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Showing posts from 2013

Shelter Stories

In the cat shelter where I work, we’re surrounded by hard luck cases. Some are easier to deal with than others; some make me want to go home, curl up in bed with my head under the duvet, and never come out. Above my desk is a photograph. It was taken about two weeks ago, and sent into us. It is a grey and white tuxedo cat named Mylo. Mylo’s adoptive Mummy sent it in. She found him, covered in dirt and bite marks, and brought him in. Based on the bites, we think Mylo was used as bait for dog-fighting. We don’t have proof; of course, we just know what we saw, and what it looked like. He was then buried alive—we know this, because of the way he was completely caked in dirt. Poor kitty had to be shaved down almost to the skin to get all the dirt off so the vet could stitch him up and clean  up his wounds. The lady who found him adopted him after his rather intensive recovery.  He’s now making a home with her and her other kitty, and is happy as can be. Another

Dream meandering

I keep having this recurring dream. I know everyone does, at least if you can remember your dreams, chances are you have a couple, three, five, that repeat randomly. I've always had a couple, and they're very, very normal: late for class and can't remember my locker combination; taking a test, or giving a speech; being chased; flying, or swimming under water (curiously enough, I never drown, nor do I feel suffocated-- usually I'm able to breathe just fine, and always think, "Isn't that handy, my gills came back". No, I don't know why, but it's kinda nice.) These dreams seem to be a common thing for most of humanity; we have the same subconscious fears, so it makes sense that we'd have the same recurring nightmares/bad dreams/WTF was that shit! In fact, I think it makes perfect sense that we'd even dream, as a whole society or world, about being late for school or work, or falling, or being chased; especially the visceral nature of the cha

More about fostering kittens

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We have been fostering kittens since April; this means we take them home, feed them, care for them, socialise them and love them to pieces until they reach the magical weight of two pounds. When they're at two pounds, they can handle the anaesthetic and surgery for sterilisation; much like us, they have to be healthy enough for surgery, and it's my job as a foster parent to help ensure this. The first group was ten kittens; two litters, one of six, and one of four. The six-litter was older, perhaps six weeks old; the four was barely three weeks, and all of them still had blue eyes! One group had been dropped off at the Hermitage, and the other was abandoned at Valley Animal Hospital-- in a tupperware bowl! Imagine our horror, those poor babies, just dropped off like they were rubbish to be left on the side of the road. We worried ourselves sick over the little dudes, as the tiniest ones (their names are Bavard and Finn, now!) were barely fifteen ounces when we got them. Kir

Meandering thoughts on mental illness and doubts

I know I haven't been writing, but I have been busy with fostering and work. I got hired in at the Hermitage a couple weeks ago, and the adjustment of schedules has been a little difficult. I'll write more about my awesome, kick-ass job later. Today, I want to talk about mental illness. I read Salon.com with some regularity. Maybe twice a week I pop over there to see what's up, and what's new. A couple weeks ago I found this article, and as I adore Greta Christina, I read it! (She's an amazing speaker and writer, and you can see her blog here ). I remember I had seen a headline at CNN that Rick Warren's kid had committed suicide and that week Warren had finally started preaching again. I didn't know anything about the gent, except he was Warren's kid, and well, I have a very low opinion of Rick Warren. That doesn't mean I celebrated his death, or anything like that; in fact, I felt bad for his family, like everyone with a heart does wh

August is "Child Support Awareness Month" huh...

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Trigger warning: If you're reading this and we're close, you know I've got an ex who doesn't like to pay child support. If we're not close, or I haven't known you very long, this might be news. What follows is a ranty, sometimes profane look at child support. I decided to write it after reading this article from Alternet, talking about debtor's prisons in this day and age. If you disagree with me, please, tell me why. I'm curious, and would love to see how you think this situation should be absolved. OK, so, August is Child Support Awareness Month. I learned that this is a throw back to the welfare thing that Clinton did in the 90's. While I think it was probably a good idea I do think that now it's more lip-service and self-glorification than anything really worthwhile. Think about it-- "see, see, we're doing something about this rash of dead beat parents who won't pay support! See, see?"  [This isn't a new problem, ei

So, a tip to be happy is call my ... mother?

