The Great Cat Rescue and Other Misc. Stories

There is a cat at work. It doesn't belong to work, I am sure that it is one of the millions of abandoned pets that have come from the "housing bubble burst" in the area. She (I am pretty sure it is a she, though I haven't gotten that friendly with it) is a gorgeous tabby that is very well socialised and really misses her human friends. If someone doesn't take her home soon, I will have to call the humane society, because she is too sweet to be allowed to go feral. I wish I could take her, but our apartments are pet free.

The other night while the Sarge and I were talking outside, Kitty decided to climb up on Sarge's car. Sarge doesn't really like this particular cat, so when the cat started to slide off the side of the car she was half laughing at it and half angry that it was scratching up her paint job. Part of me was laughing with her, and the other part was thinking that the scratches on her car served her right for not liking such and adorable kitty (sorry, Sarge).

Next thing I know, the cat is just hanging there off the side of the car and yowling. It started writhing and jerking around like a possessed thing. I realised that it was hanging by one paw off the car. As I ran over to help, I noticed that not only was it hanging by one paw.....it had gotten one claw stuck in the crack between the door and the body of the car. All the weight of the cat (and all of it's bouncing around) was being supported by that one claw.

So I grabbed the cat and tried to turn it so I could get the claw out. Then I tried lifting the cat higher and sliding the claw out of the top of the crack (it was wider at the top).

Needless to say, the cat was a little bit frantic. Trapped and in pain, it scratched and bit me several times before I was able to free it's poor paw. As soon as it was free, it ran off into the dark.....and I started bleeding.

So I cleaned up, disinfected everything, and spent the rest of the night keeping an eye on Kitty to make sure that her paw was doing just fine. Luckily, there was no blood, and she started walking on it normally after an hour or so. She wasn't really in the mood to come too close to me after that, so I couldn't get a close look, but I think she will be just fine.

I, on the other hand, may get rabies or some strange infection from having Kitty claws and teeth embedded in my flesh for those few seconds.

As long as Kitty is alright, right?

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In other news, the Sprouts convinced my Dad to take them to the park for the first time this year. I went up to meet them after work, and they were having so much fun! Little Sprout is just learning how to climb on the equipment by herself, and her legs are just a hair too short to climb the steps up to the slides by herself. She doesn't let that stop her, though. She knows that if she just lifts her arms and yells, Grandpa or Big Sprout will come rescue her and take her for a wild ride down the slide. Big Sprout is spending her time learning new and dangerous ways to climb on every piece of equipment. She is quite the little mountain goat. Of course, I wish she would leave her shoes on (or at least wear the same socks every time she goes). She is like her mommy in her love of bare feet, but she never remembers to take her socks off and every pair is now black as sin. I suppose that is the price I pay for having a Sprout that is just like me.

Yeah, Mom, the Mother's Curse worked. Are you happy now? At least Big Sprout hasn't filled her brand new shoes with night crawlers yet, and I think she may be reaching the age where she won't.


I spent the time that they were gone working in the veggie patch. I planted my beans (finally) and my potatoes (hope it isn't too late), and weeded like a crazy woman.

My hips are now telling me about it. They really didn't like being all scrunched up like that and supporting my considerable weight at such strange angles for so long.

My peas are up and doing fine. I need to get the trellis up, and I think that will be on my list for tomorrow. I just couldn't get it done with my hips screaming at me.

My onions look wonderful, and I am so excited that I planted so many. I also (well, really Dad does) have a patch of "wild onions". I saw them in a seed catalog one time called "Egyptian Walking Onions", but they are onions my Dad found one time on a walk in the woods. He took a few bulbs home and threw them in the yard, and now we have some really tasty onions from that. I gotta give my Daddy credit....he is awesome at foraging. When Bro and I were kids, the joke was that we would gain weight if we ever got lost in the woods.

Anyway, everyone in my family loves onions, so I am glad to have so many.

Other than that, life has just been the same old thing around here.

Have a good one, all!