Update on Syd's kittehs

The news is not what we'd all hoped to hear. 

Syd paid a visit to the shelter yesterday; she drops in every other day or so to play with the kitties she'd had to give up. I'll let her tell the story from here:

Kitty, I'm heartbroken...between my visit on Sunday afternoon and my arrival today (they were closed yesterday), the shelter killed three of my cats.

Jules was still on site but had the adopted stamp across his cage's ID card, so I took advantage of the fact that no one was in that section to enforce the "don't touch the cats" signs and gave him many skritches and wishes for a long and happy life, just in case he was gone when I visited next. Then I went to the section where the other five "adoptables" were (Bastet, Scooter, Shadow, Damon and Runyon), and found that both Scooter's and Runyon's cages were empty and devoid of ID cards. After I visited with the other three, I went to the admin desk to check on Runyon and Scooter. Scooter had been adopted on Sunday.

Runyon, who had, on each of my visits, seemed perfectly okay, apparently went ballistic when they took him out of his cage for a med check—got away from them, needed a net to catch him, etc.—and the vet recommended putting him down. And I would guess, did, right then. No second chance.

Patch and Blaze got put down for the crime of being scared out of their little minds and not calming down in what the shelter deemed a sufficient time. Even though, when I'd visited on Sunday, I'd asked about them and the gal at the desk hadn't said anything about there being a note on either cat's file that they were in danger of being euthanized as unadoptable. And because there were no such notes, and because I didn't think Runyon was in danger, it didn't occur to me to ask on my Sunday visit, "So if they wind up considered unadoptable, can I get them back?" And when I asked the gal at the front desk if that might have been possible, she said yes.

So three of my babies are dead because I forgot to ask one stupid question—or maybe because NOBODY at the shelter bothered to tell me that was an option. Like the fact that I was visiting nearly every day shouldn't have been a clue that I CARED about about what would happen to them. Not that I could have brought them back here, but maybe I could have convinced one of the rescue organizations to take them and foster them in hopes they'd calm down enough to show well.

I hate to ask you to post bout them again, but could you spread the word that Bastet, Shadow and Damon are still available, in hopes someone will adopt them before they make the mistake of acting scared in front of the wrong person.

Part of me's numb, part of me's sick, and all I want to do is cry.

You can click here to see Bastet, Shadow, and Damon. If you live in the Los Angeles/Pasadena area and can bring a furry friend into your life, I hope you'll think about one (or all) of these kitties. 

Thanks for reading, everyone—and thanks for your love, kindness, and help.

Friendship is like an ointment

Take it from Space Ghost Coast to Coast's silly bean-loving "villain" Brak!

My, what big teeth you have!

Isn't it a pain when you can't locate the .jpg file you need? On and off for a week, I've been looking for an image I downloaded from iStockPhoto a couple years ago. It's in my iStock download history—I know it's on my computer, or somewhere on one of my various external/USB drives. However, I still haven't found it. And I'm almost too cheap to download it again. The old saying goes, "If you can't find it, you don't have it." I've found this to be true. And sad. 

Back in the summer, I set my computer's basic function settings to conserve memory, so now when I look at the Pictures file, I don't see thumbnail images; I see generic "placeholder" icons that mean "this file is an image." I can't for the life of me remember how to change it back. And I haven't had time to sit down and actually figure it out. Maybe I'll get to it over Spring Break.

The upside, though, is that I stumble on all kinds of hilarious photos that I'd forgotten I had. Like this one of Hook (aka Davy). Open wide, and RAAAAAAWWWWRRR! Or not. He looks fierce here, but he's probably yawning. Knowing Hook, chances are that's what was going on. Or he could be laughing. With kittehs, sometimes it's hard to tell whether they're laughing with you, or at you. Such is life with cats.

Student Essay Insanity™ #72!

While cleaning out the many boxes of junk from my old Division II University office, I found about a dozen pages of essay bloopers I'd scribbled during Regents' Exam and Freshman Writing Project rating sessions. Reading over them, I realized that I hadn't yet shared most of them with you.

So what to do with them? Divide them up into more Student Essay Insanity™ posts! As always, these bloopers were produced by real students writing real essays. And, as always, they're real(ly) bad.

I shit you not. 

