She came from a house where life wasn’t all that great. Sure, there was food – sometimes. There was water – when she could find it. She had a flea infection real bad a year or two ago and it was just so itchy, she almost couldn’t stand it. As a result, her left ear is basically gone. She couldn’t help it. She had to itch and even though it hurt, she couldn’t stop digging at her ear. There were a lot of other cats in the house, too, and the people left everything they ate or didn’t want anymore…
Working at an animal shelter, we rely on people who are looking to save pets – and thankfully, we get them coming in to adopt. It’s so great to see the happy faces when they take their new baby out of a cage and into a forever home. Sometimes, though, I find it interesting that the “saving” can go both ways. I’m reminded of seeing Portia de Rossi on Oprah many years ago when she talked about how her horse essentially saved her life. Her story truly was the portrait of a strong woman who struggled for years with serious…
Over the last few years, I’ve been looking into and taking some classes that have a lot to do with Eastern philosophy. One of the big concepts within that doctrine is the importance of living in the here and now. The Dreamworks animated film called Kung Fu Panda is one of my favorite movies. There are so many great lines from that movie, but one of my favorites is this one: “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” It’s so very true and makes perfect sense, but…
Okay, I need your help. I know you are an animal-lover and you know other animal-lovers out there. Here’s the deal. If, heaven forbid, you or any or your friends ever loses a pet – a cat sneaks outside one day or a pup gets excited about a squirrel and the leash slips through your fingers – please make sure that one of the first calls you make is to an animal shelter. Even if it’s farther away than you ever thought your pup could get. We have had dogs brought to us by our state dog wardens – as…
The older I get, the more I have begun to realize that the only true constant in life is change. Change seems to be the only thing I can rely on. Change seems inevitable. We see change every year with the seasons – from spring to summer to fall to winter and back again. Nothing can stop that. We see change every day between the sun and the moon. Nothing can stop that. In life, sometimes it feels as though just when you think you’ve got everything pretty much on an even keel, everything will take a turn. I’ve lost…
No one picked her up. She’d been on the road for days. I remember the first day that I was driving by and I saw here there, a little cat, hit by a car, lying on the berm, looking for all intents and purposes like she was just sleeping. I knew she wasn’t just sleeping. It hurt my heart to see her. She had pretty white fur and an orange spot or two and for a minute, I thought about what I would do if it were one of my cats along the road like that. I couldn’t stand it.…
We had a visit from one of our foster parents today to get another round of vaccinations for her three feline friends. I like to call her Paul Revere because she is just like the Minute Men from the Revolutionary War. She is ready at a minute’s notice to come to the shelter and get a litter full of babies to foster for us. The ones she has now are so stinking cute and they look so healthy. It helps these babies to get out of the shelter and into home until they are old enough to be spayed or…
I was talking the other day with a friend who adopted a cat from us a few years ago. She said how wonderful her four-legged friend has been for their family and she was surprised how long the cat had been at the animal shelter before they adopted her. I told her it’s because her baby was waiting for their family to find her. And that got me thinking about fate and kismet and the bigger picture and all that good stuff. The kitty they adopted had been at the shelter for nine months. My friend couldn’t believe no one…
Cats, man. I don’t really know where I’d be without them. I live in an apartment that only allows cats — no dogs. It’s probably a good thing or else I have a feeling I’d have quite a circus. I’ve been around cats all my life. Growing up, my sister knew the genealogy of just about every cat we ever had — which kittens went to which mom and who was related to whom. She might still know some of them. I think my sister has cat DNA. The jury’s still out on that one. The really interesting thing about…
Okay, so I have about had it with the humidity and heat. Oh my word, I swear the older I get, the worse I feel when temperatures climb above 90 degrees. I had my mom to the doctor the other day and it was one of those awful, hot, humid days where the temperature display in the car actually said 93 at one point. I was so incredibly exhausted by the time I got home, I seriously thought something was rather strikingly wrong with me. After a quick Google search, I learned that fatigue during really hot days is because…
