A small cat with a huge personality shares her views on life, love and good food.
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Which CK do you prefer? I don't know why TW had to waste time pimping a picture for me when I'm perfectly stunning in the top photo. I bet it's because she wants to embarrass me! You know the drill—I don't get mad, I get even. And that also applies to holidays.
Back in the days before civilization as we know it, cats used to come out and enjoy smorgasbord night. A smorgasbord is something like a buffet only it sounds classier and it harder for TW to spell. MOL! To continue my story, back in the days of yore, people didn't use those big black plastic bags when the threw out their garbage. As a matter of fact, they were frowned upon. People used to throw open kitchen bags into what they then called "ash cans" which is short, I guess, for TRash cans. You didn't dare put a lid on the can because the "garbage man"—now called, I believe, a Sanitation Engineer—would eat it for breakfast. You'd never see that sucker again—the lid, I mean. You youngsters out there can see where this is heading, I presume.
Nicky before one too many
smorgasbords
Smorgasbord night used to be a big night for the kittehs before there was social media, blogs and pawpawties. All the strays, the alleys and even the house cats used to gather at the curbs every Sunday and Wednesday night to see what delectable morsels their neighbors tossed. PAWTEEEEE!! The peeps' cat Nicky was no different. Neither were the Calicos who lived upstairs—Gertrude, her 4 kits—and Wendell. Each would would beg to go out on those pawty nights. No self-respecting cat would miss this chance to hang with their fellow cats and stuff their faces. There was leftover chicken, beef and fish scraps right there in those cans. There must have been pastures of plenty! What a pity to let all that food go to waste! I'm sure there were many fights over those scraps, to be sure. Sigh! I wish I was around in those days! You can bet, I'd be first in line!
22 1/2 lb Nicky after many smorgasbords. MOL!
Nicky would go by the door and cry pitifully until he was let out to pawty. He was the only one of the peeps' cat who ever was allowed out. The peeps adopted him after they found him wandering on the front porch of their old house. He liked the outdoors and was allowed out until the night he came home with an abscessed back paw from a cat bite. He'd gotten so fat from eating the neighbors' cat food that he couldn't sneak under the fence anymore or outrun the cats whose food he was stealing. Since Nicky knew which neighbors left food out for the strays, every day and night was a smorgasbord for him and it showed.
My Blog the Change is about the hell hole known as the Hempstead, NY, Animal "Shelter." I became aware of the cruelty at the shelter when I saw this video (below) on my local news. Even thought the video is 17 years old, it just surfaced last month. It was so disturbing, TW had to leave the room; in fact neither of my peeps had the stomach to watch it. After this video ran, I did some investigative work and here is what I found.
The woman seen in this video, Pat Horan, was actually promoted to acting shelter director instead of being fired as she should have. After the video surfaced, she was ousted from that job, which paid her over $100,000, but was reassigned to the town's "general services" sector, at the same salary.
According to a former volunteer, this wasn't an isolated incident, abuse like this happens all the time.
The good news is that this video has inspired outrage in the community. A couple of days after it aired, more than 300 people showed up at a protest against the shelter. The protest was organized by Hope for Hempstead Shelter. At the time, I posted their link on Twitter a number of times, but it didn't generate much interest or outrage.
The "shelter" has recently barred animal rescues from entering to try to help the animals. They refuse to release the names of animals they plan to euthanize so rescues can come in and take them.
There will be another rally on Caturday, May 7, 2011 at 12 noon, also organized by Hope For Hempstead Shelter. They are currently urging people to write letters and sign their petition, which reads "We, the undersigned, call on the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter to allow volunteers to aid in finding loving homes for each shelter dog and cat, and in the training, exercise and socialization of the shelter animals. We ask that improvements be made such as better ventilation, heat and air conditioning, and larger and more modern dog runs. We would like to see this shelter expand its hours and include Sundays to allow working people to adopt or claim their lost pet. Please sign this petition. We've got to put a stop to so-called shelters such as this one.
SOME UPDATES FROM LAST YEAR'S POST
Sweet Madea
In my original What the Hell is Wrong With People blog, I wrote about Madea, who was stabbed to death with an umbrella. The good news is that the savage brute who did this was convicted and faces up to 4 years in prison for aggravated cruelty to animals. The same day as that verdict came down, another monster was convicted of setting fire to his super's cat, Tommy Two Times, out of boredom. He was cleared of second-degree arson but convicted of animal cruelty and burglary, which can put him behind bars for up to 15 years.
