I obviously have a relationship with lots of cats right now. I know that I can’t save all the cats in the world. Or even many of them. But I do feel I have a certain responsibility of addressing the issue, at least on a micro scale.

I think it is funny when people say they aren’t cat people or don’t like pets. I kind of laugh to myself thinking that they have no idea what they are missing in life if they actually believe that.

I listened to last week’s This American Life yesterday and one of the segments was on some brothers that lived in Baghdad and of an American that had befriended them. The wife of the American was telling the story. She talked to the Iraqi brothers weekly on the telephone and told them she was just going to school and working at a shelter for dogs. The Iraqi couldn’t understand the fascination that she had with dogs. He told her in Baghdad, dogs were very dangerous. That they killed dogs. He killed dogs. He told her that dogs would come after a suicide bomb attack and take off with the body parts of the victims.

Isn’t it strange how an animal that humans bred to be their companions are treated so much different when humans existence is in question. I guess when it is a life and death struggle, then there is a completely new set of rules. It’s the same in Africa with people shooting gorillas and elephants, etc. I think the survival instinct of humans is strong. Strong enough to over ride any morals that are engrained in them.

I’m so fortunate to be be in a postition of being able to help cats get their footing in life than in a position of having to kill dogs to stay alive. It was just plain luck that is the case.

New kittens in the rabbit cage.

The stunted black kitten looking like an alien after bathing.

We went out for BBQ and celebrated Bill’s birthday with a couple pitchers of beer. We’d been kicking around driving up to Wisconsin for a few days of the Tour of Americas Dairyland.

While we were discussing the idea, Tom Schuler called and then showed up with a grandfather clock he needed taken up to Wisconsin. It was his grandmother’s, who passed away last month at 113 years old. I told Tom he might be in luck and I could get it there as early as Monday. He said, “Not soon enough.” Tom told me it was a small grandfather clock and that he just taken it over to FedEx to ship it, but they wouldn’t. I went out to load it into my van in the parking lot of the BBQ place. I expected it to be all packed up, but no, just a grandfather clock, minus the pendulum and weights. It is so like Tom to just show up at FedEx with a completely unpacked clock.

So decision made. Furniture hauling and bike racing. It’s always nice to have 2nd reason to drive such a long way. It really isn’t that far, less than 700 miles. Tom is promoting the ToAD races, so maybe I’ll be able to work a deal out for clock hauling.

There is a 80 mile road race on Monday and then my favorite race of the event, the Brewer’s Hill Criterium. It is at the Schlitz Brewery and has a pretty good climb each lap. I guess it’s a new course this year with more climbing and a more technical descent. Should be fun. I still have 5 days of antibiotics to take. Probably will take them today and reevaluate tomorrow.

I released the mother cat that bit me, at 1 am last night. Just for good old times, she bit through the glove I was wearing and got a couple of her teeth into my thumb. She wasn’t going to become a tame cat and there are 4 more kittens that need more space to run. I also caught the mother cat of the 4 kittens in a live trap yesterday morning and took her to the vet to get spayed on Monday. This cat catch and release thing is becoming costly. Only a few more to go.

Alright, I’d better get moving. 10 hours to drive. We’re going to try to go for a ride when we get there. The weather is showing rain both days. I hope that doesn’t occur, but the way this season has been, I bet it rains cats and dogs.