• Laughter can elongate one's life.
• Having an entire school dress the same way is a wast and robes the students.
• Some people see marriage as a gateway to sex from their virgin significant others. 
• The truth is that nuclear power is safe, clean, and cheep. Not cheep to get started, but cheep to fule.
• The world today is made up of gangsters, athletes, and drug dealers. 

And my favorite of this batch:

• The primary reason for divorce is that many of us think that other people can read our minds.
  
  

Adopt a sweetie for a friend of E&P

You'll recall my last post about longtime E&P reader Syd's predicament—after having lost her job and her home, she had to move in with an acquaintance. The acquaintance loves cats, but Syd would have to find homes for many of her 14 rescued, formerly-stray kitties. As you can imagine, Syd's been completely heartbroken over this, and wants to place her cats with loving homes.

Last Friday, after having gotten no responses from her blog or Facebook posts, she gave up four of her remaining eight cats to the Pasadena Humane Society. Syd says, "It was even more traumatic than I thought it would be....it hurts so much to think I'll never see them again."

Thank goodness that her roommate gave her an extension on finding homes for the last four kitties. Syd's still scrambling to find new families for them before the end of the day on Tuesday, January 24. It's tomorrow, yes. But miracles do happen.

Do you know someone living in the Los Angeles or Pasadena area who might be able to foster a kitty? Or who's ready to bring another feline into his or her life? Or maybe you're that person who could help out an E&P friend and cat lover in need. If so, perhaps you'd consider adopting one of the four-legged bebehs that Syd left with the Humane Society. She's asked me to post their ID numbers so readers can go in and look at their sweet little photos on the Society web site:

• ID# A300986 is Bastet
• ID# A300987 is Scooter
• ID# A300988 is Shadow
• ID# A300990 is Jules

The link is right here. Just enter each kitty's ID number from above to see them. 

Syd, thank you for looking after your reformed feral cats as long as you've been able to. You're a good cat mama, and have done more for them than most people would have ever dreamed of doing. You're so sweet to make sure they go to good homes, and if need be, good shelters. Thank you for going to the shelter to visit them while they await homes (even though it breaks your heart in two to have to get back in your car without them). They love you, and so do we.

Readers, feel free to re-post this info on your blog, especially if you have California-based readers. I have only a handful of West Coast readers, and just one or two that I know of in California...but if we blog, blog, and re-blog, we can get the word out fast!

Update—Tuesday, January 24:
Syd made another sad trip to Pasadena Humane Society this afternoon to surrender the other four cats. She says it was another heart-rending experience, giving up two sets of kitties in less than a week. It was good that she saw the other four cats while she was there, and could talk to and pet them.

Here's the info on the latest four cats. Just copy the ID number below, then click on this link and paste the number into the box to see Syd's rescues. 

• ID# A301151 is Runyon 
• ID# A301150 is Blaze
• ID# A301149 is Patch 
• ID# A301148 is Damon

An E&P friend (and her kitties!) in need

Many longtime E&P readers know Syd, who's been reading my blog since, oh, about 2007 or so. Syd's a cat lover and has done the trap-neuter-release thing for over a dozen of the stray cats who've shown up at her house over the last few years. She's been hissed at, spat at, probably shat at, bitten, and clawed, all in the name of helping our feline friends. And she's adopted quite a few of those formerly feral cats, too!

Now Syd's in need of some help herself. She had to move out of the home where she'd lived for many years, and is renting from an acquaintance now. The problem? She has 14 kitties and can't keep them all, lest she endanger her acquaintance's rental agreement.

So Syd needs our help to find home for eight beautiful, loving, already-spayed-and-neutered kitties by tomorrow. Yikes! She lives in the Los Angeles area, and while there's a no-kill shelter nearby, she's heard recently that they haven't been able to stay strictly no-kill, if you know what I mean.

You can read all about it at Syd's House of Cats. If you or a cat lover you know lives in/around L.A., do you think you could help out Syd's cats and send a message through your network of pet-loving friends? Please pass on this post, mention it on other sites, use the URL, whatever. A good person with a big heart is trying to find sweet, loving homes for her rescued cats, and really needs your help.

Newton B. Goode: 1946-1997

In memory of my dad, who passed away this day 15 years ago.
I love you, Daddy, and miss you every day.

Love,
Kitty