Pictures

Thank you Walt for reminding me that I have a GoFund me out there that you started!  I am not good at self promotion (just my blog!), so I will just add the tag to click on for donations, and let everyone know that any donations towards this fund will not be to help FINANCE the 'cat mobile', but to help run it/maintain it.  Gas, etc.  Please do not feel obligated to donate!  To those that have, THANK YOU!!!

https://www.gofundme.com/reliable-catmobile-for-janine

And again, thank you WALT for all you do for me!  :)

On the homefront:  More snow coming.  EEEEEEK!  C'mon Old Man Winter!  GO AWAY!

Scenes from this morning at my first few shelters:  (click on to view up close)

PARSELLS #1

PARSELLS #2

PARSELLS #3 (Harvey and Huey kin)

CENTRAL (adoptable Tabby & Tuxedo kitties)

MELVILLE (adoptable grey boy)

Have a nice day.

Phew! I need a Vacation!

BLU - My Houseguest This Weekend!

Man oh Man.  My weekends just fly by lately.  And with the time change, I had less time to accomplish what I had intended to accomplish, which I didn’t accomplish at all.  And that task was to clean out my magazines.   Hi, my name is Janine, and I am a magazine hoarder.  Uggh.  I get these free magazines sent to me, and I love to cook, so I can’t throw away a magazine thinking I might miss a recipe, or a good article.  And I never have spare time to sit and read, I am ALWAYS on the go, when I am not cooking and cleaning on the weekends, so they build up.  So, that is my project.  Clean out the magazines stacked on my porch, and the piles on my desk in my office at home.

Peanut Butter Pie - DELISH

RUG and CHAIR

And every tax season – IF I actually get a refund,  I try to change my house up a bit.  This year it was a new chair and rug for living room, new end tables, lamps and quilt for my bed in my bedroom.  I know that seems like a lot, but I hunt for bargains too.  I can’t go on vacation, I can’t even take a single day off from getting up going out and feeding cats every morning, so I have to treat myself somehow, right???

And feed cats I do!  I get up at 2 am. every single morning, lounge around for an hour to wake my mind and body up, and head out into the cold and darkness – to feed stray and feral cats.  Many cats.  I have 19 locations I drive to.  I get in and out of my car with dry and wet food, and water.  Most times a bath sized towel to lay down under the plates so that the kitties can have something warm to stand on when they eat.  The food and water goes under the roof of shelters I’ve built around the city for these cats.  19 shelters to be exact.  These shelters can house an average of five kitties.  Some are large wooden shelters, and some are plastic or Styrofoam, but all go under a tarp that is positioned with a large board under it over the shelters.  To hold the snow, and keep the rain out.  I get out of my truck randomly and place a bowl of food and water for kitties I see on my way to each stop, knowing this could be their only meal.  Am I crazy?  Yes, I really am.  Who else does this???  There are a few of us, but not many! 

I’ve been seeing a few sick cats lately.  My heart breaks for them.    Like the mama cat of the six kittens I rescued on the side of Syd and Johnny’s garage on Bay Street a few years back.  She began as a black fluffball, very healthy looking, but something is wrong with her fur on the back end.  If I had more antibiotics, I would slip it in her food to see if that would help.  Whatever her ailment.  I know vets would frown on this, but I can’t just grab a feral/semi-feral cat and bring it to the vet.  There is also a black cat I’ve been seeing coming out of a shelter on Pennsylvania, he’s got something going on also.  He’s a cat I’ve never seen before.  He lets me touch him, but with a growl.  He seems starving, and not able to eat comfortably.  I haven’t seen him in two mornings now. 

I have also not seen Big Red since the last snowfall.  Some of you, or one of you may say ‘well if you had only rescued him when you had the chance.’  Well, I have had the chance to rescue many many cats over the years, but haven’t, due to one reason or another.   And I actually HAVE rescued many many cats over the years, I would have to say close to 1000 when I think back on it.  When I first started out – 20 years ago?  It started with maybe 10 the first year, 20 the next, 30 some years, and 120+ this past year alone!   Kristin started the count for me four or five years ago.  The cats I have in my home are cats I rescued that had one issue or another.  They were on my route, I could see them declining, I would rescue them, get them vetted, but never got them adopted out.  No one wants the sick ones, no one wants the not so pretty ones.  So I wound up keeping them, what else could I do? 

Buttons on Couch with me Yesterday!

