Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Breeding is a metaphor for life. Everything that happens at a cattery – birth, growth, creation, successes, failures, and eventually death – happens in real life as well.

In most things in life, we expect to have things go well. And when they don’t – we have a bad day. We’re disappointed and hope the next day goes better. The same thing happens at a cattery, but in more of a Man vs. Nature format. When things go bad at the cattery – let’s face it – they can go really bad.

Mother Nature is the friend and the enemy of the Breeder. She’s like the little Girl with the Curl. When she is good, she is very, very good (Think adorable baby kittens who snuggle up to you for loves and playtime). And when she is bad she is horrid (Think Hurricane Katrina).

I am the kind of girl who would rather be at a spa than a camp ground. I actually wish breeding wasn't messy. Yet I am relentlessly drawn to the constant in-your-face struggle with nature. We usually win. Life at the cattery is peaceful, beautiful, and serene. The joys and rewards that come with breeding have no equal in my eyes. Yet there is the darker side. It’s a rollercoaster we must ride. In order to have the highs, we must endure the lows. Do you remember in the Ron Howard movie, Parenthood, when Granny tells them that she likes the rollercoaster?

Me too, Granny. Me too.

This morning, after a 2 hour nap rather than a full night's sleep, I sat, bleary-eyed, feeding our new premature kitten, Turtle Dove. Exhausted to the core, I looked around to see the cats lazing and sleeping. Occasionally a kitten would jump or run in delight. The day was dawning.  The world around me so beautiful it delighted my sleep-filled eyes. The sounds of cats and kittens gently playing was a song in my heart.

I looked down at the tiny being in my arms, depending on me for everything – her very life. The thought she might not make it brought a tear to my eye. But that is okay. It is who I am. Breeder. Nurturer.

Walt Disney once said that for every laugh there should be a tear. He would have been a good breeder.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

LIFE OF A STRAY HAIR

Long-haired cats leave little drifting hairs floating through the air that stick just on the edge of your nostril when you breathe near them. That one little hair is impossible to blow, pick, scratch or pull out of a nose once established there, and it TICKLES beyond endurance!

Long live short haired cats!! *grin*

Sunday, June 29, 2008

WILD PIGS:  A Parable

Author unknown.  Permission to forward.

Wild Pigs

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat; you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms – just a little at a time.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

And this is how we will lose our right to breed dogs and control our ownership of pets, a little at a time. Denver and Dallas here, California there, Pennsylvania next. When it becomes impossible for anyone to breed dogs except (possibly) commercial breeders who have business licenses, inspections, and USDA approved concrete runs and water-impermeable surfaces, we will wonder how it happened. The answer will be "one piece of fence at a time." One compromise at a time. One "reasonable negotiation" at a time.

If you've ever said the following, you're guilty of providing a fence post:

-- If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid of inspections.
-- No one should have more than ____ cats (dogs/rats/mice/snakes/fish).
-- No one should breed more than ____ litters a year,
-- Breeding pets is wrong.
-- No one should breed except to Improve the Breed.
-- You should have a license to own a (fill in the breed/animal/species.)
-- Breeders with more than ____ cats should be inspected.

If no one breeds except show breeders,

a) Do you really believe the animal rightists will stop there?
b) Where will the pets come from?

When people can no longer buy a good pet, perhaps we will wake up. Until then, we continue to bash each other, criticize our fellow breeders, and support spay/neuter laws for "everyone but me."

When animal control comes to remove your cats because you are one cat over the limit or because your cats are in cages or because your neighbor says you didn't have water for them one day last week, perhaps then you will realize that fighting bad legislation is not just for the activists and fanatics. When you have compromised away your right to breed at all perhaps you will realize that there IS no compromise with the animal rights movement.

"First they came for the commercial breeders, and I did not speak out~~ because I was not a commercial breeder.
Then they came for the backyard breeders, and I did not speak out because I was not a backyard breeder.
Then they came for the one-time breeders, and I did not speak out~~ because I was not a one-time breeder.
And they came for me~~
And there was no one left to speak out for me."

