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After the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of my cat, Gregory, and the less mysterious phone call from my cat hating neighbor who may or may not have dumped poor Gregory out in Weaverville, my cats have been confined to the indoors. They are adjusting remarkably well.

Actually, I found that Simon doesn’t like to go outside very much if Gregory isn’t with him, and if I do let him outside, he won’t leave the porch. I’m not sure if they were always this attached to each other or if this is a result of Gregory’s 6 day adventure. They are awfully chummy now.

I realized that I promised garden updates after planting various things last fall and I never filled you in on the results. Well, they are not good.

The mint plant was doing quite well for a while but then it died after a big rain storm. I can’t be sure but I think it was from getting dumped on by a rooftop waterfall resulting from a clogged gutter.

My winter greens didn’t last long. I was very good, at first, about covering them with the frost cover when it was going to get cold at night. But we had many cold nights and that frost cover was a big big pain. I got lazy. The chard died first. Then the kale and winter lettuce. But the garden is all prepared now for spring so I may plant something soon now that the weather is nice.

I thought the blueberry bush was completely dead as well but upon closer inspection, there are a few new buds on its branches! So there is still hope for that one. That’s the blueberry bush pictured above.

It feels like a dream. But here he is, purring on my lap – skinny, exhausted, but otherwise doing fine. He was 17 miles away in the town of Weaverville. Luckily my number was on his collar and he is so friendly that he eventually wandered up to someone who thought he might be lost. I cannot begin to describe how relieved, happy, grateful I am right now.

Tomorrow I am going to talk to my neighbors and see if I can figure out how he got all the way out there. It’s not that I care so much, I just would like to not have to think that I have a twisted cat-hating neighbor who would do such a thing on purpose.

In the fall of 1995, Gregory appeared in my life one day as an apartment stray. Last Sunday, over 13 years later, he disappeared. I don’t know where he is or what happened to him.

If someone had found him, surely they would have called me. I have signs all over the neighborhood, ads in the papers and online, lost cat reports at the shelter and emergency clinic, and my number is on his collar if he hasn’t lost it. It’s been terribly cold the last few nights. If he’s trapped outside I don’t know that he’d survive. If he’s trapped inside he’d be awfully thirsty by now.

Gregory, my old friend, I’m sorry I couldn’t save you this time. If I could throw a blanket over the whole world, to keep you warm and protected, until someone found you and brought you home to me, I would.

Gregory was last seen in West Asheville near Olney Rd. and Vermont Ave. He is grey and white, 10 pounds, male, neutered.

BoBo Gallery is an art gallery, music venue, and vegetarian cafe all rolled into one. They are one of the few restaurants that seems to value the growing number of people who want vegan and gluten-free – not just one or the other. Their menu is mostly vegan and has extensive gluten-free options.

About half their menu is also raw and living foods, which is a first for Asheville. Other restaurants in town, such as Ophelia’s and Laughing Seed, offer raw specials or a couple of raw salads, but BoBo has a full menu of raw appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

This little gem is rare in the world and Asheville should feel very fortunate to have it. I hope everyone will support BoBo Gallery and enjoy their awesome food and friendly, welcoming environment.

BoBo Gallery is located in downtown Asheville at 22 Lexington Ave.

Update: I don’t think this restaurant exists anymore, but they do still exist as a small art gallery and bar. The Green Light Cafe has opened up in it’s place though and it’s delicious. Check it out.

Like a kid asking if it’s Christmas yet over and over again, I’ve been running out to my garden every day for the last week, hoping to see a few plants sprouting up. I planted dino kale, winter lettuce, and rainbow chard 11 days ago and was starting to worry that my haphazard gardening system (if you can call it a system) was going to fail straight from the get-go.

You cannot imagine my joy at seeing little greens shooting up from all 3 rows. The dino kale has quite a few plants growing – a couple look like they are already an inch tall. The lettuce has about half a dozen sprouts, and I found just one chard sprout starting to grow.

