Marco, the kitten
A late-night bit of journaling I never ended up posting from earlier this week, it’s about how we have a lot of animals. On our farm, you’ll find cows, horses, chickens, ducks, goats, and of course, cats and dogs. Living out in the country, we often see strays end up at our place, and we do our best to rescue them.
My wife works with a group that traps, spays or neuters, and then releases cats to help control the population. This also means we end up rescuing lots of kittens. Sometimes it’s just one, and sometimes it’s a case that seems hopeless but turns out well. We’ve cared for cats that were close to death, brought them back to health, and found them new homes. Some stay with us forever, but most are adopted. We’ve had blind cats, one-eyed cats, and even a cat with a badly broken leg who got surgery, healed, learned to walk again, and was adopted by a loving family. Helping these cats and dogs is both heartbreaking and rewarding. My wife does most of it since I’m allergic to most cats.
Right now, I’m caring for Marco. He might lose his sight completely, but we’re doing everything we can to help him recover. One of our daughters found him alone—a tiny, eight-ounce kitten just a few weeks old, stumbling around. He was starving, dehydrated, had severe eye infections, fleas, and worms. My wife has a routine for new rescues: shots, treatments, eye ointment, and antibiotics. Marco needed extra care, so we took him to the vet for medicine we couldn’t give at home. Now he’s resting in his carrier on my desk, warm on a heating pad.
It’s 1AM, and it’s time to feed Marco again. I have to make sure he stays fed, hydrated, and warm. I also need to keep putting drops in his eyes, or he might not be able to keep his sight.
It’s just one kitten.
I named him Marco Polo.
End of day one photos:
Life is life. It’s precious in any form, and while I think there are lots of times where it’s necessary to put an animal down, it’s never because it’s just one. One is a small number, but it’s a high value when you are talking about life. It’s worth the sleepless night. I did not ask for this, but I could not say no. I had the opportunity to give it to a kill shelter, but that never crossed my mind. I don’t know where Marco will end up, but it will be a loving home. We have a one-eyed cat that gets along fine, and even now, Marco can navigate around a room. I almost named him bumper car, but he actually is able to sense objects and avoid them. So Marco seems more fitting.
Update: after three days, he has turned a corner. He is on 4 different meds and had two powerful antibiotic shots, and it’s working. He can open his eyes, and there are signs he can see. Instead of struggling to breathe through congestion and to drink the formula I give him with a syringe, he is happy to eat and, for the first time, is a little playful.
End of Day three photos & video:
Reno House
A few years ago, during a trip to see our friends in Reno, Nevada, we decided to purchase an investment property. The “Reno House” has been managed by a property management company for about 2 years now. In theory, this is nice because managing it from California is a pain. Their job is to keep tenants in the house so our income can stay steady, and handle anything that comes up. Our original intent was to make this really beautiful home an Airbnb. It’s very large, has lots of rooms and sites on almost an acre with a cement pad for an RV, a hot tub, a pool table, and it’s very close to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe (my favorite place on this spinning rock). But, alas, thanks to the HOA (an evil force we had not dealt with before buying this particular property), an Airbnb, or more specifically, a STR (Short Term Stay) option, was voted out of the bylaws. So we pivoted from a vacation home with partial income to a passive income stream.
Sadly, we have to find a new management company. There has been almost no communication, and that’s difficult. We also keep getting infractions and letters from the HOA because the folks living in the house don’t put trash cans away from the curb or let weeds grow in the front yard. They also damaged our nice flooring, and we have had no follow-up from the company. We end up having to handle most things, but that’s what we are paying 10% for. WOMP WOMP. It is really hard to find the level of professionalism that I expect in so many places where you would think professionalism is a must.
We came to burgle your turts!
This might be one of the best lines in a cartoon, ever. If you’ve not had the pleasure of watching Over the Garden Wall, then you really should do yourself a favor and give it a watch.
The series follows two half-brothers, Wirt and Greg (voiced by Elijah Wood and Collin Dean respectively), who become lost in a strange forest called the Unknown. To find their way home, the two must travel across the mysterious forest with the occasional help of the wandering, mysterious and elderly Woodsman (Christopher Lloyd) and Beatrice (Melanie Lynskey), an irritable bluebird who travels with the boys to find a woman called Adelaide, who can supposedly undo the curse on Beatrice and her family and show the half-brothers the way home. (Wiki)
Oh, and this song is so good. Short. But good.