Anyone who lives in the country is only too accustomed to homeless cats showing up on their doorstep. Over the period of time we ran the pet resort, we found homes for over 30 cats and kittens. The ones that were too old or too feral to be adopted by anyone else, ended up living with us.
When we retired, we moved from 100 acres in the country, where our house was set back a long way from the road, to a small house in a small town. Our four remaining cats had been used to the freedom of the great outdoors in the country.
Once in town, we decided they had to stay indoors. Two of them were old as well as timid, and didn’t really care. The other two were confused. Tiberius especially begged to go out. We bought harnesses and leads and started training them to be tethered outside.
I was fortunate to be in Vienna while the Museum of Natural History was having a little exhibition on dogs and cats in science and art.
Although a good part of the space was devoted to interactive displays aimed at children, there was lots to interest the adults in the room.
Ah, the decorated house at Christmas!
See the cat in the wing chair? If you believe everything you read and hear, she’s plotting how to kill herself, or at the very least, make her owners spend Christmas at the vet’s, where they will add thousands of dollars to their already overburdened Visa.
The General and I have personally owned six dogs and over thirty cats, only two of whom died a ‘natural’ death. Not only that, we had literally thousands of clients at the pet resort whose pets would inevitably age and become terminally ill. From time to time, we’d be part of the discussion about when they should seek a quiet end for their friend.
Eat or be eaten. The law of the jungle. These aphorisms don’t generally have much practical application in the life of the average urban dweller. Well, if you don’t count office warfare.
In the country, it’s a little different, at least in Canada.
Every time a loose dog was found running down our county road, we would be the first place the kind-hearted Good Samaritan would come to make inquiries. We understood.
Calmness, confidence and competence can get you a long way in this world, whether you’re engaged in a stand off with a bear, or trimming your pet’s nails.
Personally, of the two, I think I might prefer dealing with the bear. Unless she’s protecting cubs or food, she’s unlikely to engage with you. The chances of blood being spilled are much higher when you give your dog a manicure.
Prince Edward Island, the smallest province of Canada, is famous for Anne of Green Gables. Well, Anne and potatoes, but Anne brings in more tourists.
That beloved children’s book was written in 1908. In it, someone in Avonlea is going into Charlottetown, the provincial capital, to pick out an orphan to bring back with them to help with the work on the farm. Matthew Cuthbert asks that a boy be brought back for his farm as well. They get a girl instead, and the rest is fictional history.
It was a humid summer night. It had not been a great day so far.
It had taken all day for The General’s mother to be discharged from the hospital, where she had had a stent put in to correct a blockage in an artery. Apparently super important heart surgeons can’t be bothered with details like speaking the magical words from their Olympian heights that will produce the prescription necessary for a patient to get the hell out of his domain.
Used to be, it was easy to stop your cat from destroying your furniture, carpet and draperies. You simply had the cat declawed.
The General and I did this to several of our cats. No one, including the vets who did the procedure, suggested to us that it was cruel. The cats’ toes were tender for a few days, but after that, their ability to turn the legs of expensive pine furniture into toothpicks disappeared.