Busy Weekend!

The pictures throughout are a couple I took this weekend - houses and my babies in the hood.

It was a very busy weekend for me.  I suppose the only way I could ever relax on a day off is to go somewhere either to a beach, a tropical rainforest, or an island where there are no shops, no television, no texting, and no cats!  Friday started off pretty good, and ended great knowing that the kitten was removed from the crazy girl's house that afternoon.  I was elated.  The next morning, the injured cat on Hayward was successfully trapped.  Thank you very much Laura.  I appreciate your efforts, your drop trap, and the temporary housing you have provided forhim, and Limpy, who will be eartipped on Tuesday (they wouldn't do it at the vet that he was seen at for his injured foot) and then let go back into the wild.

I also was reminded of an important lesson that every once in a while I forget.  Not to judge people.  As I pulled up Friday morning at the first Hayward location, there was a man - and I apologize if anyone thinks I am racist - which I very much am not , but I do like to describe people and places as I see them - a black man was sitting on the steps with a little dog.  The steps were to the house next to where I feed Red, and the black and white kitty, and where I have rescued cats in the past, including Winston (aka Buddy), and Emma, and countless others.  The house next door is a mess, front screen door hanging on one hinge, windows with sheets covering them, some windows wide open with no screens, stuff in the yard, just a mess is all I can say.  Anyway, as I approached the house I said goodmorning to the man sitting there, he was fairly quiet, but I decided I would tell him what I was doing after I placed the food and water down next door.  As I approached him I told him I was feeding the cats there, and that I have rescued many from this street, and that I was trying to get them all spayed and neutered.  He introduced himself as Dave, and his dog Mama, a long haired Cichuahua, who you could tell he was in love with.  The time was 5:30 a.m.  I petted Mama and told him that my own dog was diagnosed recently with bladder cancer.  Dave told me he had the same thing.  He told me he had surgery to remove the tumor and had to wait three months to see if it returned.  He walked up to introduce himself with a slow gait and also then told me he had recently had a stroke.  Dave couldn't have been more than 55 years old.   He was here from his home in Texas, trying to take it easy and recuperate at his neices house, but told me they were 'renovating' and there was too much stuff going on for him to rest.  He told me he would be going back to Texas soon.   We shook hands, I wished him and Mama well.

My point to this is:  Here I judged this person before I met him, based on the house he was at and the neighborhood it was in.  I think we all tend to do this.  Black or white, heavy or thin, poor or rich, everyone has a story to be told, some are good, some are bad, but we need to step back and realize we can't judge anyone by looks alone.  You just never know what someone else is going through.  Thanks Dave.

The rest of my trip that morning gave me great pause too.  I realized that the cats I feed treat me as a tall, animated feeding machine; others are still too shy to allow any close contact. I love each one of these cats, and I smile when they turn their hopeful-for-food faces upwards at my approach.

But it rocks my world when the animals that I love — especially the animals who have had a tough, unkind start in life — choose to love me back.

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