Letting Go

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

  A friend of mine had to have his cat put to sleep tonight.  This was the last of a feline family that he’s had for . . . I don’t know how long, close to twenty years, I’d guess.  It’s very sad.  I’ve been there, and I know how difficult it is to make a decision that is best for your furbaby but oh, so hard on you.  People try to say the right things, like “she’s no longer suffering” and variations thereof, but there really aren’t any words that make it better.  I said them, too, even though I know they don’t really help.  I think we say them more for ourselves than anything.

 

Image courtesy of athiwat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Of course, it’s not exactly like losing a person; I think we can all make that distinction, even those of us who cherish our pets.  But person or not, they do become family, and for my friend, that cat was his only close-by family, as he lives states apart from  his siblings.  And though he certainly has friends—good friends—where he is, he is also separated from those of us who have known  him the longest.  I worry that this is the sort of thing that’s difficult to handle alone, worry that he will withdraw into himself for at least a while, and won’t let anyone help him.  That’s sad, too, knowing that my friend will have a hole in his life that he’ll try to fill all on his own.  No one should have to do that.

I hope he can feel my love and thoughts wafting his way.  And I hope his healing begins soon.

Snapshot Sunday #10

 

Before we get to this week’s daily photos, I have some wonderful news.  When I went outside this morning to feed the cats, my presumed-dead mama cat, Sable, was there waiting for me!  I couldn’t believe it!  I was so glad to see her!  Billy was the one who found and buried the poor kitty the other day, and believed it was Sable, so I texted him right away to let him know.  He didn’t believe me.  Even when he got home from work, when I asked if he’d seen her, he said, “No.  I buried Sable the other day.”  I had to go out and find her, and wake her from her afternoon nap, before he would believe she was home.  Of course, it’s still sad that some cat was killed by a passing car, but I am immensely grateful that it wasn’t my cat.  I’ve never been so glad that the boys in my life have such difficulty telling one cat from another.  I will be getting to previous comments soon, but I want to thank everyone who offered such kind thoughts.

And now, for this week’s Snapshot Sunday, with prompts, as always, provided by Chantelle, over at Fat Mum Slim. 

 

  Prompt:  Light.  A few of the many lights in my living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Angle.  This tree trunk is one of my favorite subjects in my neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Red.  Sometimes I cheat a little, and this is one of those times.  I didn’t take this pic on the actual day, but I did take it with this prompt in mind, so I think that should count for something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Emotion.  In this case, exhaustion and just a touch of frustration.  Why, oh why did I leave two full chapters of reading and assignments until the last week of class?

 

 

  Prompt:  Something Close Up.  Some of the last bit of color remaining in the year.

 

  Prompt:  On the Table.  One of the least used tables in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Landscape.  A vista not too far from our house.

And I think that’s it for this week.  No extra photos, because not much has been going on.  Maybe next week; it’s fall break, so I’ve only got class one day.  Maybe something exciting will be going on then.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy week ahead, with lots of photo opportunities.

Four-Legged Friends (Mostly)

 

Just as I sat down tonight to write today’s post, I found out that my lovely mama cat, Sable, had been hit by a car today.  As I may have mentioned before, our cats are outdoor cats, and really almost wild.  Sable was really the only one that was like a pet—friendly and loving and always up for a petting.  I’m going to miss her.

At this point, I really don’t have much of a post left in me, and it’s hard to type through tears, anyway, so I’m just going to leave you with some of my favorite TV animal friends.

 

  Lassie:  Lassie

 

 

 

 

  Flipper:  Flipper

 

  Eddie: Frasier

 

  Porthos:  Star Trek: Enterprise

 

  K-9: Doctor Who

 

  Spot:  Star Trek: The Next Generation

Be sure to take a few minutes out to cuddle up your furbabies. 

Snapshot Sunday #7

 

Happy Sunday (actually, most certainly Monday by the time I hit publish) to you all.  It’s been kind of a busy week, starting with football last weekend.  Then the week days were filled with quite a bit of school work and chores/errands, followed by a brief trip to the state fair on Friday night to see Air Supply in concert, and then yesterday, a trip to a local casino with my sister, Tanya, to see a Hall & Oates show.  Fun times all around.

But, Sunday means it’s time for another photo roundup, so let’s get started on that, shall we?  As always, I’ll start with the daily photo challenge pictures, with prompts provided by Chantelle over at Fat Mum Slim.

 

  Prompt: Something you do most weekends.  Every weekend of late—and almost certainly every weekend for quite a while to come—involves homework.

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Black and white.  Not much to say about this one; it’s my yard, and I liked the ray of sun peeking through the trees.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Hero.  A bit of a cheat, since I don’t think I even took this picture, and certainly not recently.  But, my mom was my hero my whole life, so who else was I going to use?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Together.  I roll my socks together; how about you?

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Table.  Looking at the table in front of mine at school.  Truth be told, I don’t like this picture.  My plan had been to use the library table while we were working together on a group project, but the work wasn’t going exactly according to plan, which made the photo completely slip my mind.  So, next class was the next best thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Prompt:  Favorite.  These cinnamon rolls are my very favorite fair food.  They are big, gooey, and absolutely delicious.  And, you can watch them make them in that window right up front. (But don’t do that if you’re trying to kid yourself about the calories in the things; hard to ignore the multiple sticks of butter and immeasurable sugar in each batch!)

 

 

  Prompt:  First thing you see.  Maybe this was supposed to be the first thing you see in the morning, but it didn’t say so.  And, besides, I didn’t look at the prompt list until later in the day.  But this is the first thing you see when you sit down to wait for Hall & Oates to perform. 


