Plenty of cat matters.

While i was grateful that my girls took care of the Friday night shelter duties the last two weeks, it was good to get back to the madhouse.

Yes, sometimes the place is a madhouse.

There's one room that has seven half-grown kittens isolated for sneezing.  They all sound like Kida when she has a stuffy nose, and those kittens have a bad tendency to climb on your back if you bend over.  In order to medicate them, you have to put your back to the wall and slide down, grab a kitten, come up and stand with your back against the wall and the kitten at your side on the shelf, and get the pill down its throat that way.  Or you can just take your chances, and get claws in your back just when you are getting another kittens mouth open.

One precious little darling is showing symptoms of feline leukemia virus.  She craves affection and attention, and we can't hold her for fear of passing that horrible virus on to other cats, and if her test comes back positive, she will have to be euthanized.  It's sad, and it's especially sad to have to tell teen workers who want to play with her that they can't.

There are two people who frequently come over with the special needs teens they care for during the week.  The teens like to help by washing out carriers and sweeping floors, and after each bit of work, they get to go into a room and pet all the cats in there.  It's a great deal for us, as work gets done and cats get socialized, and a great deal for the guardians of these teens, who see it as an easy and low cost way to keep them entertained.  Also the promise of getting to go "play with the cats" will often get these teens to cooperate more when they don't want to do their other therapies.  Yes, our cats are used as bribes!

Ringworm problems continue, but not at quite so great a scale as before.  There are fewer active cases, and only one of the large kitten cages has kittens who may have been exposed to ringworm.  Meanwhile, i think all of ours are over it, except for #1 Son's Enigma SissyCat.  She overgrooms anyway, and has a spot that i'm now treating for ringworm that she won't leave alone.  If she isn't better by Monday, she will get a vet appointment and, most likely, oral antifungal medication and a cone of shame.

The shelter has had and continues to have its share of spoiled cats, too.  Right now, Glenda is high on that list.  She was adopted from our shelter as a kitten back in 2006, and her owner is recently deceased.

(We have a policy that asks that if you ever can't care for your cat you adopted from us, return it.  Also we ask that you have in your final instructions that the cat is to come back to us in case of your demise.  Your next-of-kin may ask to keep the cat, but we want to make sure they will provide as good a home as you did.  We've never denied anyone yet.  Many next-of-kin don't want or can't take on another animal, as with Glenda, so they go back up for adoption.)

Glenda is very shy right now.  She went nuts when put in a colony room, so she is allowed to be out with the other three cats that roam most areas of the shelter.  She will only eat a specific brand and flavor of canned cat food, and it has to be the shredded kind.  She must be fed in one specific spot, and she hides under the isolation cages and darts out to snatch a bite from her bowl, then ducks back under.  Shy and spoiled rotten!  But she's also beautiful, so i hope she calms down and gets another good home.

Anyway, it was nice to be back in kitty central, with adoptions going on and volunteers in and out and even with the ringworm and sneezes and cats that hide, it's a good kind of busy.


Today is:

A Community Affair -- Menomonee Falls, WI, US (country lunch, arts, crafts, and collectibles, quilt raffle, and more)

Adai Caddo Indian Nation Pow Wow -- Robeline, LA, US (a fabulous way to learn about Native American culture in north Louisiana)

Alaska Day -- Alaska, US

Anti-Slavery Day -- yes, there are still slaves in this world, find out how to help them herewww.antislavery.org/english/

Autumn Historic Folklife Festival -- Hannibal, MO, US (Tom Sawyer's hometown celebrates the heritage and traditions of the 1800s; through tomorrow)

Bridge Day -- New River Gorge Bridge, Fayetteville, WV, US (world's biggest extreme sports event)

Clean Water Act Day -- US (considered by many a day to give thanks for water and open any who are grateful for clean water)

Deutsch Country Days -- Marthasville, MO, US (authentic recreation of early German life in Missouri; through tomorrow)

Hard Boiled Guy/B-Girl Day -- on the anniversary of the general release of The Maltese Falcon (initial release was in NYC on Oct. 3)http://hardnosedsleuth.blogspot.com/2010/10/hard-boiled-guyb-girl-day.html

Independence Day -- Azerbaijan(1991)

King Look Under Your Mattress's Unique Hiding Display -- Fairy Calendar (Finally! Proof, on the internet, that you do, indeed, need to look under the mattress!)

