epidemic

[ep-i-dem-ik] /ˌɛp ɪˈdɛm ɪk/ 

• Examples
• Word Origin

adjective

1.

Also, epidemical. (of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.

2.

extremely prevalent; widespread.

noun

3.

a temporary prevalence of a disease.

4.

a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something:

an epidemic of riots.

Some mornings are just more exciting than others (if you want to call what I do 'exciting')!!  ??  As I drove to my second location (out of what now....   18?) where I feed an AVERAGE of four cats per spot, I placed the food and water on the steps of a vacant porch on Parsells, where five cats hovered around, including this one, that is now following me back to my car, he desperately wants to get out of there.  My heart breaks.  As I went down the steps to get in the car to go to my next spot, I saw a cat on the sidewalk, mostly white, which some black around her face and tail, and she was hugely pregnant.  I bent down, put my finger out to her, and over to me she came.  I thought to myself, 'ok, you don't have a spot at the clinic, and you can't just walk in there and ask them to take this cat', but I didn't hesitate.  I got the carrier in the back, opened it up, went back to her, and after several times of getting her to come back close to me - of course the wet food I had helped - I was able to grab her by the neck!  BLAM!  Gotcha!  My brain not be too quick, but my hands are.   I was shaking when I got into the drivers seat.  'what was I going to do now?' - I texted Laura, and told her what I'd done, and begged to see if she had an open spot at the clinic I could use.  YES!  She texted me back, and off little PEARL from Parsells will go!

Pregnant Pearl from Parsells

He wants a home so badly!

I know some of you have issues with the spaying of a pregnant cat.  I don't.  It used to bother me, but seeing what I've seen on a daily basis for the past 15 is shocking to me, and the last thing we need is more kittens.  The shelters and rescue groups are FULL of them.  The kill shelters are murdering millions of animals each year because there are too many.  NO WAY.  Not on my watch.  The FIVE kittens on 7th Street - God only knows how long they will live, I still can't get them trapped and into safety.  The white cat on Niagara, I am assuming is pregnant.  Her little ones - first there were three white ones, I see only one now.  Her black kitten is across the street in the parking lot, and they are getting older.  Where did the other two go?  Did they suffer?  Are they suffering?  

Just look at some of these pictures I took this very morning!  (click on them to view up close)

Melville Girl - NEEDS A HOME

Melville Boy - is having a hard time breathing/swallowing

White Kitten on Niagara

Mommy Kitty on Niagara

Mommy and Baby

Cats across the street on Niagara, all starving

I have to sneak food under this fence.

Boy on Ferndale and Webster - NEEDS A HOME!  Very loving!

This is an epidemic in our city.  The City of Rochester, the County of Monroe, someone must do something to help!  We need more volunteers for TNR, we need more low income clinics!  We need the city to pay for this!  Step up and do something!  I CAN'T DO IT ALONE~!  The rescue groups, where they may have MAYBE 5-10 volunteers that do this, WE CAN'T FIX this problem without help!

So many people have been reached out to for help. to get the word out, the get the city to do something, Brother Wease, Rachel Barnhart - many others I can't think of at this moment - but nothing.  These are people who are influential and could make a difference for these animals.  For God's sake, I've been in the newspaper twice, on television twice, had a proclamation by the mayor for Janine Wagner Day in the city of Rochester, and was on the front page of the Democrat and Chronical!  Nothing has changed!  No one will  help!

And we still have a lunatic off Webster Avenue that won't let the cats on her street get help.  they are all sick and diseased, and need spay and neuter.  She is burying their newborns.  And we can't even get the Humane Society to do anything about it.

There is something wrong with this picture.

Please think of something and DO IT.  Help me.

On a better note to end the week, little Squirt, who wandered into my yard a couple of weeks ago, was adopted by my friend Kim, her husband Billy, and their son Brady.  They adopted Harold from me two years ago, from Central Park.  Happy endings, I love them!

Noelle and Squirt!

Kim and Squirt!

Have a nice day.

Three passions have governed my life:

The longings for love, the search for knowledge, 

And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]. 

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. 

In the union of love I have seen 

In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision 

Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. 

I have wished to understand the hearts of [people]. 

I have wished to know why the stars shine. 

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, 

But always pity brought me back to earth; 

Cries of pain reverberated in my heart 

Of children in famine, of victims tortured 

And of old people left helpless. 

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, 

And I too suffer. 

This has been my life; I found it worth living.