Buttons this Morning!

Buttons is one example.  I rescued her 3 or 4 years ago?  (gotta check this blog – do a search and I can find anything that’s happened for nearly 10 years past).  She was, and still is, a timid kitty, and she was scared to death of her own shadow.  She stayed mostly upstairs in my house, only coming down for a nibble of food in the dark, or when I am not home.  She went to the vet last week to get rechecked after having blood drawn for Bartonella (sp?) disease, and when she got back from the vet, you would think she would go into hiding even more.  Well, for some odd reason, after all these years, she has been hanging out with me downstairs ever since.  And yesterday, total breakthrough.  She actually jumped up on the couch and sat with me.  I was shocked.  I don’t know what got into her, but I am very happy she is now joining the rest of the clan!

HERMIE!

PARSLEY!

Both are now playing!

Buttons baby boy Baby Buttons has been missing from this same colony – where Sam and Mr. Whiskers and Millie still hang.    Baby Buttons was getting thinner and thinner and getting closer and closer to me, and then one day, he was gone.  Its been at least two months now.  Its heartbreaking knowing I COULD have done something, but didn’t.  But I can’t always DO something.  I just can’t.  There are too many other factors going on in my life.  If I just had more people stepping up to foster.  I know I have one waiting in the wings – she offered to take Big Red, but I still had Parsley and Hermie to worry about and wanted to make sure they went somewhere where they could thrive.  And I knew this girl had a place where they could.  Big windows, lots of room.  Where they are now, there is a bed that takes up much of the room, and when anyone other than their foster enters the room, they hide.  I’ve been a bad ‘mom’ due to the fact that I’ve only gone to visit them once.  And when I did, they did not want to come out from under the bed for me.  I tried to DRAG Parsley, as he was closer to the edge than Hermie was, but it didn’t work so well.   The latest report is that they run to their foster mom when she enters the room, even to the point of sitting on her lap!  That is where they need to be with me, and other potential adopters.  Let me be clear.  I am extremely grateful to their current foster mom.  But she is also a rescuer, and will have room for more kitties off the street.  So I am grateful as well to the kind person offering the wonderful room for Hermie and Parlsey.  They will be able to be more easily shown at their new place.  So, fingers crossed all goes as planned.  Stay tuned.

Have a nice day.

"Feeling gratitude

and not expressing

it is like wrapping

a present and

not giving it."

Chapter on Chewy!

Once again, we have a guest post from Joel, our great story writer.  Thanks Joel, for another exciting chapter of A Guardian Angel!  This time, Joel writes about one of my most recent rescue - Chewy!

Chewy Rescued!~

A Guardian Angel - Chapter One - Chewy's story

   What would the cats Janine cares for think of her ? What would it be like to eavesdrop on them on a cold winters night ?

  

  Chewy - a small calico female with a patchwork of white, orange and black fur crouched beneath one of the many human made shelters arranged along the tall wooden fence that bordered the little park at Second and Central streets. She had gotten this name because of her nervous tendency to chew on her paw pads every few minutes when she wasn't hunting for food. She even chewed them in her sleep. She couldn't help it - they itched constantly - the maddening tingly sensation was creeping into her conscious thoughts even now as she peered out from the deep shadows under the human made shelters boxy enclosure over her head. She had suffered much as of late, her itchy paws were just the latest annoyance to be added to the long list of her life's woes.

She had been born a little over two years ago in one of these very shelters in the seedy little park that she called home. She had been the runt of the litter, and now barely tipped the scales at three pounds even though she was fully grown. Barely big enough to fight the rats that sometimes stole whatever meager scraps she managed to find, her life was a continuous series of hungry days and hungry nights. Sometimes she feared that the grumbles from her chronically empty belly were loud enough for the ratty looking humans that wandered this neighborhood at all hours of the night to hear and that they would suddenly emerge from their stupors and take after her. Luckily for her - so far none of them had paid her any attention - and for that she was grateful. But there was one who did - the human female that stopped along the trash strewn edge of Central ave and put out food and water for the local colony that called the corner park property home. Chewy had come to look forward to hearing the rumbly, grumbly motor of the human females car come sliding along Central and pulling to a halt with its wheels squealing like a trapped mouse a few seconds before it came to a stop. It wasn't shiny or vibrating with thundering music like some of the humans cars, and she got the feeling it was kind of an old, well worn human car - but she was glad to see it every morning just the same. She had been in that car once already, but could remember almost nothing about the experience other than she had been brought back to this same location missing the tip of one ear. She had been happy to be home at the time, and free of the little metal cage she was in, but things had become so much harder for her since then.

