Day 35: No money for food, but money for bullets.

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 35: No money for food, but money for bullets.

I got myself into a pickle. Not that I regret it. I stand by what I said and given the chance, I’ll say it again and again.

Earlier today someone asked which kind of deer are most popular to shoot. Several people reacted that they’d rather see the hunter’s head on a while than a deer. I added that I hate hunting and hate hunters.

I was well aware that I would be criticized and I was right. Within half an hour I was on the receiving end of some hateful comments. One person stated, “Are you vegan?”

I knew what she was hinted at. If I was not a vegetarian or a vegan, what right did I have to criticize hunting? If I eat meat than what’s the difference between slaughter and hunting?

In a way she is right. There is little difference. Whether it’s a cow, a pig, a sheep or a deer, killing is killing.

Yet to me there is a difference. I only eat beef, pork, chicken and fish. I never touch sheep, lamb, turkey, rabbit, duck, or any other fancy meats. If I had it my way, I would go vegetarian, but unfortunately, my system doesn’t allow it.

Others stated that hunters help keep down the deer population. Baloney! There are plenty of other animals nobody hunts, and they are perfectly fine. One example is the penguins in Antarctica.

Fact is, some people are gun-crazy and like to kill, it gives them a sense of power.

Another said that some people have to hunt to feed their children. I say, if a family is that hard up for money, then they shouldn’t have had children to begin with. What chance do kids have that come from such a poor family that they don’t have money for food? They won’t get a decent education, they won’t find a job and end up like their parents.

The problem is, all too often one or both parents spend the welfare money on things other than food and then they must good meat from another source. I do wonder though ... if they are so poor, where do they get the money from for a gun, a license, and bullets?

It angers me to no end that those who want to adopt a child are put through a demanding process. Their lives are turned inside out, they have to adhere to all kinds of rules, and pay thousands of dollars.

On top of figuring out how to get approved for adoption, parents also will face paying for the process. The average fees and costs for international adoptions total $44,000, according to the 2016-2017 Adoption Cost & Timing Survey by Adoptive Families magazine.May 21, 2018)

https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adoption_and_Foster_Care/Get_Started/requirements.asp

Yet any woman can just give birth to a child, or multiple children, with no questions asked.

What a sick society we live in. People breed at will and animals have to pay with their lives to feed for their mistakes.

Day 134: Puss in boots

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 134: Puss in boots

Most people you meet will tell you that they have no problem remembering something that happened years ago, but don’t ask them what they had for lunch yesterday. I’m one of those people. I remember my first date, how I felt when I first sat on a horse, and what I wore to a friend’s wedding. Safe to say, there’s nothing wrong with my long-term memory. My short-term memory … hm, that’s a whole different story. For instance …

Last week I was ready to go out when I couldn’t find my shoes. As always, I turned to my son.

“Dieter, do you know where my sneakers are?”

“Where did you take them off?”

Yeah, what kind of a dumb response was that? If I knew where I had taken them off, I would just go there and put them on. It was Dieter who eventually found them. “They’re over here,” he called, “under the kitchen table.” 

Under the kitchen table? Now that was strange because I never leave my shoes in the kitchen.

The next day it was the same scenario.

"Where were my shoes?"

“Again?” Dieter asked, slightly annoyed. 

Yep, again. A search party was dispatched and this time the shoes were located deep under my bed. Once again, I thought this was strange. While I sometimes place my shoes under my bed, I never store them in a way that I can’t see them anymore.

Two days later it got even stranger. Now I found one shoe behind my bedroom door and one shoe in the laundry cabinet. Something was definitely happening, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what kind of strange forces were at work here. Was I the victim of a ghost who was playing a prank on me?

Having had experiences with ghosts in the past, I wasn’t particularly keen on that idea. Fortunately, before I could get myself too worked up about the possibility of a spook, the truth was revealed, and its name was … Greyson.

While folding some laundry, I saw Greyson coming into my room, grabbing hold of the laces of one of my sneakers and dragging the shoe with all his might into the living room. Considering that Greyson is a 10-week-old kitten who barely weighs 1,5 kg and the shoes are twice as big as he is, this was quite a formidable task.

The question is … what was he trying to proof by stealing my shoes? Play a game of puss in boots?

Then again, the way Greyson runs and jumps it might be a good idea for him to have some supportive footwear. At the rate he’s going he’s going to wear out his poor little feet.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 133: A day in the life of a kitten

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 133: A day in the life of a kitten

For those who are following Greyson’s adoption … he’s been with us for 11 days now and the little fellow has made himself quite at home.

