A Zine in the Making

This Zine is a special homage to my former cat Ari.

Tonight at Zine Club I read two people’s zines about their former cats and the cat cafe. It is so very coincidental and perhaps speaks of the special relationship we humans have with our feline friends. I wrote this poem from my former cat’s perspective recently as part of an exercise from Bethany Berry’s workshop about Animal Consciousness at the League of Minnesota Poet’s Fall 2024 Conference. I decided I wanted to turn it into a Zine or a little booklet, since it is a 3-page poem, and have been creating a draft in Canva. The gallery above is my current draft, including pictures of my former cat Ari. I am also creating a draft on my typewriter as that is more my artistic form.

I went through so many changes with Ari! Unmentioned even is coming out as transgender, though I included my pronouns as part of the poem. I often called her my daemon like from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. It was so devasting to be separated from her. This happened at the beginning of Trump’s first term. It is hard not to think of the devasting losses I suffered during his term.

I could not replace Ari. Not only was my situation unsustainable for awhile, but once it was, I did not have the heart to adopt a new cat. No cat could take her place. Now, sometimes I wonder if it would be possible, now that 8 years have passed.