My Sick Mind

There is a new resident at the castle. His name is Thor.   Since Kitty died it's been lonely around here. I found that adopting a cat from the local animal shelter is only a little more difficult than buying a gun. There is a lengthy application process, and they actually call the people you list as references - so be careful.   The PetsMart stores are satellite agencies for the local shelter, and I've been stopping in from time to time to check on the available felines. Last Friday I found Thor. He's a 2-year old Grey Tabby and he picked me out. The shelter named him Thor. It seemed like a cool name, so what the Hell. Besides, I'm mostly calling him Kitty anyway. He doesn't seem to mind.   Initially, I was looking for a kitten, since I wanted to raise one from scratch. But kittens are kind of ornery and I'd feel strange leaving one here all day while I was at work not knowing what kind of mischief he'd be up to while I was gone. They had a f...

Kitty came home tonight.   Albeit in a small velveteen burgundy container, but home nonetheless. It's where he belongs.   I'm not sure where he'll rest, but for now he's on an end table next to the TV where I can keep an eye on him.   Yes, I can open the box but no , I'm not gonna.   I've decided that when I die (soon, I hope) I'm going to have our ashes mixed together and strewn about somewhere.   It's a little morbid, I guess, but then life is a little morbid, so he seems to fit right in.   Welcome home buddy.

Thou shalt have no other cats before me. - paraphrased from Exodus 20:3 I decided to check the local PetsMart and see what sort of cats are available for adoption. The store is a satellite branch of our local animal shelter. I was thinking it might be too soon, but maybe I could make some sort of psychic connection and take a cat home. As it turns out, adopting a cat is more difficult than buying a new car or a home. There is a lengthy form to fill out, and the final approval takes two days. There is also a brief interview process which I thought I could sidestep, since I had my cat for longer than most children live with their parents. That didn't stop them from asking me if I was "cat savvy." I'm not sure I've ever been asked that before, but after thinking about it for a second, I said that I had my last cat for 18 years, so "yes." Meanwhile, they let me see some cats. They seemed to be pushing one on me - a bit like a hard sell you'd get at ...

The world is a difficult place when I'm sad. Radio and TV shows go on merrily without me, and their stupid antics and stale jokes seem lost on me. Usually, when I most want to be isolated and left to do my own reacting, the world reacts for me. This past week I have been to two Phillies games and this weekend I am going to two Dave Matthews Band shows. Some would say that they are a necessary distraction, but had I known the sadness that I would have experienced last weekend, I would have put the tickets on Ebay and been done with it.   Now however, I am forced to deal with the world and they with me. So, screw them if I'm cranky or sad. Their day to day drabble is meaningless by comparison.   Generally, the world goes on without me, and that makes me feel slightly less significant, but I suppose in a world of 600 billion people, I should have felt that way anyhow.   I'm not a "reach out" type of person. I'm more of a "reach in" type. T...

Kitty February 11, 1991 - September 14, 2009 We picked him out of the Gloucester County Animal Shelter over 18 years ago. Or, I should say, he picked us. I had my eye on a 7-year old who needed rescuing, while my wife was over with the kittens. She picked out a little 8 week-old black ball of fur who attached himself to her sweater and refused to let go. The kitten went home with us.   I remember my first vet visit with Kitty a little over 18 years ago. The ex and I had taken to calling him Kitty Cat, since we couldn't come up with a name. The receptionist was filling in his info for their file, and she asked me his name. I sat dumbfounded for a second or two and, feeling too embarrassed to say his name was Kitty Cat, I responded with K.C. So, as far as the vet was concerned, his name was K.C. I don't know if they ever figured out that it stood for Kitty Cat.   K.C. died today. His kidney ailment had progressed to anemia, and his blood work numbers were off ...

The local colleges have something they call "continuing education" or "adult education," something like that. What most of them lack is a class called "Pet ownership" which could provide more continuing education than any computer awareness course or some pottery class could think about. I took the boy to the vet today. He has had a kidney ailment that they call Renal Failure for a few years that has progressed slowly, mostly thanks to my low-protein high-omega 3 diet that he has been on. But, as with most diseases, the body succumbs. Now it seems his has as well. The progression of his kidney ailment has contributed to anemia. The anemia has contributed to his lack of appetite and the ensuing weight loss. He's down to 6.5 pounds now, which is mostly skin and bones. By the way, that photo is one of my favorites (including the one yesterday) and hangs over my desk at work. I have no idea what he is staring at, but it seemed interesting at the time, ...