In the beginning he hesitantly traipsed around the house, curious but scared at the same time. And who could blame him, for such a small kitten, the rooms and the furniture must have looked enormous. He quickly overcame his fear though and now his careful traipsing has been replaced by running at full tilt. When he gets going it’s a case of … get out of my way! His partner in crime is Halley, and the two of them take turns in who does the running and who does the chasing. In the process rugs go sliding, bowls of kibble go flying while water bowls get tipped over.

The running and the chasing doesn’t limit itself to the living room, kitchen and bedrooms though, they also take it outside on the balcony. For instance, on Saturday Halley and Greyson saw a fly outside they absolutely had to have. Both of them has just had their breakfast, so they couldn’t have been hungry, but apparently they still had room for a snack.

They chased the fly all over the balcony, zipping from left to right and right to left, occasionally jumping to catch the bug mid-air. Time after time they came up empty handed, but they did manage to make a mess by jumping on a flower pot which toppled over. By the time I got there, Halley was nowhere to be seen, leaving Greyson to face the music. (Not that there was any music to face.)

          

          

All this running around makes a kitten tired, so shortly after lunch Greyson went down for a much needed nap. Unlike people who battle insomnia, Greayson was out like a light in 3 ... 2 ... 1. 

When he woke up he lazily opened his eyes and stretched, no doubt wondering when dinner would be served. 

After all, if there's one thing Grayson loves besides sleeping, it's eating. No matter where he is, no matter what he's doing, when he hears a can opening, he would go over corpses to get to the plate first. He's also still eating long after everyone else is finished. Of course, eating can be tiring too, so after dinner and a quick wash, it's time to sleep again. This time nestled against mommy's or daddy's arm.

Day 132: Meet Greyson

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 132: Meet Greyson

Isn’t he cute? His name is Greyson and we adopted him from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother last Friday. Let me explain how this adoption came about.

On December 4, 2017 Mickey, our 13 year old tuxedo cat crossed Rainbow Bridge quite expectantly. He had trouble breathing, we took him to the vet thinking he had a cold, but he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. To ease his suffering we had him put down right there and then.

His passing left such a void that after two weeks I started looking to adopt another cat. While I would have liked to go for an adult cat, I doubted that the rest of our gang would accept such a newcomer. So it would have to be a kitten. 

I visited the Toronto Cat Rescue website and found Ella, a beautiful white kitten with grey patches and a grey tail. We adopted her on January 4^th from Jackie, her foster mom. Ella was renamed Halley and Jackie, her foster mom and I stayed in touch with emails and photos.

   

Two weeks ago, Jackie sent me a picture of Truffle, a kitten she was fostering. As soon as I saw Truffle I thought ‘OMG that is such a cutie’. The following Friday afternoon we visited Jackie for afternoon tea and we got to meet Truffle. He was even more adorable for real than in his picture and a real heart stealer. The long and the short of it is … we adopted Truffle last Friday and renamed him Greyson.

When I introduced Greyson to Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley things went more or less as expected … Charlotte was terrified of the newcomer and ran to my bedroom; Gabriel took one whiff of the little one and decided he wasn’t worth bothering with; Holly hissed and turned her back on him, while Halley looked like she’d seen a ghost.

From what I read online, a new pet should be kept in a separate room and introduced to resident pets gradually. This is probably good advice, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to lock the little one in the bedroom and leave him all alone. I would just have to chance it. I wasn’t worried, I knew I had to give Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley time to get used to this new addition to the family, but I was confident that everything would be alright.

After just 24 hours, Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly started to warm up to Greyson. They were still weary of him, but their curiosity got the better of them. Halley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with this newcomer, she didn’t even want to stay in the same room as him. Practically the whole of Saturday she spent on the balcony, only venturing inside to eat and use her litter box.

Oh dear, I thought, this is not going well. I had expected that Halley would embrace little Greyson as a friend, since they are both kittens. Admittedly, Halley is 10 months old and Greyson is 8 weeks old, but technically they are both kittens.

Then suddenly on Sunday Halley had a change of heart. Not only did she come inside, she actually sought out Greyson and started keeping an eye on him.

Today, a week later, Halley and Greyson are inseparable. Don’t ask me what happened but as from last Monday those two are the best of friends. Where you see Greyson, you see Halley, where you see Halley you see Greyson and on the rare occasion that Greyson makes a dash for freedom, Halley goes looking for him.

Just goes to show, I didn’t follow the new pet introduction rules, but as predicted, everything turned out to be okay.

Day 106: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 106: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

Some time in March, the invitation arrived to register for the Toronto Cat Rescue’s 14^th annual Bowl-a-thon. I immediate replied and registered Dieter and myself with the team name ‘Alley Cats’.

