Around Town

My friend Kristin came by yesterday to go over the cat feeding route she will have while I am gone both Sunday and Monday morning.  She took a copious amount of notes about each of the EIGHT different stops she will make – splitting it up with Laura – whereby Laura will be taking the ‘back nine’, which is really SEVEN more stops. The last seven includes the new location where there were two females TNR’d on Monday.

Most of the cats there have plastic flea collars on, and may be cared for by someone there, but they are still starving each morning, and producing baby after baby. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that these two will be doing this. There is NO one else that will do this in my life right now, and that is not an accusatory statement – most people are just frightened to think about doing what I do at the time I do in the locations I do it – feeding cats in the inner city at an ungodly hour every single day. But as I told Kristin , I believe these people that know what I do – and a lot of them do – respect me for what I do. I never get hassled except by a landlord or two occasionally. And at 5 am., this is such a quiet time of the day here, you can hear pin drops, in between fire and ambulance sirens occasionally, but its very quiet! I wave my hand a lot in the morning and I get waves back most times.

On Sixth Street, someone has finally moved into the house where I ‘ve been feeding cats on – there are four or five bowls on the porch – they must have just moved in yesterday. I creeped up to the porch thinking they most likely trashed my stuff, but it was still there. I was amazed. I also wonder why they are still there, and are they allowing me to continue? What kind of people moved in to this house? There are sheets hung in the windows, and a small battered car in the driveway. I must leave a note tomorrow morning thanking them for allowing me to feed on their porch, but also must ask if they would like me to stop. If they want me to stop, I need to find a new locale for the six or so cats I see and feed here each day. There is a garage across the street – belonging to a house that is unused – the same house where a cat had her babies in a hole under the porch two months ago, none of which I’ve ever seen – I have a paper plate and plastic water dish in there, but occasionally someone comes by and trashes it. Its always something. I wish I had a solution to these situations I face on a nearly daily basis.

At Baldwin, I did not see the kittens this morning, but found some very hungry mother cats and others. I must work on getting these spayed also.

Yesterday, I dropped off some requested cat litter at Wally’s house for Larry, the cat he ‘adopted’ from me – if you remember early last year, he had a terrible ear hematoma and needed desperate help, so I rescued him from Pennsylvania and Fourth, brought him to my bathroom, got him to my vet for ear surgery, and cared for him until he was better. Actually, Nancy fostered him while he recuperated– thank you Nancy! I peeked in to say hello to Larry yesterday, and his damaged ear was bleeding, so he is going to the new clinic today to have a look at – poor animal has seen a lot and gone through a lot living with Wally. A nice man, but living on the edge of life. Wally seems more and more depressed as time goes on. He has nothing, and has nothing to look forward to in his life. He has no medical, and needs to be seen by a doctor. He is in his 60s, can’t walk great, his apartment is filthy, and he needs to do his laundry, which he would have to get a ride to. I can’t do it all, I just can’t. If I had money, I would hire someone to go in and clean his apartment thoroughly, and have his wash done. He could then start anew. And I could worry less about him and Larry.

Lots happening, but I take it one day at a time. That’s all I can do.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. " ~Anne Frank