Kitty is sick. It's hard to tell with cats. One minute he seems OK, and the next he seems like he needs a wheelchair. I think I've said it here before, but I wish they had a 10-word vocabulary so they could communicate with us. Pain, yes, no, happy, sad -- stuff like that. It would make the chore of pet ownership a bit more tolerable. I stress because I care, and I know he can't help himself. I remember a similar situation when I was married. The cat was sitting in the same spot when I came home for work as he was when I left, and his food bowl was untouched. Not quite the same as now, but eerily similar. I start to worry when he doesn't eat. The ex figured we should just let him deal with it. My reply to that sentiment was, "He can't drive himself to the doctor, so it's up to us to make that decision for him." Sometimes she was too cold-hearted for her (or my or the cat's) own good. Needless to say, I drove him to the vet. He's losing weig...

This is one of those stories that sounds like I'm drunk, but seriously... The last thing I do before I leave for work every morning is to make sure I have my wallet. You may remember this item I purchased a while ago , because I don't carry a "real" wallet, but got tired of misplacing credit cards and/or my driver's license. I'm sort of scatterbrained. I blame alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. Anyway, this morning I realized that I hadn't seen the thing since Sunday, but I didn't have enough time to look for it unless I wanted to be late for work. The shock left me dumbfounded, so I left the house with nine dollars in cash and a lot of anxiety. When I got home tonight, I tore the place apart looking for it, to no avail. I checked my accounts and made sure no one had absconded with my tens of dollars, so I felt like I was left with nothing but to replace the scattered shards of my life, which included my driver's ...

Back to reality. After a week off and four days of watching golf (five if you count today watching on TV) it's back to work and the drudgery of everyday life. I chose not to return to Bulle Rock for today's final round for a few reasons. (1) Paula wasn't in contention. (2) It's hot, and I'm tired of being baked by the Sun. (3) After four days of 7am to 8pm traveling, I needed to refresh at home. (4) The final round is best enjoyed on TV. Meanwhile, the cat seems to be relishing his new found freedom. He's been cooped-up here for the week, and a trip outdoors this morning brought back his primal instincts. Shortly after leaving him outside for what I thought would be a nice breath of fresh air, he returned with a baby rabbit in his teeth. I saw him on the porch, but I disregarded what I thought I saw in his tiny teeth as he nonchalantly strolled in the house and deposited the little critter on my living room floor. Not knowing if it was dead or merely uncons...

I sometimes forget what we've been through together, and I hope you don't.

How nice it was to get a blog visit from the local Fox affiliate (Fox Television Stations Of Phila) over my posts of the last few days about our alleged snowstorm. It's nice to know I don't have to waste my time posting a comment to their web site. I'm particularly fond of the photo of the forecast and the "big chubby under that sport jacket" reference and the photo of the two inches of snow directly above the forecast of 10" to 14". I couldn't have said it better myself. I do my best thinking here. There's another one of those Mega Millions jackpot drawings going off tonight. $212 million. People rush to get their tickets, dreaming of the millions (even mega millions) but if they thought about it they'd ask themselves how it got to 212 million. It's because nobody has won. It didn't start out that way, you know. Last week, when the jackpot was 146 million (still mega, by millions standards) I bought 5 tickets because I'm do...

There are two kinds of people in the world. (1) People who make their bed each morning and (2) People who do not. I am people 2. Partly because I see it as a futile exercise for someone who lives alone. I'm getting back in later. Partly because I live with an animal who enjoys the warm comfort of the comforter. Even if I did want to make the bed, I don't have the heart to move him. He's 18 and needs his sleep and deserves a nice place to rest. I'd be there with him if I didn't have to go to work. I'm not sure which type my next door neighbor is, but I know that she is (a) hardly ever home and (b) likes to leave junk out on her (our) porch. This large box has been sitting in various locations on the porch since Friday. Friday. Tonight, I took the liberty of moving it directly in front of her door, making it impossible for her to get inside without at least acknowledging the presence of the box. My next step is to place a note on the box stating that THIS BOX H...

That is obviously an old photo of my furry friend. The trees aren't as green now, the skies are grey and I find myself yearning for baseball season. It's my favorite of him, since it has those "Thousand words" all over it that photos are supposed to have. He sits at my feet as I do these posts - almost every time - and I'm never sure whether he sits here because he loves me so much or because eventually I'll open a can of Fancy Feast for him. Maybe it's a little of both? It's not like he's my muse or anything, but he does offer that comfort that living alone sometimes lacks. I find myself thinking about the other living creature here besides myself and it's a little odd sometimes. He depends on me more than any human would, for obvious reasons (opposable thumbs being one and lack of a valid drivers' license the other) but it's nice to be able to have a creature here that I know I'll have to feed, clean up after and pay attentio...

