A Kitten for your Thought?

Yeah, that title was lame, but anything else would have involved me being a crazy cat lady or a reference to "Cat Killer" across the street.

So it's very important to know, especially for me, that the saga of "fixing" the feral cat colony in our neighborhood could be coming to a close within the month. Why is this important? Let me tell you:

• It's important to me so that I can stop trapping kittens and trying to find places to put them.
  
• It's important so that I can stop having wild animals in my car en route to the vet.
• I long for a time that I don't feel like I'm torturing animals by making them ride in my car.
• I am desperate to not think about little tinies (kittens) hiding in the chassis or wheel wells of cars and getting driven to death.
• Even though me and The Husband (that might be the first time I've used his new name on my blog. If things go as we both expect there shouldn't be any sort of name change for, oh, I don't know, the REST OF OUR LIVES!) don't mind using our hard-earned money to pay vet bills on stray animals, it would be really nice to not do that. Note: The people at Yorkshire Animal Hospital have been rock stars and seem to be giving me a deal. Either they think I'm crazy and unstable, they feel sorry for me and my parade of hissing beasts, or they believe in what I'm doing. Based on their online reviews, the largest complaint being that it's too hard to get an appointment because of the volume of rescue animals they treat, I believe the last.

Which brings me to the most recent events. I have fixed the main breeders and have one more female to make me feel like my work is done. As I drove down our street two nights ago I saw two little kittens chasing each other down the street. I parked and rousted my partner in crime, a middle-aged woman from across the street named M. Her hulking police officer son's heart broke when I told them about the wayward kittens. He went over to the car where they were hiding and grabbed one. Just like that. That's when we realized they were only 3 weeks old or so and still blind. We all held the tiny gray tabby and looked around for it's deadbeat mom that allowed it to run in the street.

And here comes the Cat Killer, we'll call him CK. He is someone that I will not hand the kitten to. He was charged several years ago with drowning a large number, around ten, cats and kittens. He's kind of weird and has lots of strange activities going on as of late. Some might call them manic activities - oh, and there was an elderly lady that fell down his steps, and an ambulance a couple nights later. Just weird and random stuff.

So he comes out and wants to help. Says the kittens are living in his garage (we already knew that and we hoped he didn't). He also says that his sister's mastiff had killed one of the four kittens that morning. He alleges that he's been feeding them and that he'll keep the dog away.

I'm getting bored with this post and need to wrap it up. If I'm bored I can't imagine how you're feeling right now.

Ok, so I tell him I'll get the kittens and their mother in a couple weeks. The momma cat comes out of the garage and walks over to us. I put her kitten down and they saunter away together. That little tiny thing was the cutest thing EVER - besides it's half brother Nova that lives in our house that was rescued under similar circumstances two years ago, but at 2-3 weeks old (seems appropriate to post photos of him, two are when we first found him and the last is recent. I swear I didn't put him in my purse - I found him there napping a couple months after he moved in.).

Facebook is Kind of the Devil

I signed up for both MySpace and Facebook for two reasons:
1. Because I have many associates who "collect" friends on these networking sites like some might collect thimbles or embroidered patches while traveling. They get really excited about adding more, seeing them pile up.
2. Because I like to check people out that I'm interviewing for jobs. Seriously, you would be SHOCKED what some people put online about themselves, especially while seeking employment. A MySpace or Facebook profile can be better than any reference!

So here I am, I'm on these, checking in every couple months and feeling kind of guilty because I've not kept up with accepting friend requests, and I've got an inbox full of messages from people I know and like.

Then I got bored one day. I realized there was such thing as "friend finder" on Facebook and I took a peek. It was pretty interesting actually - you could look up people through your email or your high school class. I even stuck my neck out and invited a couple people to be my friend - and then panic struck.

Now, I realize that probably 99.9% of people in my high school class didn't know me anywhere near as well as I knew me...and I wasn't a fan of me. I really wasn't. I have a hard time recalling much about high school actually. I know I dated boys who were older, never from my class (yeah, creepy), I was fairly "troubled", but in ways I think I hid pretty well (and also in ways I didn't realize were a problem until my mid-twenties). I remember always hanging out with people and having a lot of fun, but I also remember I moved around to different people a lot. I couldn't maintain long term friendships. I'm not sure if that was my doing, or if it was theirs, but it was definitely a pattern (except for Amanda).

And now I'm in St. Louis. I've figured myself out, "detroubled" - and I like myself. I have a lot of friends - people I've been friends with for almost 8 years. I've found a certain amount of serenity and feel centered, accepted, and reassured that it will continue. I also have a pretty kick-ass husband with a huge brain...and yes, he's still an older boy (I will undoubtedly have much to write after his 20-year high school reunion in Chicago this weekend).

Which brings me back around to Facebook. I started feeling nervous when I opening sought acceptance from high school people . I don't know what they thought of me, and I really don't care. But a certain insecure high schooler part of me started caring. What if they ignore my request? OR, what if they accept it because they feel sorry for me or because it's the polite thing to do? Did I like them? Did they make me dislike myself more?

What it all comes down to is this: I've chatted with a couple people on Facebook that I really liked in high school. We've chatted about things that we're doing now - not about back then. I'm pretty established here and don't have anything to feel insecure about. It's a networking site that's kind of fun, and I too kind of like to "collect" friends. I've run into my cousins, my co-workers, my high school classmates, but mostly people I'm friends with now.

Anywho, if you get around to it and happen to be on Facebook...you know, look me up...(the photo above is for no particular reason, I just like it, and the post seemed too bare).