Now she could hardly wait to hear its grumbly motor this cold and snowy morning. This had been an especially troubling week for her. She had gotten trapped by an errant falling board in the basement of the seedy abandoned church on Second Street while rooting around for something to eat. She was too small and did not have the strength to move the heavy board once it had fallen across the hole she'd used to gain entry. She'd spent a miserable two whole days and nights trapped there until a group of foraging rats had ganged up together and moved the board out of the way for themselves. The second they had disappeared into the gloomy confines of the church basement she had bolted out through the hole into the frigid air outside. That was just about an hour ago, and now here she was crouched in the icy cold shallow snow and crispy dead leaves under the shelter, her diminutive nose twitching slightly as she sniffed the dry winter air for any signs of food. She could smell the sharp and pungent odor of the marking scents used by the other cats that prowled these grounds, as well as the sour tang of rat piss. She hated that smell more than anything - it reminded her that even after the human female came and left food, she would have to fight the rats for it if she wanted to eat.

She had decided today would be different. Hardly believing she could be so brave and bold - she had made up her mind to do something so against her nature that it made her shiver harder than the negative 10 degree wind chill warranted. She was planning on giving herself up to the human female that came to feed them. She had overheard some of the neighborhood cats talking in hushed whispers about the human female taking some of the locals away in a trap, and that sometimes they came back healed from their sickness or injuries. There was also a rumor gradually spreading from other far flung colonies of wild cats that this same human female had been helping them by finding them homes with other humans that actually wanted to invite a cat into their homes and take care of them - forever! She could not believe a human would ever do something like that for her - but she was going to try. It had been almost brutally cold all week, and her little body could barely generate enough heat to keep her shivering at bay. Chewy fully intended to run out to the human female when she got out to leave the food and water and cry for help.

August 2017 - Chewy still on the streets

So she shivered and waited, waited and shivered, her breath making tiny plums of white vapor that condensed on the underside of the shelters floor above her. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, her sensitive eyes spotted two bright spots far down Central Ave coming toward her. Her little heart began to beat faster as the lights grew bigger and brighter, and at last she heard the distinctive deep grumble of the cars motor. It was her! The human female was coming to put out food and water. She raised herself up off her belly, ready to emerge from under the shelter and plow through the snow toward the human to make her plea. She had no idea if humans could understand cat - but she would try her best.

She watched with wide eyes as the humans car stopped across the street, its wheels making that intermittent mouse-squeak sound - but her keen vision suddenly became aware of something else. Coming down the street from the opposite direction from the old car was one of the local ratty looking humans that she had seen from time to time over the past year. She watched with a sinking feeling in her heart as the man made a beeline straight toward the other humans car. Now why in the name of cats did he have to pick NOW to bug the human female before she could get a chance to plead her case for getting off this frozen street ? She watched as the cars window opened with a labored whine, and the human inside began conversing with the man standing stooped over next to the cars door.  She hesitated, caught like a mouse under a paw between her fear of facing two humans and the burning emptiness in her belly. But she couldn't bear the thought of going another minute being this cold and hungry - so she threw instinct and caution to the bitter wind. Steeling herself, she stepped out into the snow and began making her way toward the impossibly high looking snowbanks at the edge of the street.

To be continued …

He always leave us in suspense!  :)  Hopefully the REAL ending for Chewy is to be adopted into a loving home.

Have a great day!

"True happiness is... to enjoy

the present, without anxious

dependence upon the future."

Fostering Saves Lives!

Click on pics to zoom in!

Another update on Muffin:

"I came home tonight and went into Tyler’s room to see Mr. Muffins Hawkins and he came right out and wanted to be loved on. I pet him for a bit and scooped him up to take him to the living room kennel. Jade barked, I called her and gave her treats. Cheese worked the best. She’s smart though so she decided she was going to bark and bark so she could get more cheese. I had to get a little stern with her, and she only wants me to be happy with her. I know my girl thought and I know she won’t hurt him, so I tried something new. The kennel door open, me between them with treats and petting and they both relaxed- especially Mr. Muffins Hawkins, he wound up going to sleep. We are getting there, slowly but surely."

