Miracle (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Solstice Is Here (Poetry Monday)

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

This week’s Awww is a story, then pictures.

Last Wednesday, i arrived at the shelter for the morning cleaning as i try to do each week, very, very early.  We’d had rain, and it was cold, drippy, drizzly and at least an hour and a half before sunrise when i walked up to the door and noticed a red crate by the exit door.

There is an open intake shelter in town, associated with our city-parish animal control, that will let you drop off any animal you cannot care for there for any reason.  They vet them, try to get them adopted out, and send many of their cats to us for us to adopt them out.  There’s no reason to drop a cat off in the cold and wet at our door.  People do it anyway.

We have a protocol, so i went into the shelter, got a large carrier out, put in a bowl of food, water, and cat litter, donned gloves, and went to see about that crate.

What i found was rather heartbreaking.  A milk crate, no top, a cat bed stuffed down into it, a baby blanket on top of that, and huddled on the blanket was a kitten of about 3 months, shivering and scared and with eyes so crusted over with infection that i was sure she could not see at all.  Why she hadn’t gotten scared in the night and run away and been lost or run over, well, only The A-mighty knows.

As i worked through the morning, i checked on her and she ate and used the litter box, always a good sign.

When Ms. Elly got there later, she took one look and called the vet down the street that is our go-to for most general veterinary work, and took the kitten in.

Two days later, on Friday, the kitten came back from the vet while i was there doing the Friday evening shift.  It turns out she has malformed eyelids and might have limited vision or no vision, it’s too soon to tell.  The infection in her eyes is clearing up, and she’s otherwise healthy.

Because of her malformed eyelids, she will always need special care to keep her eyes from being infected, and two of the vet technicians at the vet’s office fell in love with her already and are talking about fighting over which gets to adopt her.

We’ve named her Miracle.

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

EverydayPower

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is taking a blog break due to her husband's health.   Charlotte/Mother Owl almost always participates, too.  This week the theme is Winter Solstice.                    

(This topic rather left me, shall we say, flat and confused, as sometimes happens, and i wasn't sure whether to take it as a serious, scientific topic of the tilt of the Earth, or discuss Roman solstice celebrations, or what.  This is my meager effort, laugh if you want, i did, as it's kind of a dud to me.)

It's the solstice, everyone,

And just what does that mean?

It means your day length now will change,

Depending on how the Earth does lean.

If you are up here in the now cold north,

Where winter does hold sway,

The tilt of the Earth means that 'til June,

Each one will be a longer day.

If you are down where summer now rules,

Far below the equator line,

Your daylight time will shorter grow

'Til your next winter time.

For those who sit in the middle,

On the equator of the earth,

There's little change in daylight hours,

Of day hours there is no dearth.

And if you are looking for causes

Of things to celebrate,

Well a solstice is a good reason,

For a party, small or great.

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Today is:

Divalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (part of Saturnalia; feast of Angerona, goddess of secret sorrows)

Flashlight Day -- what better day, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, when dark is with us longest, to make sure you have one in good working order

Forefathers' Day -- Plymouth, MA, US (celebrates the landing of the Pilgrims)

Homeless Persons' Memorial Day -- US

Humbug Day -- those frustrated with their holiday preparations are allowed up to 12 humbugs today, just to help vent their frustrations; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Gluggagaegir -- Peeper, who peeps through the windows and will come steal toys he likes the look of

Kiwi Fruit Day -- California, US (celebrate with them, these are good!)

Look At the Bright Side Day -- Northern Hemisphere, and why not; after all, each day after this will have more sun!

