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Jun. 30th, 2007 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThey expect to move grandma out of the hospital and into Donahue (rehab) today, if all goes well. She seemed a hell of a lot perkier last night when I visited than she did earlier in the week.
Ed-the-employee, his mother fell and broke her hip the day before yesterday, too. Apparently it's going around.
This morning I'm going into Heather's so that we can make black raspberry jam. Not sure what I'm doing with the rest of the day but the morning, at least, is going to be crafty-like-Martha.
Also, all the YouTube videos of cats that fetch? Not really that impressive. Youbee likes balls of paper. If I have the slightest desire to play ball-of-paper, she'll bring it back to me to throw, over and over again. If I don't want to play ball-of-paper, she will chase it herself, pick it up, take it back to the starting place, chase it again... Perhaps Youbee is a defective cat, but if so, there are a lot of them out there, many on YouTube. I should get a picture of her carrying the paper ball around -- it's kind of cute.
I need to call the vet about getting Youb fixed and shots and stuff. I'll try to get that done next week. I was reading up on the internets about getting cats fixed and started feeling totally guilty because I get free cats from people who do not get their cats fixed. I do not get cats from the Humane Society because they, uhm, ask questions and want to be sure I'm a suitable owner for a cat. (Which, yo, I am a suitable owner for a cat. Food-n-water every day. Litter changed every day. Supervised visits to The Out Of Doors. Shots. Fixing. Minimal whacking, and that primarily to install the prime directive: I Am The Lord Thy God And Thou Shalt Not Claw Or Bite Me. Ever. I Mean It. (I have very polite cats.) Admittedly, not hundreds of dollars of medical care, but that's because they're cats. If the cat dies, I will get another cat.) I understand that they're asking questions to be sure that they're not sending the cat out into the world to be dumped on the street, but still. It offends me. When I got Youb, I was like "I want that one, there." and there was the fetching of the sack and the suckering of the kitten with canned cat food and the snatch-n-grab to install the not-tame kitten into the sack and I was all set. There were no questions asked about my suitability as a cat owner. The only question they asked was, "Sure you don't want two? They're small!"
The thing is, if there did not exist people who let their cats generate litters of free kittens, I would not have cats. I don't want a breed of cat. I want a generic cat. I don't want issues, I want hybrid vigor. I don't want to pay three hundred dollars (on top of shots-n-fixing). I want free. I like long haired cats better but if there are suitably pretty short haired cats around, I'll take one of those. Kittens under three months do not have to be socialized -- I can do that myself -- and I don't really want something more than a year old because by then they think they have rights-n-stuff. I'm kind of fussy about what they look like because cats last a long time and I want one I will be happy with... but being picky about what the damn cat looks like is not a problem when there are Free KIttens signs every three miles or so throughout the county in the spring.
The problem here is that, while I reward the Free Kittens people, I don't absorb very many homeless cats. My house is only rated for two moggies. Over the tenure of the house, I've had Autumn (still here) and Freak (moved back in with previous owner once she got rid of the cat-allergic husband) and Tine (died) and Youb (still here). In ten years, there have been four cats. I'm not using them up very fast. I've also provided homes for other suitable free cats... Zane (still living in a home) and Duncan (still living in a home), but again, not making much of a dent in the problem. (All cats that left their semi-tame Barn Cat lives to live in houses got fixed.) I don't think there's any way I can use up cats faster. When you take halfway decent care of cats, they last a pretty long time. Autumn is starting to look/act old but I got her as a five-month kitten in '96 and she's eleven now. She's *allowed* to look/act old.
If I were a better person, I would suck it up and pay the extra fees and answer the questions and not get angry that they're checking my background at the Humane Society so that I could get a pre-owned or unwanted cat. I'd take what they had on hand and I'd be happy about it. I wouldn't be so damn picky and I'd be willing to take an adult cat and work with his/her views about his/her rights. I just... I don't have cats for the cats. The fact that the cats get food and shelter and stuff, that's good and all, but I do not have cats so that I can give food and shelter to helpless animals. I have cats because I don't like coming home to an empty house, because I want something warm and soft to sit on my lap and make soothing noises, because they are pretty. That's what the cats are for. (They also kill stuff, but that is not a requirement of the job.) It is, in the end, about me. No surprise there, I think.
Ed-the-employee, his mother fell and broke her hip the day before yesterday, too. Apparently it's going around.
This morning I'm going into Heather's so that we can make black raspberry jam. Not sure what I'm doing with the rest of the day but the morning, at least, is going to be crafty-like-Martha.
Also, all the YouTube videos of cats that fetch? Not really that impressive. Youbee likes balls of paper. If I have the slightest desire to play ball-of-paper, she'll bring it back to me to throw, over and over again. If I don't want to play ball-of-paper, she will chase it herself, pick it up, take it back to the starting place, chase it again... Perhaps Youbee is a defective cat, but if so, there are a lot of them out there, many on YouTube. I should get a picture of her carrying the paper ball around -- it's kind of cute.