Patrick's emaciated but alive
I'd also like to share the story of Patrick the dog. A monster in Newark starved this lovely pit bull to near death, put it in a garbage bag and threw it down the garbage chute on St Patrick's Day, hence his new name. A maintenance worker found the bag and dog before it could go into the trash compactor. He was brought to Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Tinton Falls and, more good news, Patrick, is now recovering.
Lastly, Angelina Barnes, a 20-year-old woman in Oklahoma, has been charged with animal cruelty after she killed and mutilated a relative's cat, apparently using the blood for an outfit she planned to wear to a Lady Gaga concert.
What the hell is wrong with humans? And they call us animals!
We've got some new stuff around our house. Of course none of it is for me. We got a new kitchen trashcan because the pedal fell off the old one—and, in a surprising turn of events—I didn't get blamed for it. I never open the can so they couldn't find a way to blame me. This new one is just my size. Too bad it has a lid or it would be smorgasbord night every night for me. Remind me to tell you the one about Nicky and smorgasbord night some time.
We also got a new computer! Yes, another i-mac that's even bigger and faster than the old one. It's bigger than our TV! This computer has a wireless keyboard and mouse so I won't be tripping over wires every time I climb on the desk. And TW has sprung for Adobe Suite 5 because she thinks it'll help her keep her skills up. It comes with Dreamweaver so we can learn to put up our own web pages and make cool animated graphics! OK, so she may never learn that part but I can dream. You know what they say about never teaching an old dog new tricks. HAH! Anyway, that hasn't arrived yet so stay tuned.
YooHoo! Remember you have a CAT?
She's been a little slow at getting my pictures loaded into this baby and I guess it's because she suspects her photographic ineptitude will be even more obvious! This just in!! TW can't find the software disk to load pictures from her camera into the computer! Gasp! Can't you believe they'll be no more stunning pictures of moi? Gasp! Not only that but we decided not to import the bookmarks that we exported from the old computer so I don't even have my favorite pimping picture sites! Gasp! Pant! I'm now axing my friends to hook me up. We've found a couple but not one of my faves.
Spring also brings the new baseball season. You all know what Yankee fans this family is. With the games on the TV every night and the TV in the other room, I won't be around Twitter at night until at least October. In fact, I'll be totally ignored around here. The peeps have the Friday season tickets plan so it'll be a condo party every Friday if anyone cares to stop by. I know where the nip and Luna Tuna is stashed. All this means I won't be DJing #Nipclub every week. It'll be more like every other week. Since I have my WCAT sidebar on this blog, you won't miss my music too much.
Speaking of Nipclub, myself and @LilyLuWhoT want to start a Nipclub softball team. All the clubs and companies in NYC have teams We're gonna try to get some Jerseys and each wear the hat of our favorite team. If that sounds like something that would appeal to you, let us know. I'm thinking about playing SS or 2nd base since I'm the speedy type. I can also play centerfield or pitch if they need me.
You may notice that now when you comment on this blog, it doesn't appear instantaneously. I've had a bunch of span recently so I had to moderate comments. Believe me, I don't want to do this. I have better things to do but some people are jerks and morons. Those are the kinds of people who burn and torture innocent animals.
Guess that's more than enough for this Newsday Tuesday.
THIS JUST IN!! MASSIVE COLLAPSE IN CK'S APARTMENT!!! OMC! I'm glad I didn't go to press earlier. I was sitting in my mauve thing—otherwise known as my kitty bed—when the world came to an end. Or at least I thought so. There was a piercing scream—and then a huge crash!! I jumped down, my tail full and bushy and rushed to see if TW was OK or if I could get some good blog material out of it. Bless Bess, what a mess! There were items all over the floor! Toothbrushes, razors, bottles of shaving cream, and the like and we don't even have pictures! Hmm, someone isn't a very good journalist and I'm not giving TW a name. TW was shaking and didn't want me anywhere near the carnage. When she calmed down, I found out that she'd opened the walk-in closet to put some clothes hangers away when the metal shelves that hang from the door collapsed. They almost fell right on top of her. You know I would've laughed had that actually happened. Anyway, the big metal structure was blocking entrance into the closet and Pop was on the bus on his way home. Not being able to lift those shelves back up, TW actually shooed me out of the room and shut the door. Now we all know my rule about no shut doors in the house. TW tried to figure out what to do about the mess. She was panicked that Pop would have a fit when he got home.Of course, he expected a quiet evening where he'd come in and put his coat in that closet and change out of his work clothes. He didn't expect Fibber McGee's closet to await him. TW met him at the door with the bad news—no not that it didn't hit her on the head—and do you know what he said? He said "Oh that happens all the time." Unfortunately for me, he didn't get upset and start screaming at her and maybe throw her out. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.
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