Thieves!

I let my wallet get stolen today. I was carelessly keeping my purse behind me on a crowded bus in downtown Chicago. I was really focused on watching for our stop. I felt at least two different people bump my purse, and I tried to reposition myself out of traffic. I'm sure my wallet was gone by the second "bump". I discovered it about 30 minutes later digging for my train ticket at the station. Within an hour I had filed a police report, filed a fraud watch report, and notified my credit card companies. But I still feel like an idiot. Charges were made on the cards.

I really likeed that wallet, too :(

I know its not my fault that someone was looking for stuff to steal. But it was my fault to be more protective of my belongings.

Dear Lord,
I pray for thieves. I'm sorry they feel they need to resort to this behavior. I pray for victims. It was a pain for me - inconvenient mostly. I can't imagine if that was the money I needed to live on for the rest of the month.

Who Said She Was Easy

I think she's one of these

Maybe she seemed easy at first. Earlier this year I saw her flaunting herself in front of all the other guys. It's no wonder she quickly became pregnant. But aside from that, I don't know that she was ever easy.

She is one of the colony of black cats living in our back yard. For the past year my neighbor and I have been feeding her and her family. It started out with just two - Mom and Dad. Last summer they had two or three litters of kittens. I trapped two in one litter and took them to Elmbrook Humane Society (HAWS didn't want to take them because I live in Brookfield, even though I've fostered for them for years). Elmbrook put them down because they were feral.

I trapped two from another litter, Ben and Bode, and spent most of the fall socializing them. After pleading with HAWS they helped me and took them. Finally, right around my birthday in December, they were adopted.

So when we discovered this spring that the offspring had a litter of kittens (my neighbor saw the kittens and it was obvious looking at her that she was nursing) we decided that we needed to quit adding to the colony. I called HAWS and inquired about their Trap-Neuter-Release program and I had an appointment the next day. HAWS has a TNR program, but Elmbrook does not, so HAWS was able to help us.

I put a trap out right away, and the cat one walked in about ten minutes later. After dinner, I put out the next trap. That is when our "easy" girl appeared. She was very interested in the food. She did everything she could to get at the tuna, without going in. She reached through the back of the cage, but couldn't get it. About 20 minutes later she was in and eating, but it did not spring right away.

When the trap finally sprang, she panicked. She bounced around the trap. We noticed later that she had a small cut on her nose from banging against the cage. We brought her in and let her loose in the spare bedroom we use to foster kittens and cats. Suddenly she started flying around the room. Even though I had closed the blinds, she recognized the window as a way out and clung to the curtains and valance. Over and over she circled the room. She climbed the tipped bedframe (we'd taken out the mattress and box spring so they couldn't hide in it). She jump from the floor and cling to the valence over and over. After about 5 minutes of this, she finally settled down and hid behind the desk.

In the middle of the night, she started to try and open the door. Lucky I had used a bungie cord to hold the door closed, but she really tried.

In the morning, when it was time to go to HAWS for surgery they were both hiding in the desk. I grabbed one, and shoved her in the waiting carrier. The other ostarted away and started bouncing off the walls and climbing the window again. She broke several strips on the blinds trying to figure out how to get out the window.

Finally I grabbed her off the window. She turned around and bit me - through a thick leather work glove! It barely pierced my skin, but I held tight and shoved her in the second carrier I'd borrowed from HAWS. I took them to HAWS and they did the procedure. I was there at 3:00 to pick them up as planned.

So I'm walking out of HAWS towards my car holding the two carriers. Suddenly I see her jump out of the carrier! Somehow it had come open. She ran through the parking lot and into the empty lot next to HAWS. I put the other carrier with the other cat in it and the empty carrier in my car and went to look for her. Some people in the building had see her run and came out to help. A person pulling into the shelter had seen her running in the grass next to Northview almost a quarter mile down the road. I walked the route these witnesses had seen her take, but she was long gone. There was tall grass in that lot and a steep hill. I was in shorts and flip flops - not exactly bushwhacking attire - plus the other cat was still sitting in my car. When I went back to my car, I saw that the carrier that HAWS had lent me had broken. The part that the latch attached to fell off. The door opened and that is how she was able to escape.

I went into HAWS. They had heard what had happened and told me they would put out a trap. Really - all that space and she's going to walk into a trap AGAIN?! I doubt it. I took the other cat home, fed her, changed into jeans and tennies and returned to HAWS. I searched the lot next to HAWS where they walk dogs then walked down the hill to look along the side of the road (NORTHVIEW!) to the next intersection, about 1/2 mile down the road I went back up the hill.

She had lived under a tree all her life, so I found a promising tree to look under - mostly it was a tall grass prairie around there. I saw something move under the tree, but it was just a bird. I drove further down Northview, but saw nothing. So she was gone.

No she was never easy.

I hope she stays out of the road and finds plenty to eat in the tall grass. So sorry little lady.

Earlier today, I had seen the kittens for the first time, coming to get some food. When I got home four kittens were trying to eat from one bowl. I put out some fresh food. It took awhile, but eventually, five kittens came out to the bowl. Some of them are orphans now. We'll put the other mom out tonight - a little earlier than HAWS recommended (they wanted us to give her 24 hours inside), but she is pretty unhappy in our bedroom. She'll probably be happier in her bush - where she's survived for more than a year.

