Wandering Cats etc.

Mary Jones’ column in The Star, Wrinkles, struck close to home. From the day I moved to my present location I have been a magnet for cats. I brought three with me and promptly lost two so when the big black cat with the gorgeous topaz eyes showed up one night starving, I fed him. He decided to stay and a couple of weeks later his sister appeared. She too decided to stay. I was lucky with these two because whomever abandoned them had spayed and/or neutered both. Topaz is a delight. He helps me garden, he guards my back and carries on a great conversation. His sister is an entirely different story. When she first arrived I named her but that name soon went by the wayside because she throws temper tantrums. She can be the sweetest most loving thing one minute and the next she is growling and spitting, therefore, I changed her name to T. T. for temper tantrum. One day a huge gray cat showed up on my back deck. He and I had words, he wouldn’t leave, you could not walk over him or he’d growl so we agreed to share the space far, far apart. He’d disappear from time to time and then he’d seem to materialize out of thin air. He stayed for a little over two years. In fact he stayed until we finally made friends and he let me pet him. Two days later he was gone never to be seen again. He also suffered from epilepsy so I fear he has gone somewhere and died. On one occasion it seemed as if every time I walked outside there was a new cat so I too called Mike at animal control. My first catch was an opossum, which Mike promptly removed. My second catch was a little black cat I had named Teensy and I let him take her away. To this day I feel so guilty about doing that and I will never do it again. I’ve found that in the ten years I’ve been here they come and they go. Only two have been permanent rescues but at least the others knew where they could get a meal or two until they were ready to move on and, yes, I believe they spread the word out there in cat world. I think they tell those they pass that if they ever need a meal or some human to be nice to them, there is a house that they should visit.
How many of you out there are members of Freecycle? It was a great concept; give useable things you no longer need to people who do need them. That worked for a while. Then the flea marketers discovered it and the greedy people discovered it and last but not least the irresponsible people discovered it. Most of the people I’ve met through this site have been wonderful people but there are those out there that I would not wish on my worst enemy. What started to happen shortly after its inception was the wanteds far out weighed the offers and if you responded to a wanted it was anyone’s guess if that person would respond or even show up to pick up what they wanted. Same thing began to happen with the offers; you offered, someone responded, made an appointment to pick the object up and never showed, never wrote, never called. Then there were, for the lack of a better word, the liars. You offer, you get a sob story as to why someone wanted or someone posted a wanted which included a sad story and you responded only to find at a later date the only reason they really wanted or responded was to sell it at a flea market. The one I remember most was the offer I made of old cookbooks and fiction. The guy showed up and proceeded to tell me he was a preacher and he was getting these books for his congregation only to see the same books two weeks later at the antique mall. Don’t bother complaining to the moderators they are only concerned about the wording you use in the heading; they could care less about the unsavory characters creeping out of the woodwork fueled by greed. My membership lapsed or either I was kicked off for complaining, either way all I can say is good riddance.
Last but not least a hearty congratulations to the good folks of Augusta for putting aside their differences and the reporting of a slanted media, me included, to elect the person who seems to really want what is best for all citizens.
The newly elected Mayor turned out to have no backbone whatsoever and is only interested in positive press meaning he will not respond to any reporter calling about any negative thing that has happened in his city.