And finally:

I love the blog and have a new update for you!

"Tonight I brought him out and put him in the kennel again. I opened the door a little like last night, the dog barked a few times, he hissed a bit and I closed the door for a few minutes while I calmed Jade down and gave her some treats. I opened the door again and Hawkins kept trying to push out, so I took a chance and opened it. He ran out and under the bed in the spare room. We got Jades leash and put it on her so she couldn’t chase him. Two awesome things happened: 1) She stopped barking at him and was extremely easy to redirect. I think it bothered her more that he was locked in a kennel than he was a new cat.  Around 7 Jade and I went in my bedroom and she went right to sleep. 2) About half an hour after I went in the bedroom, I heard running up and down the hallway. I went out and there he was sitting st the end of the hallway, I walked into the kitchen and he followed me, then ran in the bedroom and jumped on the bed, then into the living room and onto the couch.  He kept pausing to flop himself in the floor and roll on his back......this boy was oozing confidence! I’m telling you he was like a different cat.   So tomorrow he will be in one of the bedrooms during the day when we aren’t home because Jade hasn’t been in her kennel for over a month (and I don’t want her thinking she has to go back in because of him) but once we get home I’ll put the leash on her and let him out to run around again. 

It’s funny that he decided to push us into the next step- Tyler says he tricked me into letting him out of the kennel- but what a wonderful trick it’s turned out to be!"

Another update - MILO!

"Hi Janine, just wanted to let you know Milo is doing great. He’s my boy!

Hope all is going well,

Lynn"

MILO

CHEWY!

I absolutely LOVE these pictures!  Remember, this little girl is a kitty I never thought I would be able to rescue.  She is coming along nicely, and hopefully will be adopted in May!  :)  thank you Amanda, for fostering! 

Fostering creates happy endings!  Fostering saves lives!!!  

CHEWY LOVES CATNIP!!!

Marti/Simon!

Update - the kitty I rescued last fall:  Since Simon returned home yesterday morning, after being missing for a month - has made himself right at home again - he was very dirty and had lost a lot of weight since he'd been gone - oh the tales he could tell!!

Have a nice day!

Muffin

Muffin - if you will all recall, I rescued Muffin from Parsells Avenue last fall.  Muffin was one of a few youngsters that I suspected were born in the springtime.  He and the other seven or so cats were the remaining cats I could not trap during the big sweep a while back to remove these cats and get them out of there (barns) due to me having no place to feed them anymore after being tossed off the porch to the vacant house that was now being renovated.  (whew, that was a mouthful!)

Muffin was the only youngster brave enough to allow me to pet him.  I knew he needed fixin', so when the time came, I could not let him back on the streets after he was vetted.  In walks Melissa, who is known to help socialize semi feral cats, and does a darned good job of it.  She offered to foster Muffin.  She worked her miracles on him until he was ready to be adopted out. 

In walks this family around Christmas time - they wanted to adopt Muffin, had dogs, but were sure all would work out.  Eventually they brought him home, and Muffin proceeded to hide for the next two months until he was returned to me a few weeks ago.

In walks Karlee and her 15 yr. old son Tyler, who had seen Muffin back up on my adoptable kitties list.  They wanted to take a chance on Muffin, and they were aware of his story, even though they had a pit bull they raised from infancy.   When I met Karlee and Tyler, I fell in love with them, as we had an extensive conversation about how it would go, slowly introducing Muffin to Jade, the dog.  Muffin would be mainly Tyler's kitty, and as mom explained, they both needed each other.

Muffin has been with them for a week and a half now, and here are some updates I've received - each paragraph are different updates.

"Hi Janine!  We made it home, he was so good in the car, he fell asleep.  He's found a quiet place in Tyler's room to hide and we are just letting him be for a bit."

"He came out of hiding a little bit last night, got some love, ate some food, and went back to hiding in a spot we could see him.  This morning, he's still hiding.  Hoping to bring him to the living room and put him in Jade['s kennel this afternoon for a bit so they can get used to each other but still be safe."

"We got him out of hiding and put him in the kennel in the living room.  Jade barked at him, he hissed at her and swatted at her (I'm glad he did, I was worried he was going to cower and try to hide.)  She barked on and off for about 15 minutes.  I finally got her redirected with some potato chips and all has been quiet for about 45 minutes.  She's chewing her bone and he's hanging out getting used to our household noises."