And, now, for a few random pics, though mostly from the concerts . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Air Supply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   My standard fair meal.  (The cinnamon roll is dessert!)  Please forgive my crazy, frizzy hair!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       My sister, Tanya, as we were waiting in line for H&O.

 

 

 

 

 

Hall and Oates, with my crappy phone pictures.  (Stupid casino wouldn’t let me use my real camera, as apparently anything with interchangeable lenses is considered  “professional”, and not allowed in. Boo.)

And, just playing around some more on B&W day, and snapped some pics of cats.  They’re all shades of gray, anyway, so they fit right in with the theme.  Left to right, they are:  Tiny, Sable, Sable & Tiny, Mel. 

That’s what my week looked like; what about yours?

The Best Part, Sort Of (July Photos, Day 3)

 

If I may borrow from Mr. Charles Dickens for a moment . . . it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 

Today, while I was sitting with Granny at her house, Billy was taking care of things here at home.  It was during the routine yard chores that he found an abandoned litter of newborn kittens, with no mama cat in sight.  Unfortunately, one little baby was already dead, and one was obviously terminally ill, but the third and final one seemed viable. 

Billy’s first plan of attack was to get Sable, our mama cat, to adopt the stranger baby, so he introduced them.  Apparently it worked for a short while, and the baby was able to nurse, but then Sable wanted nothing more to do with the tiny thing.  Animals are like that sometimes—probably more often than not.

But the little baby was hungry and scared and crying loudly.  Since we live sort of in the country, a defenseless kitten calling attention to itself like that is asking to be a meal for something, so Billy put the little thing into a box and brought it inside for protection.  By the time I got home, he had realized that the kitten wouldn’t drink anything.  He said there was some fake cat milk you could buy (who knew?) but it was already late and he didn’t know where to get it.  I called the all-night vet and they said we could get some at Wal-Mart.  Say what you will about Wally World, but when you need some fake feline food at almost eleven o’clock at night, it’s nice to know they’re there. 

Unfortunately, even with special fake milk, the baby still wouldn’t eat, and was getting too cold without a mama to snuggle up to.  We bundled her up and took her to the aforementioned vet, but there was nothing they could do for her. 

Though the story had a sad ending, seeing Billy so very concerned with a stray animal caused my mama heart to swell with pride.  At almost twenty-one, he often tries my patience, and there are lots of things we don’t see eye to eye on, but when I see this kind of love, I know that inside, he’s still the sweet little boy that I knew so many years ago.  And, more important, it renews my faith that he will once again be that sweet person, even on the outside. 

 

Crazy Cat Lady in Training (June Photos, Day 25)

 

Many years ago (probably 10 or more), we were on our way out of town for the weekend.  When we stepped outside to load up in the car, we were surprised to find a couple of terrified kittens hunkering down on our porch.  Now, our property is about four acres in size, and other properties in our neighborhood also are multiple acres, so our nearest neighbors are not particularly near.  That increased our surprise that there were animal babies hanging out on our front step, as we had no idea where they might’ve come from.

Billy was maybe nine at the time, and—as you might expect—he was immediately in love with the little critters.  And, to be honest, I wasn’t far behind, as I’ve always been a sucker for cute little things.  He wanted to keep them.  (Actually, he wanted to take them with us, but we managed to talk him out of that!)  But, even if taking them along was out of the question, I couldn’t bring myself to just abandon them, when they might not have any way to fend for themselves.  So, we crunched up some dog food into smaller pieces, put out a bowl of milk and a bowl of water, and agreed that if they were still when we returned, we would keep them.  I found out later that Brian only agreed to that arrangement because he was convinced they’d wander back to wherever they came from and we’d never see them again.  Turns out he was wrong.

Those kittens were the beginning of a never-ending family of cats that have lived on our porch ever since.  They are, in fact, the direct ancestors of today’s photo entry, “something cute”. 

These cuties represent half of the most recent generation of our fuzzy creatures.  The thing about our cats, though, is that while they are uniformly adorable, they are still mostly wild animals.  I usually refer to them as one step shy of feral.  We currently have one mama cat (both of our adults are mama cats, so clearly someone else comes to visit now and again) that is friendly and would actually fit the common idea of “pet”.  Throughout the years, I’d say we’ve had maybe a handful of cats that actually liked us.  The rest of them are the very definition of ‘fraidy cats—they run and hide whenever any of us come near. 

I can almost understand them being afraid of Brian; he’s always shooing them away from his truck, or out of the garage, or making a lot of racket with the lawnmower.  But me?  I’m the one who brings the food and water every day.  The one that says hello to them every single time I lay eyes on them, however briefly it may be.  I’m the one who stands as still as humanly possible for long minutes when they come out of hiding to eat, trying to make them understand I just want to be their friend.  But I don’t make much progress.  So far, I’ve had to content myself with one friendly every couple of generations or so.  But I keep trying, which I’d say definitely puts me in the running for a crazy cat lady label.

(Incidentally, as much as I love the little fuzzies, I would prefer to take the whole gang to the vet and have them all fixed so that our current crop would be our last, but there are problems.  First, Brian doesn’t want to spend the money—though I’d say over the long run, that would be cheaper than feeding descendants forever.  And, secondly, I truly can’t catch them.  The big ones never allow themselves to be cornered, and while the babies might be a little less savvy, they already know how to claw and bite.  I never get through a generation without a few injuries.  That’s probably a cat lady fail.)

Do you have pets?  How did they come to your family?

May Photos, Day 17—Snack

 

Well, I did actually have a nice, creamy chocolate milkshake this evening (shh; don’t tell!).  And, it was good and thick, so I might could’ve shaped it into some interesting mounds or something for a photo op.  But, there was something much more photogenic going on in the snacking world, so rather than my decadent indulgence, today’s photo is something I’d never want to munch on, but it sure was appetizing to another member of the household.