Tailless

Bigger Girl wanted to volunteer for pet adoption day, so I took her up there after Grandpa brought the kids home Saturday morning.

Once there, I told Sandra, the adoptions manager for the day, that Sweetie would be up to get her later that afternoon. She was tickled by that. She said, "Oh, I love it when he comes, he is so nice! He always helps us take down the cages and clean up, with his big muscles. It especially helps when my wrist injury is acting up."

I told him about that later, and he played it down, but I think he liked hearing that.

Before pick up time, though, we got a call from Bigger Girl. In one breath she got it all out, "Mom, some people are here surrendering a kitten, and it's a tortoiseshell and it doesn't have a tail, and it is a bottle feed they found in their garden this morning, and can we foster it please?"

She knows the cat rescue policy on bottle feeds. No baby is left behind, even if they have little or no chance. We may be totally full, but we will find room for these tiniest and most helpless cats.

A couple of hours later, Sweetie went to get her and bring home our newest family member.

She is a little love, and they have named her Tailless. She is about 2 1/2 weeks old, seems very healthy, and took to the bottle right away, which is a good sign. The family that found her cannot raise her, but if she does survive, they want to adopt her themselves.

Our 4 current residents are growing like weeds but absolutely refusing to be weaned. I have never seen kittens that just will not learn to lick milk from a bowl when they are hungry enough. These guys just will not do it. They are almost big enough to spay/neuter, and won't drink, much less look at dry food. This is going to be a battle.

In honor of national humor month:

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!


Today is

Boston Marathon

Independence Day, Venezuela

National Amaretto Day

National Garlic Day

National Hanging Out Day

Oklahoma City Bombing Commemoration Day

Pascha -- Orthodox Easter

Patriot's Day - third Monday of the month

Primrose Day

Republic Day, Sierra Leone

Sechselauten, Switzerland (end of winter festival)

St. Alphege's Day

St. Leo IX's Day

Yom Ha'Atzmaut -- Jewish


Anniversaries Today:

Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy Marriage, 1770
Cheyney University is founded as The Institute for Colored Youth, 1837
Grace Kelly marries Ranier III of Monaco, 1956


Birthdays Today:

Maria Sharapova, 1987
Hayden Christensen, 1981
Kate Hudson, 1979
Luis Miguel Basteri, 1970
Ashley Judd, 1968
Al Unser, Jr., 1962
Paloma Picasso, 1949
Tim Curry, 1946
Dudley Moore, 1935
Jayne Mansfield, 1933
Dick Sargent, 1930
Hugh O'Brian, 1925
Eliot Ness, 1903


Today in History:

Sir Francis Drake sails to Cadiz and sinks the Spanish Fleet, 1587
Because he has no male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, assuring Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would go to his daughter, Maria Theresa, 1713
Captain James Cook sights Australia, 1770
John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States, and his home in The Hague becomes the first American Embassy, 1782
Venezuela achieves home rule, 1810
The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy, 1839
Charles Duryea claims to have taken the first automobile built in the US for a spin, 1892
The first Boston Marathon is won by John McDermott of NY in 2:55:10, 1897
Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump, 1919
The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published, 1928
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168, 1995