The only requirement to join the Bowl-a-thon was that each participant had to raise a minimum of $100. That’s not much, you might think, but you’d be surprised how tight-fisted people are where it comes to donating.

Other than that, I hate asking people for money, especially people I don’t know. But for the good of the cats, I bit the bullet and in the end, I raised quite a considerable sum.

Then last Saturday was the big event. Over 100 cat lovers made their way to Kennedy Bowl for the Bowl-a-thon. Everyone handed over their donations, were issued a purple T-shirt, along with a tail and cat ears and made their way to the lanes. What a sight it was, purple as far as the eye could see.

The goal was to raise $30,000. In previous years we fell short of that goal by a few thousand. This year we not only met the goal, we exceeded it and raised over $37,000 for the kitties.

As for the actual Bowl-a-thon … Dieter took 1^st place while I came in 2^nd. We received prizes that are kitties are very pleased with. 

Gabriel, Charlotte, Holly and Halley now have two brand new cat baskets, plenty of toys scented with catnip, and a variety of cat food. For us humans, there was a bright pink tote bag, a cat book, coffee, coffee cups, and other goodies.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let these speak for themselves:

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 103: Happy Birthday Charlotte

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 103: Happy Birthday Charlotte

I seldom post pictures of Charlotte because she is a quiet cat. She eats, she grooms, she sleeps, and wouldn’t say boo to a goose. On the contrary, if a goose was to say boo to her, I’m quite sure she would faint.

Charlotte is an extremely nervous cat, literally afraid of her own shadow. If someone talks too loud, she goes running; if there's a thunderstorm, she dives under the bed; if the wind blows, she hides in the laundry basket; and as soon as the vacuum cleaner gets switched on, she hides under the duvet.

Why she is so on edge I have no idea, it’s not like she ever experienced abuse as we adopted her as a ten-week-old kitten.

We were in a pet food store one day and I overheard the owner talking that her cat had kittens. “I don’t know what happened,” she stated. “I thought my two cats were both males.” How someone can be so stupid is beyond me. Anyone who has a cat takes the animal for inoculations, at which time the vet would see whether the cat is male or female.

Anyway, so there they were, four adorable kittens looking for a home. I found it impossible to choose, so I waited which of the kittens would come to me. When one of them did, I immediately knew I would call her Charlotte.

Other than her inoculations and her spay, for years she never saw the inside of a doctor’s office. That changed a few years ago, Charlotte had to have dental work done, and this year in January she developed a urinary tract infection. The vet prescribed a course of antibiotics.

Now anyone who has ever tried to give a cat a pill knows what I’m about to say … giving Charlotte her medication was hell on wheels. With the help of Dieter, it wasn’t too bad, but on my own … OMG!!!

I tried pill pockets (she ate the pocket – left the pill), I tried a pill popper (that didn’t work at all), I tried coating the pill in butter, nothing worked. Eventually, with some gentle coaxing and a lot of perseverance, Charlotte got her medication, but only after she spat out the pill a few times. At the end of the antibiotics course, I don’t know who was more relieved, Charlotte or me.

When I heard about a special cat food that prevents urinary tract infections, I immediately bought it. It cost the earth, but as far as I was concerned, it was worth it. 24 hours later I returned the food. While the dry nibbles were indeed effective in preventing urinary tract infections, they could cause kidney failure. Well, I wasn’t gonna take that chance.

Now, about two weeks ago, Charlotte developed a lip infection. She had this type of infection twice before, but this time it was really bad, one side of her mouth was horribly swollen. Off we went to the vet.

When he mentioned a course of antibiotics I thought … OMG not again. That’s when the doctor asked if we considered giving Charlotte her meds via a two-week release shot. Come again? 

As the vet explained, a two-week release shot is an injection that releases antibiotics gradually over a two-week period. For a second I wasn’t sure what to do, slap or kiss the man. Why hadn’t he suggested this before? With this (painless) injection there was no need for pills, which was far less traumatic for Charlotte and for me.

Anyway, all is well and on her birthday, we wish Charlotte many happy returns.

Don’t forget to donate to the Toronto Cat Rescue.

Any amount will make a difference.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/toronto-cat-rescue-bowl-a-thon-9/

Day 79: Update on Halley

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 79: Update on Halley

Halley has been with us a little over a week and it’s been … how shall I put it … exhausting. Kittens are wonderful, but kittens are all trouble. Trouble with a capital T.

When Halley wakes up, she bounces on the bed like she’s on a pogo stick and buggers the other cats (Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly) until they agree to get up. If they comply Halley is happy with the result, if they don’t she proceeds to nipping their tail, their legs, feet or even ears. Eventually, they all give in and get up.

