I am still resolved
Despite the best efforts of the Big Momma's House sequel trailer to put me off the movies forever, I did get out to the theater this weekend with viridian , xannoside ,jlc , and ecmyers to see The Green Hornet. Honestly? Not as bad as I was expecting. It was stupid, but I laughed. I still loathe Seth Rogen and the idea of his being a movie star for doing absolutely nothing but playing himself (so, stupid and usually stoned). I still laughed. Perhaps because he looked like the idiot he so clearly is for pretty much all of the movie? Probably.
We did see one intriguing trailer for a movie called Hanna, which features a little girl who's able to kick more ass than all the 300 dudes combined. I've added it to my list of movies. I'm probably going upstate at the end of this week, since engagements prevented it over the long weekend. (They were lovely engagements, and I wouldn't have traded.) I think I've almost talked my mother into seeing Season of the Witch with me.
Other weekend highlights included my first weekend of volunteering. It's fabulous. I'm actually somewhere where I care to be, and even doing the gross stuff like constantly cleaning up after kitties (as if I didn't get enough of that at home), I feel like I make an important contribution. One thing I've been making it my mission to do is to add write-ups on each of the kitties up for adoption. They encourage us to do it, but I've only seen one other card added to the files on the cats by anyone other than me. On my personal recommendation, I got this enormous cat (even larger than my Wally) adopted out on Saturday. She was a sweetheart and a love and now she has a home! Also, her name was Chewie, and another volunteer almost scooped her up for herself because she has a Luke and a Leia at home. (The volunteers are neeeeeeeerds!!)
As good as that felt, I had an even better Sunday, staying an extra hour over my time, because I was the only one volunteering until the adoption volunteers showed up at noon. They were two fabulous ladies, Iris and Judy, the latter of whom threw an appropriate shit fit over the fact that the lack of a vet on staff meant that no one was cleared to give rabies shots--which were put off for the cats until they were ready to be taken home--so none of the kitties actually adopted on a Sunday would go home on a Sunday. She's right in saying it will cost them adoptions if people can't take home cats the same day.
Iris won my immediate love because she invited me to go play with kittens in the nursery/maternity holding room. We're not technically supposed to go in there if we're just Level 1 Cat volunteers, but she didn't seem to care. I got to cuddle the most adorably quiet and loving tiny kitten. She was a pastel calico, so instead of black-and-brown, she was blue-gray and cream, and she had streaks of gray running down the inside of her eyes along her nose. She looked kind of like a cheetah. Her name was Stiletto, which is a ridiculously outsize name for this lovey-dovey tiny cat. There was one other kitten named Puck, which is just asking for trouble. He was super playful, and he purred louder than anything. Iris also had two of her foster kittens that had only just opened their eyes. They were black and white, with absolutely gorgeous markings, and she happily dumped them with me and with a woman who was waiting to get her cat via adoption. One of them fell asleep curled up in the woman's hand. She looked like she might cry with joy.
For anyone who might be worried that I will suddenly have fifteen cats, rest assured this won't happen. I feel desperately bad for the two all-black kittens that I've seen in the shelter that are sweet as anything and tiny. They should be adopted out because they're well-behaved and beautiful. Gaia, a Bombay mix, has such sleek fur and a dignified face that's totally ruined by the fact she constantly has the tip of her tongue sticking out. Malinda is smaller even than viridian 's kitty Callisto, but she's a cuddler and so adorable. I am not in any danger of adopting myself because I have the best cat in the world that loves me best and I've never had a cat that loved me best and I would never jeopardize that. That, and my other cat is so traumatized by the other cats that have come through my home that I couldn't put him through more of that either. And then there's the fact that these cats weigh, literally, one-quarter what my cats do. They'd never be happy.
So, no, I'm not adopting any pets. I am trying to get my mom to take one, though :) Her favorite kitty, Magic, who passed away all too young not so long ago, looks just like Gaia, right down to the few tufts of white hairs at her throat. My mother is remaining steadfast in her refusal to adopt more kitties, though, and with good reason. My brother has to give up his cat because his fiance is allergic. We're trying to see if my brother-in-law will take him, but my brother-in-law is being stubborn about wanting to pick out his own cat. (That's fair but annoying.) We won't let him go to a shelter, so my mother might end up with him. And she seems to think that she's going to end up with my cats when I go to school. Which is heartening--she thinks I'm definitely getting in!--and disheartening--I don't want to live without them!--but is mostly reassuring. (They'll always have a home with Grandma.)
