Gardening. Feeding the Needy. People suck.

Gardening could no longer be overlooked. My yard was becoming quite unruly. This no-name, generic mint plant had taken over my front yard bed. It is a glorious specimen and I really couldn’t bring myself to take it out. There are always a pile of buzzing honey bees and bumble bees that delight in checking every little pale purple flower at least 200 times before going home to their hives. We did cut it back a bit and open up the bottom so the azalea that was next to it could get some sun, we planted a yellow mum in the corner, trimmed the dead fern fronds, trimmed the azalea bushes a bit, and filled my hanging basket with purple and yellow pansies. We also edged the walkway around the bed and removed the dead weeds and grass growing in between the cracks. It looks much better now. In the back, we killed piles of no-good, useless, friendless fire ants, edged the patio, trimmed the weeds along the back fence, lopped the Sweetgum seedlings that were trying to grow, and discussed finishing the fence. It turns out that the neighbors next to us and behind us want to do the same thing so we may just go in together and split the cost to finish the fencing. This will be a good thing for two reasons. One, it will allow us to divert some funds to make a bigger patio in the back and two, the kids will just have to walk down the street 10 more houses and use the sidewalk on the main road to get to the school instead of using our yards as a shortcut…booo-hooo. Even though it is but a mere semblance of privacy, I just can’t wait!

Feeding the needy is a full-time job. When we were busy out front, a little black cat showed up, started swimming through the grass, and playing with the neighbor’s sprinkler heads. I guess you could say that she was just being cute in general. After a time Mom couldn’t resist petting the friendly little black cat with no collar. I didn’t want to encourage that because I wasn’t sure if she was just visiting or had some kind of disease. You know, the usual fears about strays. She had no collar so we figured she was recently dumped or left behind. She looked thin but healthy though she appeared to have ear mites, some kind of skin thing as patches of hair was missing from her belly, and fleas. Sad to think people could be so heartless and cruel, but there it is sitting in front of you longing for contact, purring for no apparent reason, begging for food, and hoping you will have a kind heart full of mercy. What does one do when approached like this? If you are a warm-blooded human then you pet the kitty, it follows you to the back yard where it follows you around like a dog while you work and when you fill up the birdbaths you just stand there with your mind reeling as you watch it drink for four minutes straight. Who could leave such a friendly little thing behind or dump it?! Of course, we ended up feeding it.

People suck, I tell you. Oh sure, animal cruelty is an old story but when you are faced with the reality of it staring at you in the face – it is still hard to swallow. I consider each of to be custodians of this Earth, which includes animals. Each of us has responsibility to care for our pets should we choose to buy or adopt. Each of us who are pet owners has the responsibility for making hard decisions when the time calls for it. I am not sure about anyone else, but I would rather give it away to a new family or put a pet down than abandon it and let it starve to death. Sure cats can take care of themselves better than dogs, but it is more like the Wild Kingdom episode where you discover that wild cats do not make kills and eat every day. That is a rarity. There are more misses than hits in the wild. So how could anyone expect that a domesticated housecat could all of the sudden fend for itself and be successful enough to survive?! To think that is sheer ignorance. Not all housecats have a strong hunting instinct. The animal cruelty that humans are capable of boggles the mind. So we are not going to ignore this poor creature, even though we really can’t afford it.

Plan Alpha.

1. We are going to get Peanut to check the kitty out.
2. If she does not have feline leukemia then we will get her fixed up and see if there is a good home for her in W’boro.
3. If no homes are available by the time we come back, then we will take her. Regardless of E’s allergies to short hairs. (His decision.)

Plan Beta.

1. If by some chance she has feline leukemia then we will put her down and send her to the happy hunting ground in the sky. It would be more humane than watching her loose her hair, get emaciated, and drool all the time until she finally gave out.

Those are the plans.