Silent Victims

On the evening news a story was done about the silent victims of home foreclosures. Naturally, they are the pets. I've heard stories of them being abandoned in empty houses, left lose outside with the thought that they could get along OK (especially cats), only to be ostrasized by feral cats or taken to local shelters simply because they had no where else to go.

It's a sad situation and these animals are left confused and suffering from separation anxiety. Many of them are considered unadoptable because of their age. To add another nail, pet adoptions are down because people are so uncomfortable with the economy right now.

This is my little "owner surrender". It's been almost a month now since I first brought Tootsie home. She is learning, but yes, she had some issues she had to overcome before she could begin to function in this household. She still isn't as comfortable as you would think she'd be, but she's getting there.

Tootsie and Shalimar, my older cat, still have trust issues to get over, but most of the serious fighting has stopped now. Still, there are a couple of major spots to watch out for. One of those is the master bedroom. Shalimar will do fine with Tootsie in the room except that Tootsie, being a young cat, wants to play and unnerves Shalimar. Then you have the fights.

After talking to a pet hotline from a local no-kill adoption center, I decided to give Tootsie a full chance at becoming a family member. They told me that it could take as much as a year, maybe more for the cats to become friends but should reach a tenative stalemate by the end of 3 months. I was also told that from my discriptions, this could be a good match.

In this one month, this sweet little cat has made friends with the dog; is getting more comfortable with being in the house; fusses with Shalimar less and less. Still, she cries when you leave her alone for any short amount of time. She is always nearby, seeming to feel most comfortable when she can be with someone. She loves the windows, Shalimar's food, visits the community water bowl (the dog's water dish) regularily and finds Shalimar's self-cleaning litter box to be the "cat's meow"!

On the nights I let her out and about all night (mostly on weekends now in case the cats want to keep me up all night), I'll often find the bed toy ridden. Tootsie has her favorites and they are always on or in the bed. I keep a basket toy box of cat toys and I spend a good part of my early mornings locating and picking up the toys that are scattered about.

She's a sweet little cat and though it's taking much longer for the two of them to come to terms, I think this will work out for the best. I think she is a good match here. She still has some issues that we are working on, but she'll be fine. This little "owner-surrender" found a home.

Oil Companies and Their Greed

OK, I've now had totally enough of this spineless president. He should be out of office NOW! I'm not even sure I can wait until November.

He knows he's on his way out, but still doesn't have the backbone to stand up to these thieving oil companies that he gives them the right to kill polar bears in search of oil instead of alternative fuel sources. He is the world's biggest joke.

The oil companies think they have so much power that they can abuse and rob people and now kill the things we love. Are we going to stand for this? Are we going to allow them into our homes and destroy what they wish?

They are no different than that Homeland Security piece of shit that thinks he has the power to destroy whatever he wants and force us into something worse than what we despise just because he thinks he has the power to do that. He hasn't figured out yet that shouldn't or can't be done.

Lining these despots up in front of a stone wall and shot would be to easy. We need to bring back some of the old ways for these folks. Stockades or stoning come to mind.

Well, they'd better enjoy their sadism now, because when we finally break out of this (and we will), their worlds will be completely destroyed without a speck of dust left. I hope it's soon because I'm getting extremely tired of this.

The way people are beginning not to travel or visit the gas pumps less and less, the oil people should very soon have such a stock pile of oil that they will choke on it. Personally, I'm considering going to solar for my home. This looks like a good self-sufficient path right now.

Recent Days

Last weekend was prom night. Since all my children are past that, I don't pay much attention to it any more. However, last weekend, a neighbor whom we aren't necessarily close to, stopped in to ask if he could use our front garden as a backdrop for pictures of his daughter and her prom date. We said sure, but first he might want to look at the back yard before deciding where he wanted to pose his daughter. They did choose the back yard and have promised to soon be by to show us the pictures. I'd like to see them.

Then, this weekend, I invited my mother and step-father for dinner. Because of the heat, I made a spaghetti dinner which was totally enjoyed. During the meal, the conversation came up about the higher wages that certain folks make. Things always turn political with my step-father. He hasn't learned that there are two things you don't discuss -- politics and religion. Anyway, he asked a question worthy of some thought...

"What would you do with a yearly $900,000 salary?"

Would I move? No. I like this property. It's my dream. The house is small enough to easily take care of, the property is pretty because I made it that way. It's also easily affordable but would be paid off with that kind of money.

What I would do is take some of it salary annually and buy up property being sold by individuals or by developers who are going under with the extreme falling of the property values. I would take these vacant lands and turn them into nature preserves. I don't feel we need more housing. The baby boomers are beginning to die off and the next generations have an influx of housing to choose from. We don't need more housing. We've already stressed out the environment enough. What we need is to allow the environment to return itself.

Personally, seeing a lot of empty houses isn't all that nice. I want the birds and the bees and the wildlife. How does the song go? "You paved paradise and put up a parking lot." I'd like to change some of that and even though the amount I could do wouldn't see all that significant, it would be a drop in the bucket that wasn't there before. This would be my way of giving to future generations something they might otherwise miss; a nice stroll in the woods and see wildlife and plants they might otherwise miss.