National Hamburger Day

National Heroes and Heroines Day -- Anguilla

Pancha Ganapati -- India (through the 25th, a modern Hindu festival honoring of Lord Ganesha, Patron of Arts and Culture)

Phileas Fogg Wins A Wager Day (1872)

Poseidea -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival to honor Poseidon; date approximate)

Solstice -- Northern Hemisphere Winter begins/Southern Hemisphere Summer begins at 10:02UCT

     Anne and Samantha Day -- celebrating the lives of Anne Frank and Samantha Smith, a day to work and pray for world peace

     Alban Arthuan -- Druid Festival, 4th Station; through the solstice

     Bruma -- Ancient Roman Calendar

     Dongzhi Festival -- East Asia (literal meaning, "Extreme of Winter")

     Festival of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (celebration of the seeking of Osiris by Isis and her resurrection of him)

     National Haiku Poetry Day -- US (because haiku is traditionally about the seasons, it's celebrated on the first day of winter)

     Wild Hunt reaches its peak -- various Norse traditions

     Soyala New Year Festival -- Hopi and Zuni Native Americans (a festival of purification as well as celebration, with homes cleaned, fires doused, and personal restraint observed)

     Yalda -- Iran (Persian/Zoroastrian winter solstice festival; to celebrate the longest night of the year, many stay up for the fight against dark and evil.)

     Yule/Jul/Jol Festivals begin -- various calendars, religions, countries and observances, both ancient and modern

          Yule -- Wicca/Pagan, northern hemisphere

          Litha -- Wicca/Pagan, southern hemisphere

          from the Old Norse Hjol, meaning "wheel" to signify the year is at its lowest point and ready to rise again

     Ziemassvetki -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (birth of Dievs, highest of the gods; modern Latvians celebrate this on Christmas Eve/Christmas, but it was originally a three day solstice festival)

St. Peter Canisius' Day (Patron of Catholic press, Germany, writers of catechisms)

St. Thomas' Day, the Doubting Thomas (old date, now celebrated on July 3, but many of the superstitions related to it are still observed at this time)

     Mumping Day a/k/a Gooding Day -- UK (traditional day on which beggars beg for, or "mump", good things for Christmas, always on old St. Thomas' Day)

     Sao Tome Day -- Sao Tome e Principe (Dia de Sao Tome e Principe)

Birthdays Today:

Jackson Rathbone, 1984

Jack Noseworthy, 1969

Kiefer Sutherland, 1966

Andy Dick, 1965

Florence Griffith Joyner, 1959

Ray Romano, 1957

Jane Kaczmarek, 1955

Chris Evert, 1954

Tina Brown, 1953

Samuel L. Jackson, 1948

Michael Tilson Thomas, 1944

Frank Zappa, 1940

Jane Fonda, 1937

Phil Donahue, 1935

Joe Paterno, 1926

Paul Winchell, 1922

Heinrich Böll, 1917

Josh Gibson, 1911

Joseph Stalin, 1879

Henrietta Szold, 1860

Benjamin Disraeli, 1804

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Billion Dollar Baby"(Musical), 1945

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(Disney animated film), 1937

Tillie's Punctured Romance(Silent Film, first full length comedy), 1914

The Crossword Puzzle(First one ever published, 1913

Basketball, 1891 (first game under the direction of James Naismith, by the rules he had published)

Today in History:

A hurricane hits Holland/Friesland, destroying villages with widespread flooding, 1163

The Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche Native Americans, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile; all Spanish cities south of the Biobio river are eventually taken by the Mapuches, and all conquest of Mapuche territories by Europeans practically ceases, until the 1870s "Pacification of Araucania", 1598

William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620

Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam, 1788

The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement, 1844

The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army are formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, 1883

The first Word-Cross puzzle, which the printer mislabeled as a Cross-Word (the name that stuck), is published in the New York World, 1913

The first feature length color and sound cartoon, Disney's Snow White, premiers, 1937

Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park, 1962

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity, 1968

The United Nations adopts the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1969

Mexican volcano Popocatepetl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash, 1994

The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control, 1995

Scientists studying the Sutter's Mill Meteorite announce it contains the oldest material in the Solar System, 2012

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar reaches the date 13.0.0.0.0, 2012