After planting the seeds, as discussed in my last post, all I had to do to get the plants to this point was (1) water the garden regularly and evenly and (2) chase my cat out of the garden so he wouldn’t use it as a litter box. Most times, both (1) and (2) happened simoultaniously.

My camera doesn’t take very good closeups so there is a somewhat blurry picture of a few of the kale sprouts.

I made a commitment at the beginning of the year that I would plant a garden before the year ended. Here it is October and all I had was a big sheet of black plastic covering a big chunk of my back yard. I put it down in January to kill the weeds, thinking I’d have a thriving garden a few months later, but never got farther than pick axing some of the area to break up the dirt.

Yesterday, I called over to my favorite local gardening supply store and asked if there was anything at all I could still plant this late in the year here in Asheville. Lucky for me, they listed off a few of my favorite leafy green vegetables! They sent me away with 3 packets of seeds, a small box of fertilize, and some frost cover for the nights when it may drop below freezing.

To get the soil ready, I broke it up just a little more with a pick ax, mixed in a cup of the fertilizer and just over half a bag of “Nature’s Helper” (soil conditioner) I still had left over, and then mixed it all around and smoothed it out with a metal rake. I planted one row of seeds each of dino kale, winter lettuce, and rainbow chard.

To prevent my dog from turning into a nice cool, messy dog bed (and hopefully discouraging the cats from turning into a litter box), I picked up 30 ft. of garden fencing to protect it.

And so there you have it – I now officially have a garden. Smaller than I had envisioned but it’s a start! We’ll see in a few weeks how well it works out.

Bacevich is a breath of fresh air. Wouldn’t it be nice if people like this guy were on the ballot? Go to the Bill Moyers Journal website to watch part 1 and part 2 of this interview with Andrew Bacevich.

Bacevich suggests that, as a country, we keep looking outward for the causes of our problems when we should instead be looking inward. Just goes to show that we really do get the government we deserve. As individuals, we tend to do the very same thing. Our government is a direct reflection of who we are.

It’s time to cast your vote for the 2008 Veggie Awards and this year, Asheville’s Laughing Seed Cafe has been nominated for “Favorite Vegetarian Restaurant”! VegNews Magazine will publish the winners in its 2008 Holiday edition.

I’ve eaten at about half of the restaurants on the list of nominees and I can honestly say that Laughing Seed is the best of the bunch. The only one that makes it competitive is Millenium, in San Francisco. The food at Millenium is absolutely amazing but it costs about 3 times as much to eat there and the food definitely isn’t 3 times as good as Laughing Seed. If you agree that Laughing Seed is the best vegetarian restaurant around, make sure you vote!

While you’re there, I’d like to plug some absolute favorites of mine, also up for awards:

• Pigs Peace Sanctuary – “Favorite Animal Sanctuary”
• Sidecar for Pigs Peace – “Favorite Vegan Storefront”
• Flying Apron Bakery – “Favorite Bakery”

Sidecar is a volunteer-run store and all its profits are used to support Pigs Peace Sanctuary. They need the publicity and deserve all the support you can give them. Their prices also tend to be lower than the nearby Whole Foods and PCC natural foods stores.

This video is rare in that it approaches veganism from a positive and hopeful perspective. I’m not going to knock the disturbing factory farming videos with their naked violence, and ominous music since that is what brought me to live a more compassionate lifestyle.

At this point, 15 years later, I can’t bear to watch those movies anymore. It’s too painful and I don’t feel that it helps me. My life is no longer about being angry at the awfulness of the world. It’s about what I can do, as just one person, to make things better. Maybe it isn’t enough to end all suffering everywhere, but it is all I can do. Being pissed off doesn’t help anyone but myself – it’s entirely self-indulgent. Meanwhile the animals, the planet, and the people of the world go right on suffering.

It seems to me that a lot of people are reaching a similar conclusion in their own lives. I am posting this video because I believe it is more in line with this new way of living and thinking than any other video on veganism that I have seen. I hope you will watch it with an open heart and an open mind.