Monster Mash Day -- Bogue Falaya Park, Covington, LA, US (annual fundraiser for the St. Tammany Parish Hospital Parenting Center, with a day of fun for everyone)

Nagoya Festival -- Nagoya, Japan (biggest festival in the city; through tomorrow)

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

National Statistics Day -- Japan

No Beard Day -- internet generated, a day to shave, which is illogical in the northern hemisphere, with winter coming

Old Farmers Day -- Loranger, LA, US (through tomorrow; learn how farmers used to live)

Pandrosus Festival -- Ancient Greek Calendar (all-refreshing goddess, or all-dewy one; date approximate)

Persons Day -- Canada (Marking the ruling that women are persons in 1929.)

Procession of the Lord of Miracles (Senor de los Milagros) -- Lima, Peru (Christian celebration of the Lord's miracles, with song, dance, prayers, and parades; through tomorrow and again on the 28th)

Quincy Preserves Fall Architectural Tour -- Quincy, IL, US

Rattlesnake Festival and Gopher Races -- San Antonio, TX, US (wild animal fun, Texas style; through tomorrow)

Roseland Cottage Fine Arts & Crafts Festival -- Woodstock, CT, US (one of the leading juried shows in New England; through tomorrow)

Saint Mary's County Oyster Festival -- Leonardtown, MD, US (oysters served every style; through tomorrow)

St. Luke's Day (The Evangelist; Patron of artists, bachelors/unmarried men, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors/physicians/surgeons, glass makers/glasswrkers, gold workers/goldsmiths, lacemakers/lace workers, notaries, painters, sculptors, stained glass workers, Worshipful Company of Painters; Capena, Italy; Hermersdorf, Germany)

Sweetest Day -- begun by Herbert Birch Kingston, a candy company employee who decided it would be wonderful to distribute candy to the sick, shut-ins and orphans in Cleveland, OH; today is the day to do something for someone that makes him/her say, "Oh, that is so sweet!"

Watch a Squirrel Day -- internet generated, and different from squirrel appreciation day in January

Woolly Worm Festival -- Banner Elk, NC, US (woolly bear caterpillars race up 3-ft pieces of string, winner gets to predict the severity of the upcoming winter; through tomorrow)

World Menopause Day -- sponsored by the International Menopause Society

World Toy Camera Day -- originally sponsored here, but they seem to not have updated in 2014www.wtcd.org

Yorktown Victory Day -- VA, US


Anniversaries Today:

Women in Military Service for America Memorial is dedicated, 1997
University of Heidelberg opens, 1386


Birthdays Today:

Zac Efron, 1988
Freida Pintoo, 1984
Lindsey Vonn, 1984
Vincent Spano, 1962
Wynton Marsalis, 1961
Erin Moran, 1960
Jean-Claude Van Damme, 1960
Martina Navratilova, 1956
Pam Dawber, 1951
Terry McMillan, 1951
Ntozake Shange, 1948
Joe Morton, 1947
Laura Nyro, 1947
Mike Ditka, 1939
Dawn Wells, 1938
Peter Boyle, 1935
George C. Scott, 1927
Chuck Berry, 1926
Melina Mercouri, 1923
Jesse Helms, 1921
Melina Mercouri, 1920
Anita O'Day, 1919
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919
James David Brooks, 1906
A.J. Liebling, 1904
Lotte Lenya, 1900
Henri Bergson, 1859
Salomon Auguste Andree, 1854
Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, 1697


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Once on This Island"(Play), 1990
"Roseanne"(TV), 1988
"Raisin"(Musical), 1973
The Jungle Book(Disney animated film), 1967
"The Apple Tree"(Musical), 1966
“The Yellow Kid Takes a Hand at Golf”(the first actual newspaper comic strip telling a continuing story, as opposed to a single cartoon panel, in American Humorist), 1897
"De Unges Forbund/The League of Youth"(Ibsen play), 1869
"Prometheus"(Liszt S.99), 1855


Today in History:

Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest), 320
Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, 1009
Battle of Assadun (Ashingdon), Danes defeat Saxons, 1016
Basel, Switzerland is destroyed by the Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, 1356
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts in feudal Japan, 1561
The shoemakers of Boston form the first labor organization in the Colonies/US, 1648
The Mason/Dixon line is agreed upon, 1767
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London, 1851
The US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, for $7.2 million, 1867
Edison makes electricity available for household use, 1878
John Owen becomes the first formally timed person to run 100 yd dash in under 10 seconds, 1890
United States takes possession of Puerto Rico, 1898
The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded, 1922
The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee, 1925
Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio, 1954
The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet, 1967
Azerbaijan becomes independent from the USSR, 1991
After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan, 2007