For those who couldn’t read it yesterday (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Vest at The Daily Gaggle.   

Vest's words for this week are:

Dumped

Welcome

Incident

Sounded

Ended

Unaware

or and

Moving

Attended

Responsible

Smell

Arrived

Window

DUMPED.  There’s no other word for it, they were dumped.

I am not sure when they ARRIVED, as I was busy elsewhere in the building.  If I’d been in the front room, I might have seen them through the WINDOW and had a chance to get a license tag number, but when you are going to dump kittens at a shelter you keep MOVING and don’t take any chances.  After all, if you are going to shirk your duty, not be RESPONSIBLE for your own animals, you don’t want the INCIDENT to appear on the nightly news.

I would say that you SMELL like the rat you really are, but that’s not nice to rats which can also make good pets and don’t deserve to be equated with you.  You know you are doing wrong, that’s why you try to hide it.  You know the penalty if you get caught dumping animals is up to six months in the local hoosegow and a $1,000 fine.  So you hide your sorry self, maybe even parking in another lot and walking over, watching to make sure you aren’t seen.

When I first stepped outside of the shelter door to take out some trash, I was UNAWARE of what was awaiting.  There was a box by the door, and I thought, how odd.  A tiny mew SOUNDED from inside, and my heart sank.  Another case of abandonment, I thought, and I peeped in.

Two kittens, quite lovely, just at the age where they should be able to eat on their own, I realized.  My hand reaching in to pet them was not WELCOME, but the food and water I brought was.  Once I’d ATTENDED to their immediate needs, I isolated the box and waited for the person on staff who takes care of these situations, continuing to do my own duties in the meantime.

Of course it all ENDED well, the kittens were put in an isolation cage to make sure they didn’t have anything catching, and they were played with and petted and fed until they could be fully vetted and adopted out.

All’s well that ends well, right?  Except.  Except it’s not an isolated thing.  Except it happens more than it should.  Except people who won’t stand up and do what is right and take on the responsibilities that are theirs are becoming way too many.  And that is hard for me to understand.

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Today is:

Act Like A Caveman Day -- internet generated, just to be fun, especially if your neighbors think you are crazy anyway

Bayreuther Festspiele -- Bayreuth, Germany (Wagner festival, through Aug. 28)

Be Adamant About Something Day -- it's good practice

Commonwealth Constitution Day -- Puerto Rico

Culinarian's Day -- another one here because of the internet, but a good excuse to let your inner chef go wild, and enjoy the results

Ebernoe Horn Fair -- Sussex, England (ancient horn fairs were pagan fertility rites, now just a fun time for all)

Eve of the Hathor Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of the Knee-Knockers -- Fairy Calendar

Furrinalia -- Ancient Etruscan Calendar (Furrina, goddess of the sacred grove and spring on Janniculum hill)

     also Ancient Roman Calendar (to honor those who searched for underground water sources)

Guanacaste Day -- Costa Rica

Guayaquil Day -- Guayaquil, Ecuador

Ilyap'a -- Ancient Inca Calendar (festival of the lightning god; date approximate)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

Oregon Brewers Festival -- Portland, OR, US (81 microbreweries from across the nation showcase their best, including rare, hard-to-find, and exotic beers; through Sunday)

Republic Day -- Tunisia

Soma-Nomaoi -- Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (wild horse chase which recreates a battle from over 1,000 years ago; through Monday)

St. Christopher's Day (Patron of archers, automobile drivers/motorists, bachelors, boatmen, bookbinders, busdrivers, cab drivers,epileptics, fruit dealers, fullers, gardeners, lorry drivers, mariners, market carriers, porters, sailors, taxi drivers, transportation/transporation workers, travellers, truck drivers/truckers, watermen; Baden, Germany; Barga, Italy; Brunswick, Germany; Fubine, Italy; Havana, Cuba; Mecklenburg, Germany; Rab, Croatia, St. Christopher's Island; Saint Kitts; Toses, Girona, Calalonia, Spain ;for a holy death; against bad dreams, epilepsy, floods, hailstorms, lightning, pestilence, storms, sudden death, toothache)

St. James' Day (The Apostle, brother of St. John and son of Zebedee, the first Apostle martyred; Patron of apothecaries/druggists/pharmacists, arthritis sufferers, blacksmiths, equestrians and horsemen, furriers, knights, laborers, pilgrims, soldiers, tanners, veterinarians; Altopascio, Lucca, Italy; Antigua, Guatemala; Bangued, Philippines; Brentino Belluno, Italy; Caltagirone, Italy; Cassine, Italy; Chile; Cicala, Catanzaro, Italy; Comitini, Italy; Compostela, Spain; Galicia, Spain; Gavi, Italy; Guatemala; Hettstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany; Jemez Indian Pueblo; Loiza, Puerto Rico; Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Montreal, Canada; Nicaragua; Pistoia, Italy; Rivarolo Canavese, Italy; Sahuayo, Mexico; Seattle, Washington; Spain; Tesuque Indian Pueblo; against arthritis and rheumatism; sometimes called Jacob, the Latinized version of his name, also Iago and Jaques in Romance languages) related observances

    Dia Nacional de Galicia -- Galicia, Spain (National Day of Galicia, a/k/a Apostole Santiago, St. James the Apostle's Day)

    The Pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela -- Galicia, Spain (one of the world's largest pilgrimages still, to the church that has the supposed relics of St. James, culminates on the Saint's feast day)

    Loiza Aldea Fiesta -- Puerto Rico

Video Games Day -- yet another one, this on the founding of the "U.S. National Video Game Team"    

Birthdays Today

James Lafferty, 1985

Brad Renfro, 1982

Louise Brown, 1978

Matt LeBlanc, 1967

Illeana Douglas, 1965

Iman, 1965

Walter Payton, 1954

Nathaniel "Nate" Thurmond, 1941

Barbara Harris, 1935

Midge Decter, 1927

Estelle Getty, 1923

Jack Gilford, 1907

Walter Brennan, 1894

Maxfield Parrish, 1870

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Chorus Line"(Musical), 1975

"You Can't Hurry Love"(Single release), 1966

Today in History

Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler, 285

Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops, 306

The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings, 864

Sebastián de Belalcázar, on his search for El Dorado, founds the city of Santiago de Cali, Colombia, 1536

Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, 1567

Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism, 1593

James VI of Scotland is crowned James I of England, bringing the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into personal union; political union would occur later, 1603

Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, now known as Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México, 1693

British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians; thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England, and some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick, 1755

Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain), 1797

Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua, 1824

The first commercial use of an electric telegraph is successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London, 1837

The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms, 1869

Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it, 1908

Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure, 1917

The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place, 1920

Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established, 1925

At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team, 1946

Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51, 1956

The Republic of Tunisia is proclaimed, 1957

Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" is born, 1978

Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948, 1994

K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called "untouchable"— to hold this office, 1997

Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground, 2000

Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first woman president, 2007

Wikileaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history, 2010

Scientists in Britain identify the mechanism causing human allergy to cats; they believe a general cure for the condition could be available in the next five years, 2013