"Tyler adores him.  Tuesday we got him out from under the bed and Tyler carried him down the hall saying '"Its okay, your safe, I've got you."  We put him in the kennel, he got out before I could close the door and he got under the couch.  So Jade went in the kennel until we could get him out and then they switched places.  She barked at him, but again I could redirect her with food.  He stayed out for about an hour, then Tyler took him to his room and they played video games.  H/e was also playing with a bird toy because I could hear Tyler laughing at him.  It was a good sound.  Yesterday we let him be, didn't make him come out.He started letting Tyler pet him.  This morning I went in and he came out to play, eat some treats, and let me pet him.  Jade barked at the door a couple of times and he didn't react.  Tyler asked me to wait till the weekend to bring him to the kennel again, he said 'mom, he needs to trust me first'.  I'm not arguing with that!  I'm ordering him some Feliway and Jade some Adaptil today.  And some more treats because they both love treats!  Also, I've been leaving Jades food bowl in the hallway about 3 feet from the door so they can smell each other but associate it with good things like food.  His is about the same distance away.  W are slowly making progress, but we are in no hurry.  We know we'll get there eventually, and Tyler is fine with having his cat spend all his time with him."

"I wanted to share this picture with  you.  We came home tonight and he came out, was so amazingly affectionate and decided to sit and play video games with Tyler.  His Feliway collar and extra large container of treats came today,, so he's going to go in the kennel tomorrow.  We love him to pieces already!

"He was sitting there willingly (see picture).  Last night he was very outgoing and lovable. He just wanted to be pet and held.  It was amazing!  Tyler has changed his name to Hawkins.  I call him Mr. Muffins Hawkins or Mr. Hawkins."

So, as you can see, if you work at it, it can be done!  I am not saying that Muffin's last family did not work at it, but there is something with the way its being done by this family that is making it work.  Stay tuned for more of this wonderful story!

Have a great day!

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

Labor of Love

 Click on Pics to zoom in...

CAT PRINTS ON THE SNOW

MY PRINTS

MOUNDS I HAVE TO CLIMB

So let’s start with the snow.     Friday morning was HORRIFIC.  I know that’s a big word, but that’s the only word I can think of to describe it.   The city of Rochester had close to 2 feet of snow, if you count the drifting as well due to the winds that were whipping the heavy snow that was falling throughout the night into the morning.    And that snow was HEAVY.  So think about having to walk through your back yard, and even further in some places, and in that amount of dense snow.  Its very hard on your legs.  And when you get back there, you have to shovel the shelters out.  And they were BURIED.  INSIDE and OUT.  I saw very few cats that morning.  I could only pray they were OK.  At most spots, I didn’t even leave wet food, it took all my strength just to shovel a path for them to get in and out of the shelters for food and water.  I saw a few cats, the ones that were brave enough to either run from or to the shelters when I arrived, and when I say run, I mean HOP.  The snow was way over their heads, so in order for them to get to the food, or away from me (the feral ones that took shelter in the shelters), so they either followed my trail, or had to hop through the snow.  It was a hard thing to see.  If MY legs were hurting from walking in the knee high snow, think about their little muscles aching…. 

SAM - follows me back to my car every morning...  :(

I shovel outside their shelters so that they at least have a little space to walk around, use ‘the facility’, and stretch.  I had never seen so many cars stuck either.  It was sad, knowing these poor people in these poor neighborhoods HAD to get to work, and their attempts were thwarted by getting stuck in the snow.  I saw a police car, a flatbed tow truck, an 18 wheeler, not to mention a car on every street I passed, stuck.

By the time I finished my THREE HOUR shift (3:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.), the snow and wind had not let up.  Work closed, and I was just too whipped to write this blog.   I am so thankful that work closed.  It gave my body a chance to heal a bit, until the NEXT morning.

Thank you Saturday Sheryl for helping me.  She drove 20 miles at 4 am. to help me.  I thought the hard part was done on Friday, but it was JUST AS BAD Saturday morning.  HORRENDOUS.  That was the word of the day for Saturday!  Sheryl did most of the digging for me, but it was like there was no footpath to follow as the storm dumped another four to five inches after I left the previous 24 hours ago.  Sheryl is a trooper, and I thank God for her.  My body hurt so bad, I just couldn’t do it a second morning in a row.

We are due another storm at the end of this week.  Say a prayer it doesn’t happen.