LOS ANGELES, January 3 (UPI) - An overdose of heroin and morphine caused the death of Andre Young Jr., son of U.S. rapper Dr. Dre, the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner says. Coroner spokesman Larry Dietz confirmed to People magazine on Friday that the death of the 20-year-old Young has officially been ruled an accidental overdose . Sheesh. You'd think that a kid whose father was a doctor would have a better grasp on the use of drugs. Go figure. Blogger rule number 1. When all else fails, post a photo of your beloved pet doing something cute. In this case, Kitty has found a place in the sun in a not-all-that-cold day. Still, you can't blame the guy for wanting to sit someplace warm in January. I have no idea where the phrase "dumb animals" comes from. He's smarter than most people I know - which probably doesn't say much for most people I know.

Saturday night I went to see Umphrey's McGee in Philly. They're probably the best "never heard of them" band around and if you get the chance, you should hear of them. I'll spare you the details, but I lost my keys twice during the evening - once in a restaurant and again at the show later. There were bouts of mild panic followed by resolution when they once showed up at the hostess station and later with a security guard. The problem with being a single person is that when something like that happens, there is no alternative course of action. If my keys had indeed vanished, I ran several scenarios over in my head, all of which involved a locksmith to (a) get me into my car and (b) get me into my house. Getting home would have involved an expensive cab ride and sleeping outside until the locksmith was available would have been uncomfortable. I think that's why single people have shorter life spans. I'm personally boycotting the Sarah Palin appearances ...

I'm sitting here with Kitty beneath my feet - as usual, if you're scoring at home - and I just finished watching a TV program that said cats have almost no frontal lobe in their brains, meaning that they pretty much remember the present and recent past, and place no emphasis on what happened years ago and have no compulsary emotions other than to react to current events. If that is the case (and who am I to doubt what I see on TV?) then I suppose I can take heart in knowing that the only place the cat wants to be, based on nothing other than his base emotions, is near my feet, sleeping with his paws in the air. There's something comforting in that, and something I wish more humans had - at least the humans I'd like to have around me. Maybe we could extract a little frontal lobe from a few people? Isn't that what happened to McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest?" It seemed to quiet him down. The executive functions of the frontal lobes involv...

We start with my favorite subject, the cat. I'm always curious as to what he is looking at, since he stares intently at something. When I turn my head, I see nothing. It's usually a bug or some noise that he hears. He's way too nervous. You can click on the photo to see it in all its glory. I used my new Nikon 55-200 vibration reduction zoom lens which, I have to say, is worth every penny of its incredibly low-low price . The only problem is that I've spent a third of my stimulus rebate, which sadly has not yet arrived. Tomorrow , it's off to a Wilmington Blue Rocks game. They're a (semi) local minor league team. It's been a while since I've been there, and tomorrow seemed like a good day to go. The ticket is 9 bucks and the parking is free, so it's hard to beat, entertainment-wise. Sunday I may venture back into the city. There's a movie I want to see, and judging from the reviews, I'd better hurry. I'll drag the camera and snap a ...

I had to do something today that I haven't done in a while - buy a pair of dress pants. I have a wedding to attend on Saturday. It's the wedding for the guy we took to New York and Philly two weeks ago . I went to a lot of weddings when I was younger. As we age, we find ourselves attending more funerals than weddings. And since I've had the same job for the past 15 years, and don't get out much, I haven't had an opportunity to trot out the sport coat in quite some time. Like most of my clothes, it still fits. I'm kind of proud of that. Whenever I shop for pants, I'm surprised at the availability of the 40W 30L pants on the rack. There was literally one pair of Calvin Klein black dress pants in my size, which is significantly different than 40 x 30. Lucky for me they fit and they were less than fifty bucks. No outfit is complete without a nice necktie. Most of mine have cartoon characters on them, so I felt it might be necessary to find one that wouldn...

Check your food products (including, but not limited to potato chips and pancakes), bath towels, steamed-up bathroom windows and worn out (but still useful) shoe soles for images of religious leaders, states or something loosely resembling a well-known public figure. You won't have to worry about attaining that pesky college education or fighting for that big promotion at work. Put your knowledge of abstract shapes to work and earn some big bucks that you can use to pay your big tax bill or fight off those bill collectors. Remember: Somewhere in the world there is a person who has money to spend on junk, and it's up to you to find them and exploit them. ----------------------------------------------------- I got an envelope in the mail today that said "Inside: A one-time money-saving opportunity for you." That's a lot of hyphens. I'd like to save money, so why wouldn't I open the envelope? I felt so special. Inside was an offer to extend my Consumer Rep...