Scenes from the Hood

 This is what most people miss in the early morning hours.  Look at that sky.  The bluest blue with the pinkest pink of clouds.  Illuminated by the sun coming up.  Most people are snug in their beds, but I get to see the most amazing moons, skies, trees backdropped by the sky... so many beautiful things, in some of the worst neighborhoods that there are. 

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks.  Of the three cats I rescued two weeks ago, two are adopted, and the third -- I can't believe has not.  She is the sweetest, most beautiful black long-haired lap cat!  Please go to Petfinder under JanineTheBean Rescue, and view the beautiful adult cats currently up for adoption.

The next item on the agenda, I was feeding under the tree on Parsells, where the meanest cat-hating people live in almost every house around there when I kept hearing a meow.  I thought it was just a few houses away, so I got in my truck after feeding the hungry babies there, and listened quietly as I drove slowly away, and then I stopped when I knew I had pinpointed the location.  I got out of the truck, walked over to a porch, and then I saw a cat in a cage crying.  I got closer, and it was a cat that I had tried to rescue at the end of this past winter, but he went berserk and I had to let him go.  There he was in this cage, completely emaciated, and sitting in his own feces.  Not a bowl of water or food in sight.  And here we had a nasty thunder and lightning storm that night.  It was now 5 am.  That poor animal.  I got a squeeze clickable treat from the car, went up on the porch, and squeezed it in.  He ate that voraciously.  I made a note to call 911 when I got home, I knew animal control didn't start until 7, and I still had more places to feed at.  When I did call, I got the nastiest, compassionatelessness (is this a word?) female dispatcher that could have cared less.  I actually wondered if she would report it.  I called back a half hour later to see if another dispatcher would answer.  Same one.  I hung up.  She called back.  I didn't answer.  Later, around 8:30, I drove to the spot and the cat was not there, but there was a kindly-looking gentleman standing on the porch.  I asked him if he knew about the cat, but he didn't.  He lived in the other part of the house, a duplex.  I asked him if the other tenant was home, and he said yes, I went ahead and knocked on the door, and within a minute a woman was sticking her head out the window.  I asked if the cat in the trap was let out, and she said yes, she had him in there because he had some kind of 'sore'.  I said he looked very emaciated, she asked what that meant, and I told her very skinny.  I told her I wanted to help the cat, and she said it was hers.  She had her cell phone still to her ear, but then I heard her tell the person she would call back.  She shut the window, and I knew she was coming down to talk to me.  Well.  She came down, opened the door, and half-dressed with a towel around her began SCREAMING at me.  Telling me are you the bitch that puts food down across the street?  Get your ass off my porch!  These @$%@$ cats, are you the one putting food on my porch?  I said no.  I would never do that.  She said if I ever catch you doing that you'll be sorry, or something like that.  And I was looking at this kind man in disbelief.  I asked her why was she screaming and she said she'll talk as loud as she wanted.  She approached me and told me to get off her porch.  I seriously thought she was going to push me.  I walked slowly down them, bent down to pet a sweet cat, and she told me get your @#$%@$ hands off that cat, it's MY cat.  I walked to my car just staring at her.  I wanted so bad to give her a piece of my mind, but I held back.  This kind of mentality is rampant in that neighborhood.  I told the man, before the woman stuck her head out, that I have rescued hundreds from that street over the years.  He really was a nice well dressed older man.  Her language in front of him...  I just couldn't believe it.  It was obvious he knew when to be quiet.  I drove away from there with a rapid heartbeat but calmed down by the time I got home.  As long as this poor cat was no longer in that cage, I was good.  It was there at the tree across the street this morning, looking so sick.  

I can't do any rescuing now.  I will be unavailable to do my route for about a month, but luckily, I have help, most of which I am paying for, but I am grateful for people to help.  That is why donations are so important.  I have to pay people to help me each and every time I go out every other day, and that doesn't include the $100 it takes to feed every other day.  This is an expensive mission.  

Here are some pictures I took this past week:  You can click on them to zoom in:

Speaking of trash - just look at this house.  And children live here.  The handwritten sign in the front had different kinds of empanadas for sale -- um...  I wonder what the health department would think of this.

This woman on Bay Street has at least three waterfalls here and decorates her little yar every year with more and more.  At least there is some beauty amongst the filth.

This young kitty was desperately hungry as he sat on the sidewalk on Ferndale Crescent:

Another very emaciated sick cat on Melville Street.

Growing family.  We have a new fat red tabby coming to join from the field, and a new grey tabby.  The other three I've fed for over 10 years now, on Pennsylvania Avenue:

Have a great day!