So, now we've got our work cut out for us. Five new kittens to trap and socialize. At least three more cats to trap-neuter-release.

I just hope life is good for our little "easy" girl ... Wherever she is.

Hospitality

The holidays always make me think about hospitality. The most stressful thing about the holidays are the well-meaning friends and relatives who want to invite you to their various holiday celebrations. I think more hosting goes on in the month of December than any other month. Which is kind of sad when you think about it. It makes me wonder: Don't you like to see me at any other times of the year? Why do you insist that I visit when you know I'm getting all kinds of invitations and obligations?

Also, why do YOU always have to be the host? There is so much ego tied up in hosting. Every year all my female relatives compete to be the host of every holiday gathering. Some family members end up attending two, three, even four events in a three week period just to give everyone a chance to host. (Taking turns from year to year is just too long to wait for your next hosting opportunity!) How much of a "holiday" is a holiday spent driving around?

So for all of you who dutifully attend I sympathize and commend you. Most people think that hospitality means only to offer kindness to others and it is probably true that it is better to give than to receive. But it is often much more difficult to accept hospitality graciously.

A few years ago there was a popular saying, WWJD or What Would Jesus Do? Think about it. Jesus was almost never the host. He usually had to rely on the kindness of others. Even when he fed the 5,000 he didn't do it with his own food. He asked for donations from the crowd. About the only time he seemed to be the host was at the Last Supper, but even that took place in a rented room.

In her more lucid moments, my Grandmother, who suffered from dementia, shared with me that she felt that God didn't want her because he wouldn't take her up to heaven. I told her maybe God had something left for her to learn about hospitality. All her life, she had been the host - in her home and in her classroom and in her life - everyone came to her and she loved being a host and bestowing big or little gifts like cookies or loans.

But at the end of her life when she needed to be in assisted living, she was so disappointed. There was no opportunity for her to bestow hospitality. She could really only accept hospitality and to her that was unacceptable.

Hospitality leaves us vunerable on both ends. The host may have unwelcome or rude guests. But the guest must be gracious and accepting - a position where you may not feel that you have control, which is an uncomfortable situation for many Americans. But I think it may have been Ellie Weisel who said you do have control of how you accept the situation.

I've chosen to treat it like a prayer - an offering of gratitude, as if the host was God himself. "For even the least of these ..." I'm certain God could just have as easily been offering hospitality as well as needing it. Who am I to say, "No, thanks," to God?

New Guest Update

Well, its been a week and the new kittens are adjusting. I think they miss their freedom to roam around the yard - but they are confined to one bedroom for now - for their safety with my big kitties. Once they get real homes and can go everywhere, they will be happier I'm sure. Bennie - the fuzzier one is quite friendly and likes to cuddle. I found out that the one I "thought" was a female is a male! (I don't have a future in the animal health industry.) So "his" name has changed from Junie to Bode (BOD-ee) - like the olympic snowboarder. Now that I've figured out how to post pictures - here is one.

New Guests

Most of you know that we help out kitties at HAWS (Waukesha Humane Society) by fostering cats not quite ready for adoption, but now we've got some new visitors. These cuties were born under our deck and have been living in are yard since probably April. Last night and this morning we trapped them and have moved them into our "foster" room. They are still quite shy, but hopefully we can get them to move out from under the bed. The male (the fuzzy one) loves to play with a string on a stick and even purrs when you play with him!

They are still functioning as feral cats. I don't know how long it will take to socialize them - or if I will be able to. They are outside the accepted age for socialization (typically between 4 and 12 weeks of age).

If you know someone who might be interested in a kitten it might be better for these cats to not have to go through HAWS to be adopted. This should probably be an experienced owner who could work with a shy animal and probably someone who does not currently have another animal. There is no rush - they won't be ready for several weeks, but ask around.

Vieux Carre ...

... AKA the French Quarter means "old square" in French. Yesterday we had a beautiful and unusual VIEW of the Vieux Carre. And Geocaching gave me that view. I did this cache six years ago - the last time I was in New Orleans and had a great view then, but this time we met the owner of the cache - and it gave me a different view of the city. It seems the people of New Orleans and Louisiana - at least the people I've met on this trip - care very much about this beautiful city. Bamboozled, the cache creator, wanted to show the beautiful view of the city from the tall building on the edge of the French Quarter where he works. But besides just "showing" us around, he told us where to find some other great views and provided some awesome memoribilia that we wouldn't have found any other way - including some "Katrina Coins" pennies that had survived the flood in his home. So I'm sharing my beautiful view with you.

I Finally Have my Luggage

We called the hotel at noon to see if they have delivered the luggage. They hadn't. We'd gone ahead and started our day - visited the Aquarium of the Americas and gotten on the Natchez riverboat cruise confident that the hotel would care for the luggage while we were gone.

At 3:00, we got a call from the delivery person. She wanted to know whether we wanted it delivered to the hotel or home - because she didn't have our home address.

So finally - at 5:00 the bellhop took us back to the luggage storage for the final time and there it was.