Jack

I begin this day by sharing some sad news.  Back in late October/early November of last year, I rescued Morris, the orange and white kitty on Stout, that I had been feeding for a long time, in the dilapidated garage of a dilapidated house.  I knew he was a good kitty, he loved to get his head scratched every morning I showed up with his breakfast.  I also knew he needed to be rescued, as he was showing signs of weariness.  My friend Nancy, who had been reading about him on my blog, offered to take him in, and she did, and gave him a loving home, along with the six others in total she would wind up helping me with after I had rescued them from the streets.  She renamed him Jack, as it was around Halloween, and she liked the name better.  Jack had tested positive twice for feline leukemia, had stopped eating a few days ago, was given every treatment under the sun, and Nancy didn't want to shove any more pills down the poor baby's throat any longer.   Jack drew his last breath yesterday, when Nancy had to bring him in, and allow him to go to kitty heaven, where his rescued sibling Buster was waiting for him.  Thank you Nancy for helping me take these poor creatures off the street, and allowing them comfort and love in their final days of life.

Its Thursday, nearly the end of a work week, a FULL work week for me.  In the summertime, I do like my three day weekends, I can get so much done, and it allows me to do my Saturday stuff (shopping/cleaning, etc.) on Friday, so that I can actually have an entire day Saturday to do what I want, or what I need to do.  But thats not this week.  Next week though, yes!  I am actually going away for a few days, a sort of family reunion/surprise thing - I wouldn't normally go because of the cats I feed out in the hood every day, but my mother is threatening to disown me if I miss ANOTHER family event for the sake of the cats.  But they cats do need to eat, they’ve depended on me every single morning, 365 days a year, some of them have depended on me for many years now.  I am hoping someone will help me out for two mornings next weekend.  It’s a lot of ask, I know.  You must have 16pounds of dry food, 10 extra large cans of wet food, four jugs of water, some extra paper bowls and plates in case the wind carries some away, or someone trashes my spot, and a second or two at most spots to talk to and pet and hold over 15 of the more friendly ones.    Each morning I arrive, the bowls are empty, and the water is gone – My only other alternative is that I can leave an extra amount, and hope that it will last those two mornings, which I know it won’t because of the occasional raccoons that invade these spots when I leave.  I will figure it out.

My heart sank this morning as I pulled up to Baldwin, and spotted TWO NINE WEEK old kittens sitting on the bench with their nursing mother.  Thats TWO nursing mothers at this location, and two baby baby kittens.   I have such a task, trying to figure out what to do with all these cats.  Its just me, and its so overwhelming at times.  :(

"You must have control of the authorship of your

own destiny.  The pen that writes your life story

must be held in your own hand."