Time to wake up, Breeders. They're coming for us.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

WE GOT NEW CARPET TODAY!!!

The lesson? Everything is “perishable.” Even (or especially) individually wrapped, packages of 48 rolls of toilet paper. We’re off to Costco again for more TP. We’ll go directly to the movie afterward and put the toilet paper away immediately when we get home.

They teach us well.

GEORGIE - A CHAUSIE KITTEN

Pork was on sale just before the holidays, so I bought an 8 lb. pork roast, brought it home with delightful thoughts of the wonderful red chili I would make after the holidays settled down.  I wrapped it carefully in aluminum foil and double bagged it in those big gallon size zip lock freezer bags, and tucked it away in the deep freeze.

Well, today I remembered that lovely piece of meat and since it's on the nippy side outdoors, thought it would be a great day to make chili.  I got the roast out, carefully filled the kitchen sink with warm water, and dunked the double-wrapped package of meat to thaw, and went to while the time away working on the computer, reading cat-related email lists.

In about an hour, I went back in the kitchen, started to pull out pans for cooking the meat, and realized that there was water literally everywhere.  Water on the counters, floor, fronts of cupboards, soaking rugs, and sprayed so as to thoroughly soak everything within a ten foot radius – in other words, the whole kitchen was WET! 

And, the roast was missing!!!  Huh???!!!!

For those of you who own Servals, you know what happened.  For those of you considering owning a Serval, please take this as a this a lesson. 

Servals like water.  They play in the water dish, the bath tub, and yes, even the toilet (since someone forgot to put the lid down).  They enjoy dropping toys into and pouncing in the water, dish (which is Serval size) making great splashes, retrieving the toy out, parading around on soaking wet paws, toy dripping all the while, and returning to the water dish to do it again (and again….  And Again!)

What was I thinking?  From a Serval's point of view, Mom's great!  Look!  Fresh raw meat in a big water dish – what better way to entertain a Serval?  Jackpot! 

Well, I did mention this was an 8 lb. roast, right?  And I mentioned it was gone?  I mean, how far can a 17 lb cat carry something that's half his weight?  The answer is through the kitchen, across the dining room table, over several chairs, make a few circles through the room, drop it a few times, gather it up and parade down the hall, go into the bedroom and jump on the bed.  Pounce on it a few times, pick it up again and haul it into the bathtub.  While there, rip the bags and foil to shreds and have a snack.  Invite all your friends.

Just what was I thinking????

Mandatory Spay Neuter and Breed Specific Legislation has many negative effects upon both owners and breeders of purebred animals. Organizations such as Peta and H$U$ solicit and accept millions of dollars in donations in order to fund legislative wars against people whose lives revolve around animals.  These well-funded campaigns usually contain videos of abused animals.  The video is designed to assault our convictions and prove that the world is not okay.  This emotional spin usually concerns one specific bad situation, yet is used to call *all* animal people bad, that they must be stopped.  They use these "investigations" to promote legislation to prohibit the ownership and use of animals, including ownership (beagles, poodles, labradors, etc), eating (milk, steak, fried chicken, eggs), wearing (leather shoes, wool clothing), medical research (cancer, aids). 

Many animal-loving people have begun to refer to activists adn their agendas as "Anti-Animal."

If you have ever loved and been loved by an animal, you know how obscene emotional blackmail concerning your animal can be.  The campaigns promoted by Animal Rights activists are nothing short of obscene.  They hurt the animals far more than help because legislation limiting the ability of people to care for animals, compromises the otherwise good life they would have. 

Are you aware that HSUS, PETA, and other charity type 'animal rights' organizations are spending Millions on legislation in your state to prevent YOU from having the use or ownership of ALL animals?  This includes the chicken, the egg, hamburger, shoe leather, and even your dog and cat. Visit "Animal Rights Facts = Animal Rights Exposed."

What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause but what they say about their opponents.
- Robert F. Kennedy

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