Sigh
I try to make this space a positive place, challenging and celebrating life down to the smallest details, but occasionally even I get sidetracked by strong emotion that was rooted out of negative energy. This is one of those moments, but maybe there is a lesson in all this somewhere….
Moose Shot Dead in City – Worcester
Moose’s a.m. ramble proves fatal
This story makes me sad and angry. And I hate to think that “they”, the trolls, “got to me”, but the heartless snide comments by certain residents of our community penetrated my bubble of positive energy. Maybe it is because I met Oscar yesterday and have been thinking a lot about humankind’s relationship to animals, but don’t you think that the moose deserved better treatment and mores respect than to meet his demise chased & cornered off by dozens of humans with guns. I guess I am naive, but I do not believe for one second that there was not an alternative resolution that would end with the moose remaining alive, not to mention the bears the police killed earlier this year, and not one person getting injured.
Once again…..Sigh
Meet Oscar
He only has Eight Lives left
I do not know where to start. Oscar has such a horrible story. I know I will sob if I try to document it all. The short of it is that Oscar was beaten with a shovel, and thrown away in a plastic garbage bag with the trash. He is healing from a broken jaw and skull fracture. When he came into the shelter he was infested with fleas and mites and covered in his own feces. The “powers that be” only know how & why he survived. We at the Community Cat Connection are privileged to be his temporary guardians until he is well enough to move into a permanent forever loving home.
Our volunteer family is tight knit and we communicate with each other through e-mail constantly. Everyone who has met Oscar has been “touched” by him. I met Oscar tonight. I went in to the shelter on my day off just to meet him. He is indeed an amazing cat! Despite all the horrible abuse he is nothing less than a love bug. As you approach the cage he starts to purr (loudly), he head butts your hand seeking attention and then (sigh) sadly cries when you shut the cage. All he wants is love and attention. He is such a good boy!
I could take this opportunity to go off on a rant about the deranged, sadistic and mentally ill in-human individuals who abuse & kill helpless animals such as Oscar, but I won’t. I would rather spend my time channeling positive energy.
Oscar was brought into our shelter by an innocent third party. I do not know her name, but I praise her courage and spirit for caring enough about Oscar to drive from a neighboring state to our little shelter, the only one she could find that was willing to take him in. She would not accept our waiver and paid the shelter’s “surrender fee” of $35. This person is a saint and I personally thank her where-ever she is out there in the world.
Oscar is a survivor. We all have lessons we can learn from him about unconditional love, trust, hope, strength, courage and survival. I do feel “touched” and privileged for having met him and I look forward to my shift on Thursday to see him again.
I am thankful for our wonderful shelter the Community Cat Connection and our family of dedicated loving volunteers. As small & humble as we are, if we were not in operation, Oscar would still be in peril (another part of the story I would rather omit) and he would not be in a safe nurturing, loving environment.
Oscar is around 6 years old, and despite his frail appearance he is a large cat. He could certainly stand to put on a bit of weight. Oscar goes to our Vet tomorrow for a full work up including combo test (Feline HIV & Leukemia). As one volunteer so aptly put it…..
To quote Ernest Menaul: “The cat has too much spirit to have no heart”.…Oscar obviously has a lot of spirit, and I hope his eight remaining lives are spent in the comfortable and loving home he deserves…
Keep Oscar in your thoughts and send him as much positive healing energy as you can. I will let you know when he is ready to move into a forever loving home (that is if us volunteers let him go to one other than family…. I have a feeling we might fight over him).
The Community Cat Connection now has a pay-pal account. Please donate if you want to help support us in caring for cats like Oscar until they are placed with forever loving homes.
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Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Butter Biscuit
Yum Yum Yum
The best $2 investment you can make for your mouth!
Now I don’t want to claim that this very special imported german chocolate bar will soothe every woman, but damn it does the trick for me.
If you ever see one of these and get the opportunity to purchase one DO! Up here in New England I periodically find a store that carries them and get one for around $2 a bar. When I find them I buy a few to stock up & ha-ha- my local grocery store now carries them, conveniently hidden on the bottom shelf all for me. The bar itself is 3.5oz, and breaks up into little squares so depending upon your craving you can make it last 2-4 sittings.
Think rich high quality creamy milk chocolate, not that Hershey’s stuff. (I swear that European Chocolate is a completely different animal here in the states, leave it to us Americans to ruin chocolate.) Then wrap it around a buttery biscuit. The biscuit itself is not sweet at all, not like a cookie or shortbread, like an English tea biscuit. The combination is just delightful on the palate and is an elixir that transcends my mood.
“…the taste of chocolate is a sensual pleasure in itself, existing in the same world as sex…. For myself, I can enjoy the wicked pleasure of chocolate…entirely by myself. Furtiveness makes it better.”
- Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Click the picture. ‘Nough Said! I got a heavy date with some chocolate!
Adding to my Stash
I love getting packages in the mail…..my yarn arrived!
I have been promising H that I would make him this hat. But have not been entirely confident and comfortable with my pattern reading abilities and my ability to keep gauge consistent. Over the summer I became more confident through my circular knitting projects (my monster series) and I feel up to the challenge of making the “Jug Head Hat” pattern by the “dominknitrix” Jennifer Stafford . H had bought me her book when I first started to knit. All the projects in it have been inspiring for me to keep up the craft no matter how frustrated I get. Her projects are awesome, just my punky style.
I ordered & received 3 skeins each of two different colors of Rowan DK Pure wool yarn- green and black. I figured since I found the DK stuff online I would order extra anticipating making gloves/mittens to match someday.
The color is “Glade”
I have already made one swatch and think I have the gauge down. It is in the wash at the moment so I can see how the stitched piece reacts to being washed. I want to re-read, re-read and again re-read the pattern as well as practice a few of the patterns instructions before I actually cast on, especially – wrap, turn stitch – and the – provisional cast on- both of which I have never done before. If all goes well and I can squeak out some “me” time I will cast on before the end of the weekend.
I am off to wind my skeins into nice round manageable balls.
