Dear So and So

[Biciclista]

To whom it may concern
Once upon a time we conjectured about "critical mass" as an idea about when there were so many people that life as we know it would change. They did experiments with rats who ended up eating each other as well as a lot of other strange behaviors.

I am thinking it is happening now.
We have an entire body of congress who were voted in for the people by the people who are doing everything that they can to sabotage US. and our planet.
Food safety? too expensive
Air safety? too expensive
water safety? can't they just buy bottled water? Oh, hm, that's not monitored for safety either, silly me.

children? too expensive (but don't let any women have abortions, or even miscarry when they are using drugs, that's criminal!!! - it's not too expensive to have the US government watching the insides of their uteruses)
Wildlife? Who cares if they all go extinct
National Parks? we don't need anyone taking care of that stuff.

Where should we tax, let me think.
Rich people? Goodness no, they create jobs
Large business? Holy$hit, they might leave the country, why, their jobs already did!
I know,
let's tax college students with ridiculously high tuition fees
Let's tax seniors by taking away SS benefits (you know the ones they paid for out of every paycheck their entire earning life?)
And what are we doing about it? are we up in revolt like they did in Libya?
er, um. no.


The worst part about this story is that it is not just happening in our country.
what about the good old days when it was considered good to help the poor, the weak, the sick. sigh.

[indysteel]

Dear irresponsible pet owner: thanks for dumping your cats on my property. I'm an animal lover, but I'm not in a position to care for four additional animals. I'm trying to get them trapped so that they can be spayed/neutered and vaccinated, but from there, I don't know how best to care for them. The local humane society has no capacity, and I have a cat with some health issues who cannot deal with the stress of foster cats. I don't know what to do, and it breaks my heart every day that I feed and water the cats you left to die. Shame on you.

[bmccasland]

Dear property management company:
Yes, I pay you to manage my rental house, but apparently you didn't happen to notice that you have now paid twice for the same plumbing repair, and deduced said cost of repair from my rental check twice. May I suggest a different plumber if they also billed you twice for the same repair? The one I used for the 8 years I lived in the house has better bookkeepers.

Y'all owe me some $$.

[bmccasland]

Dear irresponsible pet owner: thanks for dumping your cats on my property.

I don't know what to do, and it breaks my heart every day that I feed and water the cats you left to die. Shame on you.

Indy,
It's probably a good thing I don't live near you.. I think "sucker" is written across my forehead. Hope you can find a home for the kitties.

[indysteel]

I'd really like to take at least one of them in, but even before they showed up, we had settled on our two. I wish it were just up to me, but it's not. The sad truth is that Henry--my 12 year old--is already stressed out enough with our one year old cat, so I understand his reasoning.

But I can't stand that they're living outside. I have to find them a home before winter. They're sweet cats. After we get them fixed, we'll place an ad and try to vet any interest as best we can.

[Owlie]

Poor kitties.

[Bethany1]

Dear Sewing Machine Dealer,

Please be able to fix my sewing machine tomorrow. I broke a needle and jammed the bobbin case into the side of the machine while going over some rough seams.

I really hope I didn't do serious and expensive damage as it's my favorite machine.


Dear Bandit,

I know having a kitten around is exhausting. I do understand your frustration and know it's hard as you were here first. Buttons just really needed a home because she'd be stranded otherwise. You were adopted as a kitten because my friend found you outside in -20 degree weather over a year ago and gave you to me.


As more and more people are losing their homes, their animals are either left behind or dumped off somewhere as humane societies can't keep up. It's really sad. My parents just lost their home of 30 years and that's how Buttons came to be at my house. The sad part is the bank will sell that house for a fraction of what my parents paid for it.

[Owlie]

Dear self--
You probably should have learned to sew. Also, you need to find a way to put some money aside for a fitting so you don't end up with this knee pain every time you ride.

[indysteel]

Indy,
It's probably a good thing I don't live near you.. I think "sucker" is written across my forehead. Hope you can find a home for the kitties.

We managed to trap the kitten and the cat that I assumed was female (and perhaps the kitten's mother) this morning and took them to the vet. The kitten is male; the cat female and in heat. They've been spayed/neutered. They're likely going to keep the female for a few days until she's no longer in heat because, as they put it, males would "tear her up" right now. So, that leaves two other males to fix. I was primarly concerned about fixing the female, so I feel better about that.

DH and I are debated taking in the kitten. We're both really torn. We love our cat/human household as it is, but by the same token, I think we'd love to give the kitten a home. In the very least, it might be best to bring him into the household with the hope of getting him rehomed....but we could only do that if we were prepared to be his forever home.

Having gone through this just last year, it's not necessarily an easy process to introduce a new cat to a household. When we introducted Izzy last year, for reasons that remain unexplained, Henry got incredibly sick. He didn't test positive for any known cat virus, so we were left to wonder if the stress of a new animal was to blame. He spent a week at the vet with a persistent high fever. I had just lost Sophie Kitty a month earlier, and the combined trauma worked a number on me. I'm still not over all of it.

I'm not a religious person, but I tell ya; I've been praying for guidance about this.

[Biciclista]

Dear Indysteel

Thanks so much for making a difference. You prevented a litter of uncared for kittens to be born and many more. You will probably find that the kitten is the easiest one to find a home for. Good luck with those kitties and thanks again.

Another krazy cat lady

[indysteel]

Dear Indysteel

Thanks so much for making a difference. You prevented a litter of uncared for kittens to be born and many more. You will probably find that the kitten is the easiest one to find a home for. Good luck with those kitties and thanks again.

Another krazy cat lady

Thank you for that.

In the process of figuring out how to handle this situation, I hooked up with a local organization that offers low cost spay/neuter services. I can add them to my list of organization to give to and volunteer for. I was planning to use their services to help with my strays, but they had to cancel today's "community day" because of the heat. They apparently transport the animals to a vet/feral expert about an hour away, so the weather sometimes interferes. I'm hoping to get my two remaining males into them next week.
If they'll take the bait.

Thankfully, I had also talked to my vet about the situation. They're awesome btw; I couldn't love them more. They told me to bring them in as soon as I got them trapped. With only two traps, I knew I had to do it in stages, with the hope that I'd catch the kitten and female first. I am so relieved that they're the ones that showed up first thing this morning! Whew!

The kitten is so sweet. He looks like a bat. We named him Kalamata because he's blackish/brown, but shortened it to Kallie. Now that we know he's a boy though, Kallie seem a bit odd I guess!

[Veronica]

You could just call him Kal.

I ended up taking our last feral catch to our regular vet. The kitten had broken his leg about two weeks before I caught him and had a nasty looking infection. The spay/neuter vet didn't want to deal with that.

The leg had already started to heal so it didn't get set properly. But they took care of the infection. Curly Kitten - he lives in our backyard still with his dad, Curly - is doing great. You can barely see his limp now.

I have 5 ferals that I feed. All have been neutered and now they really don't act like ferals.

Anyway... I hope it works out and whatever you decide to do with them is going to better than if you did nothing.

Veronica