OLD Man Winter...

just won't go away!  Its like a blizzard driving out there this morning.  We had another two or so inches on the ground.  Spring will come, just not soon enough.

What a morning.  This morning I had to say goodbye to Magic and Pumpkin, Vanessa's little babies, that I rescued from the streets last July, all three, when the two were just babies.  Mom was a willing bystander too.  I got them adopted out within about two months of having them, when they were just under four months old.  A month ago, they were returned due to allergies in the family.  They have been the sweetest angels, getting reintroduced to their mom, and the other kitties in the house.  Two days ago, the girl who runs Pet Pride of NY, Inc.  http://www.petprideny.org/PPNY/Home.html and is an occasional reader of my blog offered to take them.  They will get far better exposure to potential adopters than I could give them, and my house is too overcrowded right now to pass that up.  The guilt and sadness are huge, but I know its the right thing to do for them, and for the others in my house.  I will follow their progress and pray that they go together, even though that might not be the case.  They have been through thick and thin together!

And in other news, as I got out of the car on Hayward, to feed the various kitties that are there waiting for me each morning, where Bugsie and Boots were just recently rescued from, I heard meowing from a distance, and it sounded muffled, like a cat inside a house somewhere.  I walked over to the house next door and confirmed that there was a cat crying inside a door.  I walked around, shined my flashlight into the windows that I could reach, couldn't see a thing, determined that a cat was indeed inside and could be stuck, went and fed the kitties at the other house, got in my car, called 911, and as I was talking, a police car pulled up behind me.  I got out, he said he just happened to be around the corner when the call came in.  A nice VERY young man.  We both determined, as we stood there talking and looking at the house, that indeed the apartment where the cat was crying from was an upstairs unlived in apartment.  He started to tell me it could be days before they are able to free the cat because they have to contact the owner by pasting a note on the door first.  If no response, then they kick in the door, so to speak.  I was flabberghasted, but before I could begin my protest, he went and knocked on the obviously sleeping neighbor's door.  After a few knocks, a woman opened the door and I could hear her telling him that she had called the landlord about the cat, and that it was very hungry, but that the landlord never did anything about it.  So the cat had been there for days.  I was overjoyed after she gave him the number, and he promised me that he was an animal lover and would get in touch with the woman landlord as soon as he got back to the office.  Poor animal.

On Second Street, as I was pouring food and water on the porch of the nice Spanish man that lives  across from Paul's house, who has his own indoor cat, and calls me 'mama' (I think he forgot my name and just started to call me that), one of the two that I know of pregnant kitties came up and started to eat.  I grabbed her by the scruff, and held her with my other hand under her big pregnant belly, and walked to her car, and just before i could open the door, she squirmed very hard, and went to probably bite me out of fear,  and I had to let her loose.  What could I do?  I felt terrible.  I pray she begins to trust me again before she gives birth, and I will have my carrier handy tomorrow, outside of the car.  If she makes it.

Have a safe weekend.

"Living involves tearing up one rough draft after another."