Kittens become Cats

The original "popcorn kittens" from 2009

Like many other people I am entranced by the antics of kittens. Unlike many people, I do enjoy the company of adult cats as well. The delight that people take in kittens and their antipathy towards adult cats contributes to the problem of cat over-population in our area, and the failure of people to neuter and spay.

They have little incentive to do so, they like seeing tiny kittens gamboling around in the summer sunshine so why would they want to shut off the supply of those kittens? Many give little thought, little food and less shelter, to the cats those kitten become by winter time. In a rural area like this even with food and shelter outdoor, feral cats fall prey to coyotes and other wild menaces (including automobiles). Even with the attrition, by spring there are still enough cats to produce plenty of new litters of kittens to amuse folks, and the cycle repeats.

There are too many kitten lovers, and not enough cat lovers, like myself, willing to make the effort to capture and spay or neuter the adults, provide them with basic veterinary care (like rabies shots), and provide food and shelter. The cost of which is overwhelming to private individuals like myself.

Bulletins from the Land of Dementia

A couple of days ago in our regular nightly telephone conversation my mother, made a passing comment about the sheets on her bed. She said that they were strange sheets, not her "real" sheets, and did I know where her real sheets might be. Since I have not been in her house for more than two years, and much has been rearranged by my brother and her daily home health care worker Jennifer, I told her that I did not know where her sheets were kept.

I know, from talking to Jennifer and my brother, that there have not been any changes in mother's bedding (other than regular washing)so I thought it was peculiar that she suddenly decided that the sheets on her bed were different and not her "real" sheets.

Today, I got more insight into what was going on. She told me that she had been (with the help of Jennifer) looking through all the closets, drawers, and chests looking for the "real" sheets, because (and here's where it gets strange) the sheets on her bed were slipping into her mind and giving her strange and bad dreams.

She "knows" that it has to be the sheets, after all she says, the sheets are "strange" and not the "real" sheets, so they must be pushing themselves into her mind when she is sleeping and causing the bad dreams.

Sad, yet weirdly humorous.

waning moon

Waning moon

Scythe sharp
Brilliant crescent
Nestles among
Dark pines
Lacing hilltops.

sgreerpitt
Tuesdy July 5, 2011







"waning moon" poem and painting by sgreerpitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://sunflowerroots.blogspot.com/.

One Single Impression -- Crater

crater

cosmic impact,
obliterated crust,
shocked quartz,
iridium laden clouds,
cold, dark world;
from all that death
new life…
our kind.

sgreerpitt
Sunday 3 July 2011


"crater " by sgreerpitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://sunflowerroots.blogspot.com/.

The photograph of shocked quartz, uncredited from National Space and Aeronautics Admininstration (NASA) http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect18/Sect18_4.html

For more posts on the prompt "crater" by other poets go to One Single Impression.