Aside from selling illustrations to Ruralite magazine, I also sold a couple of my own written articles, generating two paychecks in place of one. My first published article (and first professional written sale) was "The Ghost on my Bed". It was an account of how I came by my first cat, Scratch, his life, and his death. I illustrated it with an accurate, if simplified, drawing of how Scratch followed me home one very cold, clear night after I had been tobogganing. His tail had been frozen (and you can see in the drawing that it's short). He also had a dislocated hip, yet walked along behind me for more than half a mile. The hill has been more or less overrun by development since the mid-1960's, but the rail road bridge is still there, and so is the mound with the storm drain, and the line of power lines.

Years later, after Scratch's death, I would sometimes seem to feel him sleeping on the end of my bed.

And this brings to an end the final batch of Ruralite drawings I intend to post. (Though perversely, the last batch is also the first batch the casual viewer encounters in my gallery.)