Dumpster Cats

Here are some pictures of the cats that I've been feeding:



From left to right, that's Randy (kitten), Joy (mother cat), and Earl (kitten). I'm guessing at the relationship between the cats. Joy isn't much larger than the kittens, but Frank thinks she's the mom.

The picture isn't black and white, but the cats are all variations of gray and white. I only see the cats at night, so I can't take great pictures of them.

The more I think about the cats, the more upset I get. I've been looking at shelters, the DE humane society, and various other options. I can donate money to the organizations, but what they really need are homes for the cats, and I can't take any more cats in. (Sydney won't allow it.) I adopted Sydney from a no-kill shelter--to support an organization that doesn't kill animals, but maybe I should have gone to a different type of shelter to save a kitty. Or, maybe I should have gone to one of the smaller organizations.

I have contacted Forgotten Friends, an organization that will spay/neuter stray cats and then release them back where they were. They figure that cats are better off in the wild, where some kind person will feed them, than at a shelter that could euthanize them. For the most part, I agree, but I read several stories of mean children/people abusing stray cats.

I was considering various scenarios for how things will play out for Earl, Randy, and Joy, and none of them seem good. Like, the three cats could be spayed/neutered and released back to the dumpster, but I won't be around much longer to feed them. On the other hand, what if Forgotten Cats decide that the kittens can be tamed and adopted out, but that the mother cat won't. So, the mother cat goes back to the dumpster without her kittens? That doesn't seem right.

These scenarios are why I don't like SUV. They don't package things up
nicely in the end. I'm not sure how to end this story nicely. I mean, of
course, all 3 cats would find good homes, but the adoption statistics posted on some of the sites I've looked at don't seem promising.

Dumpster Treasure

The dumpster at the apartment complex where I'm subletting is the home for 3 gray and white kittens. Frank and I discovered them Saturday, and I've fed some combination of them every night since then (dark gray kitten; dark gray kitten and stripey gray kitten; dark gray kitten, mostly white kitten, and stripey kitten; stripey kitten).

We went to the Blue Rocks game. The Blue Rocks are a minor league baseball team--Royals farm team. The Blue Rocks have three mascots. (Plus Reggie the Party Dude.) Mr. Celery is the second mascot. The story behind Mr. Celery is something like "Someone found a celery costume by the dumpster, took it, and we have another mascot!"

I was reminded of the Glitter poster that Patrick got from me from a pile of posters by the dumpster.

My sister replied: "I swear, you get some of the best stuff from a dumpster: up to three gray and white kittens, a celery costume, a Glitter poster. Why do people throw this stuff out?! But let's not underestimate the value of the highway. Where else could you get a giant inflatable microphone?"

The Legend of the Giant Inflatable Microphone is a whole other blog entry. I wonder if Dad remembers the Legend.

Comfort is lowest priority

The Best Compliments Ever

Tonight, at the Italian Festival, drunk guys told me that I don't look like I'm 30. To prove my age, I showed my driver's license. That was probably a bad idea because one took it away from me. I tried stopping the conversation with the drunk guys by making sure they knew that at least a few of us were much older than high school and by saying stuff like that I majored in computer science.

For handling the drunk guys, Lucy called me "The Coolest Professor Ever", so I definitely have to put that on a mug now.