TGIT

Well, it was a fairly regular morning, no rain (thank God, just had my hair flat-ironed yesterday!) but very very humid.  They are predicting storms today, even a flood watch.  Before I go out, I lay on my couch and half doze, half listen to the news while cats come and go on top of my chest.  This morning I heard, on national news no less, that we had a drive by shooting around midnight last night that killed three people and left four injured, two critically.  They were bystanders after having gone to a basketball game at a local boys and girls club.  Our city is right up there with murder capitals of the country.  I know the majority of people here are not cold hearted murderers, but we've got some serious issues in this city.  Poverty, gangs, we have it all here.  I hope you were able to read some of the article I linked in yesterday's post.  It says a lot about the psyche of those living in poverty, ignorance, the way we treat others, including animals.

I thought about my own safety when I leave the house in the dark, around 4:15 am. each day, and drive a few miles to my first stop.  Where at each of the 16 or so locations I go to there are at least five cats, today I counted TEN on Garson.  Most people in the houses are sleeping, some see me and wonder what I am doing.  I am sure they figure it out after a while of seeing me each day.  Some are new to a house and come right out and ask.  There is one house on Second Street, right next to Pauls (he allows me to feed behind his house) that has had more families come and go.  And you always know when they are no longer there because the owner of the property has come along and placed all the furnishings by the curb.  I've seen childrens clothes, toys...  its pretty sad really.

As I left the 7th Street station, where there are still baby kittens that I never received help with, I saw a tall white woman standing on the corner (its 5 am. by now).  Guess who.  It was Mary, Crazy Maryleigh's old neighbor that was just evicted at the end of July.  Mary was out hustling, to my naive surprise.  I rolled down my window and called for her.  She came  over, asked me if I could sell her a beer or cigarette, told me she was waiting for a friend.  I said Mary, you can't fool me...  She laughed and said she only did it occasionally.  I asked her where she was living and she said she was homeless now.  Mary was (and still is as far as i am concerned) one of the good guys.  She cared about animals. She tried to report the burying of dead kittens on the lot next door to her, watching ML as she went on her murdering sprees of these cats on that street. Watching ML when she was on her meds, and off her meds.  She lived with her son and husband, the latter of whom is now in prison for car theft.  I thought to myself, where is her son?  Where are the dogs she had in her back yard, beautiful retrievers and labs.  Then I thought, I can't imagine my mother being a prostitute.  Can you imagine that kind of life?  To know your mother is a prostitute?

Elongated ear canal

STILL Adorable

Anyways, back to the animals.  Noodles is sweeter than honey, he loves to cuddle with me.  Snuggles right up to my neck and purrs contentedly away.  The five kittens - Cleo, Dot, Blue, Stripey and Tootsie are at a babysitters for the week.  A friend had two feral kittens she wanted to socialize so we are experimenting with the five cuddlebugs, and I am hearing good reports.  They are being spoiled though, sleeping on the bed with my friend.  The two ferals are coming around nicely.  I miss them, but its a nice break.  They will go for their first shots next week at the clinic.  Noodles went yesterday.  Her ear and face are birth defects, the doctor had never seen anything like it.  One testical too.  But he is a DOLL.  His little fang on the left side looking at him sticks out.  What a cutie.  He will be adopted in no time.  Could that be you?  :)

A true cuddle bug Francie is

Such beautiful markings...

Francie from Ferndale is finally turning a corner.  Her upper respiratory infection is getting better.  But she isn't out of the woods yet.  I opened the door finally to the bathroom she has been kept in so that she can hear the sounds of the others in the house.  She is timid, but OK.

Skinny Minnie continues to wait for a home.  She is SO playful, but a brat with the others.  She is a loner, her bark worse than her bite.  Once I get these two out, I can grab Prince from Parsells, the Calico from Melville, and Cammy from Central.  I will be thrilled once this happens.

Please consider foster or adoption, and please continue to call the Humane Society and ask what they are doing to stop this Maryleigh from the cruelty she is inflicting on the cats on her street.  She won't let anyone trap them.  They are sick and dying.

Thanks and have a good day.

“Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”