What I don't understand is how people who can't have pets volunteer at the shelter. Without the quirky and difficult situation of cats at home, I'd probably have gone and adopted Malinda and Gaia already. But I have cats that I love and a dynamic that, while not perfect, would only destablize further if I brought more pets home. (Mostly because my roommates would, rightly, kill me.) Half the volunteers I talked to are pet-less, many because roommates are allergic, and I have no idea how they keep from taking home every sob-story pet they see.
We did see one intriguing trailer for a movie called Hanna, which features a little girl who's able to kick more ass than all the 300 dudes combined. I've added it to my list of movies. I'm probably going upstate at the end of this week, since engagements prevented it over the long weekend. (They were lovely engagements, and I wouldn't have traded.) I think I've almost talked my mother into seeing Season of the Witch with me.
Other weekend highlights included my first weekend of volunteering. It's fabulous. I'm actually somewhere where I care to be, and even doing the gross stuff like constantly cleaning up after kitties (as if I didn't get enough of that at home), I feel like I make an important contribution. One thing I've been making it my mission to do is to add write-ups on each of the kitties up for adoption. They encourage us to do it, but I've only seen one other card added to the files on the cats by anyone other than me. On my personal recommendation, I got this enormous cat (even larger than my Wally) adopted out on Saturday. She was a sweetheart and a love and now she has a home! Also, her name was Chewie, and another volunteer almost scooped her up for herself because she has a Luke and a Leia at home. (The volunteers are neeeeeeeerds!!)
As good as that felt, I had an even better Sunday, staying an extra hour over my time, because I was the only one volunteering until the adoption volunteers showed up at noon. They were two fabulous ladies, Iris and Judy, the latter of whom threw an appropriate shit fit over the fact that the lack of a vet on staff meant that no one was cleared to give rabies shots--which were put off for the cats until they were ready to be taken home--so none of the kitties actually adopted on a Sunday would go home on a Sunday. She's right in saying it will cost them adoptions if people can't take home cats the same day.
Iris won my immediate love because she invited me to go play with kittens in the nursery/maternity holding room. We're not technically supposed to go in there if we're just Level 1 Cat volunteers, but she didn't seem to care. I got to cuddle the most adorably quiet and loving tiny kitten. She was a pastel calico, so instead of black-and-brown, she was blue-gray and cream, and she had streaks of gray running down the inside of her eyes along her nose. She looked kind of like a cheetah. Her name was Stiletto, which is a ridiculously outsize name for this lovey-dovey tiny cat. There was one other kitten named Puck, which is just asking for trouble. He was super playful, and he purred louder than anything. Iris also had two of her foster kittens that had only just opened their eyes. They were black and white, with absolutely gorgeous markings, and she happily dumped them with me and with a woman who was waiting to get her cat via adoption. One of them fell asleep curled up in the woman's hand. She looked like she might cry with joy.
For anyone who might be worried that I will suddenly have fifteen cats, rest assured this won't happen. I feel desperately bad for the two all-black kittens that I've seen in the shelter that are sweet as anything and tiny. They should be adopted out because they're well-behaved and beautiful. Gaia, a Bombay mix, has such sleek fur and a dignified face that's totally ruined by the fact she constantly has the tip of her tongue sticking out. Malinda is smaller even than viridian 's kitty Callisto, but she's a cuddler and so adorable. I am not in any danger of adopting myself because I have the best cat in the world that loves me best and I've never had a cat that loved me best and I would never jeopardize that. That, and my other cat is so traumatized by the other cats that have come through my home that I couldn't put him through more of that either. And then there's the fact that these cats weigh, literally, one-quarter what my cats do. They'd never be happy.
So, no, I'm not adopting any pets. I am trying to get my mom to take one, though :) Her favorite kitty, Magic, who passed away all too young not so long ago, looks just like Gaia, right down to the few tufts of white hairs at her throat. My mother is remaining steadfast in her refusal to adopt more kitties, though, and with good reason. My brother has to give up his cat because his fiance is allergic. We're trying to see if my brother-in-law will take him, but my brother-in-law is being stubborn about wanting to pick out his own cat. (That's fair but annoying.) We won't let him go to a shelter, so my mother might end up with him. And she seems to think that she's going to end up with my cats when I go to school. Which is heartening--she thinks I'm definitely getting in!--and disheartening--I don't want to live without them!--but is mostly reassuring. (They'll always have a home with Grandma.)
What I don't understand is how people who can't have pets volunteer at the shelter. Without the quirky and difficult situation of cats at home, I'd probably have gone and adopted Malinda and Gaia already. But I have cats that I love and a dynamic that, while not perfect, would only destablize further if I brought more pets home. (Mostly because my roommates would, rightly, kill me.) Half the volunteers I talked to are pet-less, many because roommates are allergic, and I have no idea how they keep from taking home every sob-story pet they see.