Today I did something I never thought I do ... again. I rescued three small kittens.
The crying was so loud I thought a kitten was out back. But no, this small black kitten was sitting directly across the street on my neighbor's steps, crying its heart out for mommy.
I put my coat on. I kept asking myself why. Why on earth would I save this one when I had resisted so many times before? Once I stepped outside, I could hear another plaintive cry. Again I was not sure where it was coming from.
So I walked a bit down my alley only to realize that both sets of cries were coming from across the street. Armed with an old handtowel, dressed in pajamas and slippers, I crossed to the first kitten. She tried to run but I caught her mid fall from the concrete steps. Just a little longer than my hand and hissing like nobodies business. I started to walk back when I heard the other cry. I followed it thinking that maybe I could hold two at a time when I found them -- two identical kittens two doors down hiding next to the steps.
There was no way I could hold all three. So I crossed over just as she wiggled out of my hand. She ran for the wall next to my steps and I caught her just as she realized that there was no where to hide. I wrapped her in the towel and went inside. I dumped out a box and placed her inside.
I carried the box back out with me as I crossed over the street again. Setting the box down I approached the two kittens. And just as I reached for them one made a break under the porch and out of my reach. I put the second kitten in with the first. They hissed at each other, then abruptly looked up and hissed at me -- oh good, common cause.
I had to leave the third and bring the first two inside. After loads of hisses and a saucer of milk, at least one was looking at me wide eyed and expectant. I taped the edges the lid so they stood up high enough to keep them inside, and got dressed for my errand.
I was away way longer than I had intended. When I got home my neighbor had just arrived. And along with the young man who lived next to her, we formed a three person tag team to retrieve the last kitten in the darkness. That little kitten was labeled, "Lucky". As I carried her in, she hissed and wiggled till I set her in with what I thought would be the comforting smell of her siblings -- but the box was empty. Yikes!
And the Calico Goddess was not pleased!
Apparently the little munchkins had made their escape. I caught one immediately and placed her in with her frightened sibling. I put in some warm milk and placed each of their small heads above the saucer. The newest arrival had to be coaxed to take a taste - but soon even she caught on and was lapping up with glee.
So now I would have to wait till the other one got hungry. Less than 20 minutes later I could hear a small cry. I followed it till I found a shivering and crying little bundle of fur under the radiator - and thus a joyous reunion ... and of course more milk.
Three little hissing mouths and six little glowing eyes greet me as I check their progress. One watches me from the lit end of the box while the others hide in the shade.
Right now I can hear them playing with one of the Calico discarded toys, while she sits hissing under her breath at my feet. Did I mention who was not pleased?
They cannot stay, right? Sigh.
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Wish I could be there. Very well spoken.
Katrina,
I wish you all the blessings and power you need on your journey. Thank you for these words. It is good to remember that returning to work (and thus returning to grace) bring a chance for us all to rest and have joy.
Wishing you joy in the Work.
David
Dear Katrina- Thorn reposted your blog and happy am I. Your passion, always so immense, comes blowing out in these words. So akin to my own heart and soul that it makes me have a bittersweet smile.
The Storm is only now coming to the edges of our universe and yet it will sweep and consume all that is. In the end, our beautiful universe will be so much...more? Different? Complete? Who knows?
All I do know is my soul came here to witness and be part in this period. I cannot shrink from the work. I am here with you, fae sister!
Thought-provoking piece, Katrina. Thanks.
I don't know what to call myself either. In Pagandom, I've taken to referring to myself as a Witch at Large. In the interfaith world where I'm active, I call myself a Pagan. Sometimes I call myself an uppity woman or a Second Wave Feminist. I've never really thought to publicly identify myself by my sexuality, het woman, which is very "white bread" and old-fashioned. Not only het, but serially monogamous for the most part. It seems almost a liability these days to say you're het, but I am proudly and happily so. I tend towards intellectualism but only have a BA, which doesn't carry much weight, at least in public and professional worlds, no matter how much you've studied, trained, and can articulate, even teach.
My biological heritage is Irish, Dutch, French Huguenot, Euro-mongrel. My social heritage is Roman Catholic on one side and conservative Methodist, temperance-crusading, women's rights and education on the other, with distinct East Coast sensibilities, now mellowed by more than half a century living on the Left Coast. My maternal political heritage is conservative Republican (altho what my relatives might think of current trends in the GOP I cannot imagine, since they did have brains and they did think and they did have a social conscience), yet I am much farther left in my outlook than any elected official I know. My paternal political heritage is blue collar Democratic, except that my dad broke with his family on politics and allied with my mother's family's conservatism.
I'm a former hippie, a home-birth advocate, a home death and green burial advocate, an opponent of capital punishment and resorting to warfare to resolve humankind's differences. I support the right to conscious self-deliverance. I rejoice in any and all consensual expressions of love and eros. I'm a lover and a mom.
I have never missed voting in an election and I disrespect those who don't avail themselves of this hard-won right. (I have ancestors who fought the Brits in the American Revolution.) I support workers' rights. I recognize our interdependence on this planet, so could be called a greenie. I'm a committed environmentalist in my day-to-day life (in terms of eating locally grown food, expanding public transit, recycling, preserving open space and wildlife, opposing exploitation of natural resources [strip mining, oil-drilling, nuclear facilities, agribusiness, monocultures, clear-cutting timber, overuse of pesticides, genetic modification, etc.]) I want to make the city streets "safe for dancing," as my old friend Tony Serra said when he ran for mayor of SF on the Platypus Party ticket.
Well, you got me going there, my friend. Thought-provoking read, as I said. ;-)
xo,
Macha
Lovely azaleas!
[cough][gag][snort][sneeze]
Just lovely...
I know what you mean.
I feel you. There is too much bs- particularly when people decide that their temperament is tantamount to truthful and ignore everyone else.
I get irked by immature extroverts or closet introverts who ignore you REPEATEDLY and then pretend you're out of line for being upset by the time they can't pretend you didn't say anything anymore. I find that the same people will ignore you if you blow up right away, too, and that it's because they just don't think that honoring what you value is important to maintaining a relationship, or even worse: that you don't know what you value at all and that it's all a mind game for their pleasure or annoyance. Then they call you passive-aggressive, aggressive, moody, touchy and temperamental. I call them "not listening".