Take time for friends in 2009.....

This was sent to me earlier today, and I thought it was worth sharing:

Too Busy for a Friend...

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.


Several years later, one of the students was killed in

Iraq and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They f ound this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this wit h me at all times,' Vic ki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Rest in peace, unknown kitty.....

Well, we had to put the unknown kitty to sleep. He didn't have bad injuries (other than some old scarring from fighting, etc), but the vet said his temperament was so bad that she doubted he could ever be domesticated. She said we could pay $200 to neuter him and put him back outside and continue feeding him and hope for the best, but we thought that would be cruel. If he stands no chance of ever being domesticated, it's cruel to put him back out where other animals could attack him or he could get hit by a car or worse. Isaak is bringing him home and we'll bury him in the yard. And darn it, I'm crying over a cat I didn't even know or have a chance to bond with. If there is a place in Heaven for cats, I hope this poor cat makes it there.

Now we're going to turn our attention to rescuing Zorro. I feel if his injuries aren't too severe, he does stand a chance of being domesticated because his temperament is much better. He's let me get really close to him, and he's even let me touch him and eaten out of my hand once. So please pray that we get him in the trap and that his injuries are treatable.

It was the wrong cat :(

Well, no jubilee yet. Isaak no sooner left here with what we thought was Zoro when the real Zoro limped onto our porch! I guess we had his twin in the cage. Isaak took it to the vet anyway, and turns out, it has an injury, too. In the same leg. Now I am suspicious that someone might have shot them. If that's the case, the humane people will be called in and they'll take it from here. Keep praying we catch the real Zoro. We're going to set the trap and hope for the best.

WE CAUGHT HIM!

Just a brief update for the post below this one. WE CAUGHT THE CAT!

Twinbrook Animal Clinic in Middlesex was the ONLY PLACE AROUND that would treat a feral cat if we caught him. So they gave us a cage to use to trap him, and we put it out, baiting it with tuna fish. I never thought he'd go in it, but we found him out there in it a few minutes ago. The clinic is closed now, so we'll take him in first thing in the morning. Wish us luck.....and a not so costly vet bill. We're not exactly financially fit for this right now with my husband off work, but I wouldn't be me if I let that poor cat suffer.

Amen Jesus---because he does answer prayers----even ones about saving a feral cat. :)

Outdoor kitty is hurt......:(

You're all going to think I'm crazy, but please pray for my outdoor kitty, Zoro. We hadn't seen him for 2 days, and I was getting really worried. I saw him on the porch this morning, curled up on an old blanket I put out there for him. I was so excited I ran out there to greet him. When I went out to feed him, he "cried" a lot. He doesn't usually "talk" to me at all. In fact, for awhile, I wasn't sure he could meow. Once I got close, I figured out why he was crying. When he came to eat his food, his left front leg was hurt. He can't even move it. In fact, it's basically just hanging there. I suspect maybe he got hit by a car or another animal got him. He's clearly in a lot of pain. But here's the bad part......he will not let me get ahold of him. His trust only goes so far with me, which is letting me get no more than a foot close to him. Last week, I did manage to touch him on the head when he was eating, but he quickly ran off. I've been trying to get him to trust me enough to nab him for months now, but nothing works. I tried everything this morning because I was desperate to help him, including downright chasing him once I couldn't get him any other way. For a cat with a bad leg, he's surprisingly fast.

He crawled under a huge pine tree in my neighbor's yard, and I tried, but I can't get under there. I'm so worried he's going to die. I just am not equipped to get ahold of him. He has claws and teeth, and I have no guarantee he wouldn't use them if he thought I was going to hurt him. And the last thing I need is to go to the hospital since we have no health insurance. I called Animal Friends to see if they will come try to trap him for me. If anyone has any better ideas, I'm all ears. For now, I'm waiting for someone to get back to me from Animal Friends. Please pray that I can get to Zoro and get him help. I'm really worried he might die, and darn it, I've become attached to him! Life has been pretty sucky lately, so if this poor cat that I've befriended dies, it's really going to send me over the edge. :(

Ho! Ho! Ho! And a barfy Christmas......

So this year for Christmas, Santa brought us the stomach flu. No joke.

Connor wasn't acting at all like himself on Christmas Day. It started when he woke up and wasn't at all happy to see that Santa had visited our house and left him toys. He just screamed "NOOOOOOOO!" for about 20 minutes and then hid under his blanket on the couch.

He didn't eat anything all day. And at 4:30 this morning, he woke up throwing up. It was swell. The poor kid threw up about 4 times before he finally went back to sleep. And he didn't understand that he couldn't drink a bunch of stuff, because that just made him throw up more.

So far today, he's been able to keep down only fluids. He's done nothing but lay on the couch with his blanket. When my kid doesn't move, I know he must not be feeling well.

We have no idea where he got this. We were around a lot of people Christmas Eve, but none of them appeared sick. And to the best of my knowledge, none of them are sick yet. So the only thing I can think is Santa brought it with him. Thanks, Santa. Next time, could you leave us some toys instead?

Double Trouble!

Back in July, I started feeding a stray cat that was hanging around our house. I was pretty sure he was a feral cat, as we had a pregnant female cat in the neighborhood last year that nobody knew who she belonged to. I am pretty sure this is one of her offspring.

Being the animal lover that I am, I started feeding it. I tried my best to make nice with it so I could grab it and take it to the shelter. No dice. It only lets me get so close, then it runs. I was even laying on my belly on our cold cement porch this morning, inching my way toward him, thinking I'd be less threatening that way. It was good until I got close enough to nab him. As soon as my hands went up, he took off. Because we have no idea where he came from or where he goes when he's not here, we dubbed him "Zoro, Cat of Mystery."

When the weather got cold, Isaak built Zoro a house. I've never seen him use the house, but it's out there.

Today, I have been doing my best to get my hands on him, because it's only 4 degrees outside and I am worried he's going to freeze to death. I was busy admiring him sleeping on an old quilt I put on a chair on our porch, when I noticed another black cat come sauntering up to the food dish. Our neighbor has a black cat, but it is about 4 times the size of Zoro and is very easy to discern from Zoro. But this one looked exactly like Zoro! And when Zoro saw the other cat, he didn't chase it. Instead, they wandered off together. Now, I'm not sure how long these two have been playing switcheroo on me, but I'm pretty sure I've been fooled this entire time into thinking I was feeding one cat. Now I am facing the realization that I have two cats I have to rescue from this weather. God sure has a funny sense of humor.......