Do the Shuffle

My routine:

Hopefully my next rescue - need to name this little guy!  Must begin with a "C"

I get up at 3:15 each morning, turn on the coffee, wash my face, brush my teeth, get my woollies on, talk to the cats, clean litter boxes, get my coffee, lay on couch for 15 minutes to see whats on the news – by 4:15 I am out starting the car, brushing off the snow – we had at least three inches this morning, then back in to fill four jugs of piping hot water, I get the five large sized yogurt containers out of the oven (I keep in there so that my cats can’t get – cause they will – and I don’t want them refrigerated, it has to be somewhat warm for the homeless cats so that it doesn’t freeze on them before they get to eat it), and I pack six little cans of food (cause I always run out) into the bag that all of this goes into – its about 40 pounds? – and I haul it all out to the waiting car.  Oh, don’t forget, I also have two 2-gallon bags of and a large plastic coffee container filled   with dry food.  That’s about – 20 pounds of food.  So that’s a lot to carry out to the car!  Sometimes I am grabbing folded dry towels from the previous morning.  I use them to lay inside shelters (under the boards that cover the food and water) so that they have something dry and warm to stand on.  All this, every single day.

Then I go to 16 different locations, all not far from each other, and feed hungry cats.  I have a girl that goes along – Nancy – a nice girl, but she often starts to cry as she is walking towards or walking away from the cats.  She feels bad.  I’ve told her a few times now that she mustn't cry, that the kitties are being cared for and that I am doing my best to rescue all of them.  But she still does, and it makes me feel bad.  Nancy is a character.  She is my shadow.  If I turn around to do something, she is right there.  If I tell her not to walk up on certain steps because of the ice, she does it anyway.  She has fallen a few times now, and thank God she said it in her own words – “I’m accident prone”.  I would have called her a klutz.  J I tell her to walk in my footpath through the snow so that there aren’t too many footprints leading to my shelters for others to notice, she forgets, constantly.  When I ask her to shuffle her feet so that it creates a path for the cats because the snow can sometimes be so deep its hard for the cats to get around.  She forgets.  Or she says she used to be in the army and you are never supposed to shuffle your feet!  So she has a hard time remembering.  Yes, she is a character.  But shes a good egg.

This morning Jorge (?) (pronounced HOR HAY) was out shoveling his mother’s footpath on Central and Fifth, where the unnamed kitty is, and he was chatting away with me.  He had a few cocktails, lets put it that way (yes, it was 5:30 am.), and he was very friendly.  I had met him before because he had trashed my stuff once there, and after our talk, all was good.  He had no idea who took the recent shelter, but he told me he admired what I do for the cats.  He is a good man.  He told me he was once commended by the mayor for helping to subdue a man who was beating a police officer.   He said he would watch the shelters, especially for the little kids that egged it last weekend.

That’s enough for now.  Tippy Toes has been adopted, thanks to his foster mom – she has had much success and I am so grateful to her for helping me to get these cats off the streets.  And I am grateful to the adopters.  The only thing about this that is hard for me is that I don’t meet the people who are adopting, but I do trust her judgment so that is all I can ask for. 

Have a great day everyone!

"Don't ask what the meaning of life is.

You define it."