For some good news!  The girl in Caledonia who was first fostering Marti from Melville, the all white cat, and wound up adopting him, and renaming him Simon, who went missing close to a month ago when someone let him out by mistake, called me early this morning (as I was walking in a field in the dark to tell me that SHE FOUND SIMON!!!!  He’s been found!  I get quiet about things that upset me, that sadden me, so I never spoke much about this, but this news certainly made my world a bit brighter.    Someone saw an ad on Craigslist about feeding this white cat, and remembered that Amanda was looking for this white cat, put two and two together and reached out to Amanda.  She and I are over the moon.  Here is Simon, home at last!

In other good news, Chewy may be adopted!  More on that story tomorrow.

Have a GREAT day!

"Stop pushing

so hard on

the Door looking

for Happiness.

It opens inwards!"

TGIT!

Well, today was pretty normal.  Get up, go out, feed over 100 cats, get to work.

And that number is no exaggeration.   I'm only counting the ones I can see.

Melville 1 - average 3 cats
Parsells 1 - average 3 cats
Parsells 2 - average 5 cats
Melville 2 - average 3 cats
Melville 3 - average 3 cats
Garson 1 - average 2 cats
Garson 2 - average 8 cats
Baldwin - average 5 cats
Parsells 3 - average 3 cats
Webster & Ferndale - average 3 cats
Pennsylvania - average 5 cats
Third & Central - average 4 cats
Second & Central - average 6 cats
Hebard Niagara corner lot - average 1 cat
Niagara & Central - average 6 cats
Central & Fifth - average 7 cats
Short - average 5 cats
Seventh - average 3 cats
Bay - average 2 cats

OK, so that's 77, but you can bet your bottom dollar that at each of these locations, there are feral cats just waiting for me to leave so that they can join the others for their morning feeding frenzy.

Tomorrow will not be normal.  They are calling for over a foot of snow, two feet in some places, and its supposed to be HEAVY snow.  This will surely take its toll on me with the shoveling.  And it will take its toll on the cats, I am sure.

I was at the Central and Fifth location this morning and as I was walking back to the car from the dark vacant lot there was a man standing there and he asked if I needed help.  I yelled to him quietly that I was feeding cats.  He said, 'oh I remember you!  you brought me sandwiches a few years ago when I was homeless!  and I fed the cats for you too!'  I chuckled, how nice it was for him to remember that.  We got to chatting and his name is Roy.  Roy was apparently living with his 'queen' and was out looking for cans and stuff.  He was very appreciative of the fact that I gave him food, and I had a friend for life.

The morning prior, I was on Garson leaving one of my feeding spots and the car that had gone past me was backing up, and the woman rolled down her window and asked me if i was the 'feral cat lady.'  FERAL CAT LADY?  I don't think so...  As fond as I am of cats, I don't want to be called a cat lady!  and now the FERAL cat lady!  I did look pretty odd walking away after hunching over the underneath portion of a boarded up house.  I asked her what she was doing, and she was the REPO LADY!  She said she remembered me from a few years back and just stopped to say hello.  Now THERE's a job!  She said she would be too afraid to do what I do, but what about her job?  I would be scared to do THAT!  She had some contraption on the hood on back of her car...  Not sure what that was, but boy that's gotta be interesting...

The morning prior to that, I ran into a woman named Melanie.  Now, Melanie was walking around Second and Central one day last week and I said hello to her as I got out of the car.  I actually thought it was a petite man at first, because of how small of a frame, and the jeans were hanging low.  She came up to me and I realized the person was a soft spoken woman.  Her name was Melanie. I asked her what she was doing out there at that time of day.  She was looking for a cigarette, and waiting for the House of Mercy to open.  She was telling me it opened at a certain time for breakfast.  I gave her what change I had, after realizing she wasn't using it for drugs or drink.  She told me she spent 20 years in prison for having been busted for some huge amount of cocaine.  She had just recently gotten out, but was planning to move back to Florida in May where her family was from.  She was actually a nice, sweet woman.

There are so many interesting people in this world if you just take the time to stop and say hello to them.  They may not be someone you want to bring home to meet the family, but nevertheless, even good people fall on hard times.

I am blessed to be able to get out of my warm bed this morning and be able to walk.

Therefore, its a great day!

Make it a good one yourself!

"Be grateful

for what you

have. Your

 life, no matter

 how bad you

think it is,

 is someone

 else's

 fairytale."