookstore, too. The deal was almost a year in the making and we're very pleased to have a home working with such great people, many of whom have cats and all of whom I've probably bored silly with stories about Zane.

But this story is yet another time when Zane has given me a profound teaching. After I couldn't stand to be the third wheel in this long scene straight out of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," I took off for home and Zane, good boy that he is, followed, but did so by backing away from The Orange Cat (he's no dummy).

The teaching came to me the next night when Zane would not go past the spot where The O.C. had been on those two previous nights even though The O.C. wasn't even there! I couldn't make Zane walk past the spot, the way he had done dozens of times in the past, no matter what I did, including giving him quite a lecture entitled "Don't be afraid of The Orange Cat!," and yes, I'm ashamed to say it, being a bad father and being so afraid that he was acting like a weak scared fool that I actually violated his space by picking him up and carrying him past that hallowed ground, something that I've never, ever done before (in public) and will most likely never do again for quite some time. Zane is not a lap cat, he's a cat cat, a miniature version of a mountain lion. Amy and I enjoy him being this proud, self-contained animal that comes and goes as he pleases. Though we'd love it if he ever sat on our laps, he doesn't, though he does sometimes sleep in our bed with us, one of our favorite things.

So you can imagine how happy Zane was to be picked up and carried with the chance that The Orange Cat was lurking somewhere and would be rolling in the dirt laughing at him and would forever think Zane, the mighty cat warrior, was just some scared pussy of a house-cat that had to be carried past the danger zone.

Zane never bites or claws us, but the minute we'd walked fifty feet past the zone and I started to put him down, his claws were out because he wanted to make tracks pronto. He literally hit the ground running and was off toward and through the danger zone at full speed, a mini-cheetah land rocket, and kept on going until he was well past it, then he stopped and sat down like nothing had happened. He turned just enough to see if I was coming and when he saw I was, he started walking home but stopped every ten feet and waited for me to follow him, which I did.

I gave up. If he was that scared of The O.C., then I wasn't going to force him to be my definition of brave and overcome his fears when I thought he should and keep on walking past the sacred spot, Orange Cat or no Orange Cat. I've got my own fears that I'm still working on. Maybe Zane will get over this one and maybe he won't. I'm here to support him, not judge him; that's love, by my definition.

But it wasn't until I got home that I realized how many times I'd been like Zane, afraid of "The Orange Cat" when it wasn't even there any more. I'm sure you can relate. How many times have we all reacted with fear or anger or sorrow to something that we had once had to deal with because it was really happening, but now only thought we saw or heard or felt but which was really not there at all in the present moment? Once again, Zane had taught me a valuable lesson: don't act unconsciously and don't react until there's something really there to react to. Don't be afraid of The Orange Cat, especially when it's not there!