I need to call the vet about getting Youb fixed and shots and stuff. I'll try to get that done next week. I was reading up on the internets about getting cats fixed and started feeling totally guilty because I get free cats from people who do not get their cats fixed. I do not get cats from the Humane Society because they, uhm, ask questions and want to be sure I'm a suitable owner for a cat. (Which, yo, I am a suitable owner for a cat. Food-n-water every day. Litter changed every day. Supervised visits to The Out Of Doors. Shots. Fixing. Minimal whacking, and that primarily to install the prime directive: I Am The Lord Thy God And Thou Shalt Not Claw Or Bite Me. Ever. I Mean It. (I have very polite cats.) Admittedly, not hundreds of dollars of medical care, but that's because they're cats. If the cat dies, I will get another cat.) I understand that they're asking questions to be sure that they're not sending the cat out into the world to be dumped on the street, but still. It offends me. When I got Youb, I was like "I want that one, there." and there was the fetching of the sack and the suckering of the kitten with canned cat food and the snatch-n-grab to install the not-tame kitten into the sack and I was all set. There were no questions asked about my suitability as a cat owner. The only question they asked was, "Sure you don't want two? They're small!"
The thing is, if there did not exist people who let their cats generate litters of free kittens, I would not have cats. I don't want a breed of cat. I want a generic cat. I don't want issues, I want hybrid vigor. I don't want to pay three hundred dollars (on top of shots-n-fixing). I want free. I like long haired cats better but if there are suitably pretty short haired cats around, I'll take one of those. Kittens under three months do not have to be socialized -- I can do that myself -- and I don't really want something more than a year old because by then they think they have rights-n-stuff. I'm kind of fussy about what they look like because cats last a long time and I want one I will be happy with... but being picky about what the damn cat looks like is not a problem when there are Free KIttens signs every three miles or so throughout the county in the spring.
The problem here is that, while I reward the Free Kittens people, I don't absorb very many homeless cats. My house is only rated for two moggies. Over the tenure of the house, I've had Autumn (still here) and Freak (moved back in with previous owner once she got rid of the cat-allergic husband) and Tine (died) and Youb (still here). In ten years, there have been four cats. I'm not using them up very fast. I've also provided homes for other suitable free cats... Zane (still living in a home) and Duncan (still living in a home), but again, not making much of a dent in the problem. (All cats that left their semi-tame Barn Cat lives to live in houses got fixed.) I don't think there's any way I can use up cats faster. When you take halfway decent care of cats, they last a pretty long time. Autumn is starting to look/act old but I got her as a five-month kitten in '96 and she's eleven now. She's *allowed* to look/act old.
If I were a better person, I would suck it up and pay the extra fees and answer the questions and not get angry that they're checking my background at the Humane Society so that I could get a pre-owned or unwanted cat. I'd take what they had on hand and I'd be happy about it. I wouldn't be so damn picky and I'd be willing to take an adult cat and work with his/her views about his/her rights. I just... I don't have cats for the cats. The fact that the cats get food and shelter and stuff, that's good and all, but I do not have cats so that I can give food and shelter to helpless animals. I have cats because I don't like coming home to an empty house, because I want something warm and soft to sit on my lap and make soothing noises, because they are pretty. That's what the cats are for. (They also kill stuff, but that is not a requirement of the job.) It is, in the end, about me. No surprise there, I think.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 12:46 pm (UTC)I was marginally friendly, about as friendly as I get with cats I don't know & my hands full of hardback book and my bag, but it was kind of off-putting to have this full-grown cat just lying down begging for attention in the middle of the road. A road, I might add, which is known for the occasional light truck doing fifteen miles over the speed limit, and which had two relatively recent groundhog roadkills rotting about three hundred yards up the hill. After a minute of indulging this semi-suicidal cat, I went on my way, and wouldn't you know a SUV chose that moment to appear at the top of the hill.
The cat lazily got off the road before becoming kitty pancake, but I have to wonder if I'll not be seeing that animal lying dead by the side of the road one of these mornings. No collar, so I suppose it's a stray. Almost asked the lady at the foot of the hill if she knew anything about it...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 02:04 pm (UTC)We get stray cats. We give them a home. Which_chick, do *not* feel guilty about taking barn cats. It's not your fault that the owners do not fix their cats. You Do!
I miss my cats, but we're not ready for new ones yet.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 03:48 pm (UTC)If you are "rewarding" the free-range breeders, the expectation of having a shelter to receive the surplus animals does the same.
The only time we adopted from a shelter turned into a disaster.
In the meantime we keep having animals follow DH home.