Find a friend to stay with if you go to Colorado. It seems that private residences are about the only places where people can legally smoke the hooch that they have just legally bought (heard that yesterday morning on NPR).
Funnily enough, another thing I heard about recently on NPR is people in places like NYC opening up their homes to host dinner with strangers, facilitated by some kind of social network thing. Could be an opportunity here.
Why do I always end up sitting near the person in the theater who feels it’s necessary to explain plot points prior to or when they are happening? It happened again at Llewyn Davis yesterday. “It’s his father. . .” Oh, no shit? The rest of us are entirely too stupid to have figured that out, but thanks to your genius and insight, we now know that this is the guy’s father, who was just mentioned in the previous scene. STFU, asshole. Oh, and the cat? Yeah, we knew what the deal was without you explaining it to two rows of viewers who were taken out of the movie because of your mouth.
Oh gosh, that poor little girl. I’m so glad you and your dog were there for her. I echo your curses on whoever dumped her. 
I can’t imagine doing that to any beastie, much less a blind senior. Makes me sick to think about it.
Oh that just makes my heart hurt about the blind lame kitteh being discarded, but thx flatlined for doing right by her.
Well, it looks like Jesse finally succeeded at SOMETHING!
Ha! 
I just got back from doing some errands. I was thinking to myself, “I wonder if Jesse will be banned by the time I return.” Looks like I was right. 
No kidding. If you can’t afford to pay to have your old kitty euthanized properly, if you have to dump them anywhere, dump them at a shelter (not that I’m condoning dumping cats anywhere - dumping them and letting them suffer is worse, though).
I know there is no ethical answer to this question, but is there a humane way to help an animal “across the bridge” at home?
eta: you know, like taking her out behind the barn? Im not a gun-owner, btw.
The former Mr Kitty and a nurse friend had to do this to a stray that was hit by the car in front of Mr K’s house. The pup was clearly not going to make it; unfortunately it was a weekend evening, neither of them had the funds for an emergency vet (nor did they want to move the poor creature), and since it was in city limits using a gun was not an option. They mixed up a paste of canned tuna and a crushed-up handful of Mr K’s pain medication, waited for them to make the pup loopy, and put a ziplock bag over his snout. Apparently the pup went very peacefully, wrapped in a blanket, being petted and talked to.
Many, many years later we had to do something similar to our extremely elderly dog for reasons that are still too painful to go into. Since we were out in the country a gun was an option, but I refused. I mixed up wet dog food and crushed pills and gave it to him (I used 15 Lorcet Plus pills and… Xanax, I think), and when his breathing had slowed I put the baggie on his nose. It took about 20 minutes start to finish- probably about 15 of that was the pills kicking in. He didn’t struggle at all.
I definitely don’t recommend it, but if you have no other choice it seems to be an option.
Bill, who is a much nicer person than me, says that its possible that the poor little old lady cat slipped out accidently and then panicked, ran off and got lost. She was trying to hide when we found her after all. I’m usually pretty observant, but if Buttercup hadn’t started dancing, I wouldn’t have seen her.
Just in case Bill was right and there is someone frantically looking for their beloved pet, I printed out some “found cat” notices and hung them on the lampposts and at the park, and put a notice in the paper. I’ll feel horrible if someone calls.
Not that there is much danger of that happening. I’ve lost track of how many critters I’ve picked up on the side of the road. I can clearly remember the ones that were returned to their owners because it is so rare.
Well, thats a remote possibility, flatlined. You’re a kind soul to try to contact the owner. Maybe it will reach the perp if she was discarded too.
Thnk you, bobkitty. Ill keep that info in mind if needed.
I’m not quite getting that - why would you feel horrible? Just that someone lost their old, beloved cat through an accident of the cat escaping?
Not all cats are the same, of course, but my 14 year old cat still tries to run out the front door sometimes - she doesn’t go far, and she never gets out when I don’t know about it and am right behind her. Bill might be right, but the odds are that the poor little old lady kitty did not have great human companions.
You know, I’ve wondered about that, since my experience with found animals is very different. I’ve found the following animals:
A happy-looking puppy on the shoulder of a state highway. When I knocked on the nearest door, the owner was mortified that he had gotten loose and thanked me profusely for rescuing him.
A well-trained but aging dog on a busy street on the edge of town. I had animal control pick him up, and when I called back that afternoon, his mortified owners had already come to fetch him.
A litter of kittens being threatened by a fox. Mom was clearly feral and we couldn’t catch her, but neither she nor her litter had been recently dumped - we had been hearing them for a while. Entire litter was clean, healthy, and adopted out quickly.
I’m not doubting your stories at all - humans can be assholes - but I’m wondering why we have such different track records. Maybe I live in a particularly awesome area for animal care?
I’d feel horrible if I had killed someone’s beloved pet for the sin of being old, unable to walk, blind and lost.
But nobody has called…and like you, if my idiot declawed cat slips out the door, I’m right behind him.
I used to live in BFArizona. I had vets assume that I wanted cats declawed when I had them fixed. Microchips were unheard of, or if people had heard of them they usually were discussing when the ebil goberment was going to start putting them in children or start using them to track people.
I used to want to rip my hair out when I heard that one. ARGHHHH!!!
People would take their very intact male dogs to walk around the courthouse and nobody looked askance at the mutt with balls hanging down to his hocks.
Houston is different, so hopefully my experiences will start to match yours now.
Heh. I’ve held the door open for Maggie and she hides behind it and won’t step out in the hall. I took her out there one day and set her down. She walked around a bit but wouldn’t get more than about 15’ from the door and went flying back inside the second there was a noise down the hall (with no people visible).
Wow, four pages of mini rants, and it’s only the 6th!
Mine is minor but annoying. The power company shut off my gas after the HOA had done some repairs, saying there was a gas leak. I called the management company and they said they’d get the plumbers there right away to check it out, and the plumbers would call me directly. Near 5 o’clock I still hadn’t heard anything so I called the management company again. The woman I’d talked to before had left already, but I talked to her assistant. She said the plumber hadn’t reported back yet, and I should wait till tomorrow morning. I tried to explain how no hot water or heat was an urgent problem to me, but she said she couldn’t hear because of the static on the line and asked if she could call me right back. I didn’t hear any static, but I agreed. After not receiving a call for a couple of minutes, I called her back, only to find she had left for the day. The next day, I found they had neglected to call the plumber at all.
Ah, I get what you mean. I wouldn’t worry too much about it - I’m sure the vet would have recommended a shelter for kitty if she wasn’t on her last legs. It’s too bad the family couldn’t say good-bye if they did lose their beloved kitty, but blind, unable to walk old cats don’t go very fast - my money is still on dumped. Jerks.
Christmas and New Years is done and there’s nothing left but cold and dark until spring. 
Your rant isn’t all that minor, and your HOA really sucks.
Public service reminder for residents of Minnesota, harvesting conditions for liquid oxygen are optimal.
Thanks to the input of Colibri and Mangetout over on my IMHO bug id thread, I’ve learned this morning that not only did I lose my beloved to a newly-imported and relatively unknown disease, but that also, my apartment is infested with a newly-imported and relatively unknown insect pest.
Ok, so maybe next, I’ll win some newly-imported and relatively unknown lottery.
Friendly cockroaches, my saggy dimpled white ass.
Pretty much. My boss sent me an email this morning - to my personal email - asking if I brought my computer home so I could work from home tomorrow. Damned skippy I did.
So I’ll be [del]reading[/del] [del]watching movies[/del] [del]sleeping[/del] [del]surfing the web[/del] working from home tomorrow.