Her next victim is me. Sleeping in in the morning is a thing of the past. At a certain time, Halley seems to think that I’ve slept enough and starts trampling all over me. If I ignore her and turn over, she goes on to rubbing her cold wet nose against mine or even softly biting it. That usually has the desired effect, but if I want five more minutes she moves on to something else … purring directly in my ear. When she practiced that trick for the first time yesterday morning, I thought a helicopter had landed next to my bed. I couldn’t believe that such a small kitten can produce so much noise.

When we’re all up and about it’s time for breakfast. Kitten food for Halley, regular food for Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly. While the latter waits patiently for their plate, Halley follows me wherever I go and weaves between my feet in the process.

When everyone is fed and watered it’s time for my shower. Holly always joins me in the bathroom but ever since Halley came on the scene I now have an audience of two.

While I get myself ready for the day, Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly do much the same. They have a wash and then go in search of a place to nap. But not Halley, sleeping is not on Halley’s agenda. Oh no, she’s going to help me with the daily chores.

Making two beds used to take between five to seven minutes, now it takes … I don’t know, a lot longer. People who have or had a kitten will know exactly what I’m talking about. People who never had a kitten just have no idea how much trouble making a bed is with a kitten around. It takes forever to get the sheets and the duvet smoot, because kitten jumps, bounces, claws, bites, and generally messes things up.

Putting groceries away … OMG, that’s just a nightmare. Storing stuff away in the upper cabinets is no problem, but storing things in the lower cabinets …  well, that goes something like this …

Open cabinet door – remove the kitten from the cabinet. Reach for bathroom tissue. Remove kitten from bathroom tissue. Remove kitten from the cabinet. Hold kitten with one hand while storing away bathroom tissue with the other. Repeat this any number of times.

When putting stuff in the fridge I have to stay alert too. While I’m putting away butter and cheese on the top shelf, Halley is checking out the lower shelf. I guess she got that tip from Holly, who was an expert in fridge inspection.

So far vacuuming has not presented a problem because the noise seems to scare Halley, but sweeping … well, if you have any kind of an imagination you might have some idea of how that goes. I no longer sweep the floor with a brush, but with a brush with a kitten attached to it. I tried to remove Halley a few times, but she hangs on for dear life. And does she mind getting dragged all over the hardwood floor? Not at all. On the contrary, when done, Halley looks at me with her little face that seems to say … are we done? That was fun.

Doing dishes is also no problem because Halley is far too small to jump on the counter, so instead she sits next to my feet, giving an occasional meow for attention. It’s hard ignoring those pleas that translate to ‘Pick me up’ but no, no way, Halley walking on the counter top is way too dangerous. She might a) fall into the dishwater or b) fall off the counter. Not that there’s no danger on the floor. As I dry the dishes and put them away, I move around and so does Halley, so I have to watch my step.

With the chores done, it’s time to go on the computer. By now, all the cats are fast asleep, but not Halley. Oh no, she’s like a Duracell battery, she just keeps going and going and going. At times, she just sits quietly and watches the screen, more of than not though she tramples all over the keyboard, at one time even switching the computer off.

So, sweet as Halley is, she’s also a packet of trouble. I don’t know how mama cat does it with five or six kittens. The poor cat’s nerves must be in tatters.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 76: A new addition to the family

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 76: A new addition to the family

Everyone, meet Halley. Halley was adopted from the Toronto Cat Rescue last Friday.

Originally, her name was Ella and while it’s a fine name, I didn’t really take a fancy to it. In my native language (Flemish) Ella is too close to ‘ela’ a term of caution. When a cat, or dog or a child is about to do something naughty, it is warned with ‘Ela’, meaning … don’t do that, I saw that or something to that effect. So, we started thinking of a different name.

I posted Ella’s picture on Facebook and asked members of two cat groups what they would call this kitten. There were a number of suggestions, but none of them were suitable. Some proposed male names, which were not acceptable as Ella is a girl, others came up with nicknames, which I didn’t consider because I prefer a proper name. My other cats are called Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly, so Ella’s deserved a proper name too.

Someone suggested watching Ella for a few days and the perfect name would become obvious. As it turned out, it did. The perfect name for our little rascal is Halley, named after Halley’s Comet. Just like the famous comet she’s predominantly white, she has a long tail, and she races around the place.

I’m sure that in the weeks and months to come, there will be plenty of updates on Halley, so watch this space and see our little kitten grow up. For now, enjoy these few pictures and video. 

www.connymanero.weebly.com