I get so sick of reading shit like that! The stupidity! I mean, fuck! Why would every slide-show creator, every article writer, assume that shit! Fuck their stupid, and fuck their ignorance!! Wait, let me back up, I started off in the middle of my thoughts, rather than at the beginning where everyone can follow along. I was perusing my news feed on Facebook, as I was waiting for my daughter and her friend to finish clearing up their sleep over messes, before I took her friend home. No big deal, really, usually there's good articles about things I care about like Equality or news from the LGBT front (I especially love the wedding photos!) or Occupy, or well, the list of causes I endorse is pretty large-- I should probably blog about the crazy quilt of causes one of these days. Anyway, there's an article on the Huffington Post, " Make People Happy: 9 ways... " It's got this list of cute or nice things you can do to cheer up a friend. Stuff that's thoughtfu

Some times I wonder about humanity...

At the risk of jumping on the Martin murder verdict bandwagon, I haven't written anything about Zimmerman going free. Why? Because much of what I have to say entails profanity, cursing the stupidity of Florida and calling a racist a racist. Not conducive to fixing the problem. Not at all! So I'll try to keep the profanity at a minimum as I meander my way through this horrible shit pile of a verdict. I will admit, I'm angry! I'm pissed the fuck off that six women in Florida sided with an obvious abusive man who murdered a kid, and said, "oh, you know it's cool that he picked a fight, and then got scared, and shot that kid. It was a sad thing..." I'm angry that this boy won't live to grow old. I'm angry that a lot of kids won't live to grow old because of stupid, racist white people with guns. People who shoot first, or seek out reasons to harm; who measure their manliness in the calibre of their weapons. Their ability to claim "se

In Memory of Neko, the mouthiest cat I've ever known! (photo heavy)

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Friday we brought home our kittens! It was so awesome to see them pour out of the carrier and running through the house. If you look close, I swear you could see confetti and glittery, rainbow trails after them! We were all set to go to the kitten shower at the Hermitage Saturday, and I was going to take photos  and blog about it. Good news is 37 kittens and cats were adopted!   About four am, Saturday morning, my husband got up for some water. A little while later he woke me up, as our beloved Neko was in distress! She was laying in the middle of the floor, and crying... we thought she was blind. We spent about an hour with her, calming her down, and then helped her tuck herself into a corner by the bookshelf where she felt safe. We took her to the vet as soon as urgent care hours opened which was one pm. The place was already a mad-house. While the tech, S., examined her, Neko's distress got worse, and we all knew something was wrong with our baby. Soon, I was cuddled dow

More kittens and some musing (photo heavy)

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Excuse the self-indulgence of this entry. A lot has happened in the world, and while I can't even begin to do justice to the awesomeness of DOMA being struck as Unconstitutional and California's Prop 8 being thrown back down (where it was overturned) because of lack of standing, let me say I did the Rainbow dance all day and have been thrilled to bits since those rulings came down. Love won the day, and I am so happy for that! Not pleased about the Voting Rights Act's desecration, but I know we can work to preserve the rights of people to vote, I know we can work together as a country and make that right. We've done it before, we can pull together again. So I'm not terribly worried. Pissed at the SCOTUS, but not worried. I applied for a job, and didn't get it. Yeah, I know, it is happening to everyone these days, and it's a total fucking bummer! I was trying to get in at the Hermitage, you know, the cat shelter we were fostering kittens with. I know I

Good Riddance to Exodus International...

Got up, got some weed pulled and tree-suckers trimmed off, and fed the kindle of kittens (yes, a grouping of kittens is called a kindle, isn't that fucking adorable?!) their breakfast-- they get wet cat food twice a day, in addition to the dry that's always available. I thought today would be yet another Thursday in Summer. Kids on computer and consoles, fighting over stupid shit like my daughter's obsession with pop music that drives my sons insane, and "it's my turn!" What I didn't expect was to see a headline that filled me with such joy. I mean absolute joy! This is so fucking awesome and wonderful and amazing! I'd be doing back-flips if I knew how (and I can't cartwheel in the house, it's not safe, after all). I found out this morning that Exodus International is closing their doors. I'm sure a little background is necessary, as not everyone knows what they are, or were rather. Exodus International was founded in 1976,