wednesday - warning: foul language

So I was thinking, about work and how 'it's just not my bag, baby,' if you know what I mean. And it's even less my bag when I have one of those shitty days involving euthanizing (really, though let's just call it what it is: killing) cats that don't want to be killed and fuckwads who bring cats for us to kill as if it was OUR responsibility to solve THEIR problem. I'd go into greater detail but suffice it to say that people who can't manage to vaccinate their cats against rabies generally end up on my shitlist. I mean, c'mon, if you can't do that and spay and neuter, then you have no business owning a cat. And yes, the same holds true for dogs but people tend to take care of their dogs better than their cats.

Anyway *deep breath* I was thinking about my work (which is thankfully not always like that or I'd probably shoot myself in the head) and those awful days and how they spur me, smack me upside the head and remind me why I need to keep writing. Because I do not want to keep playing that game. It isn't fun and it isn't good for my soul.

Lucky for Gus, nice people were looking out for him and although he's still doing time (read: quarantine) in a few months he'll be free and up for adoption. Yeah, I didn't want to end on a completely negative note...

characters you can hate

Let us call her the soul sucker.

Now I know you are all familiar with the term since I’ve heard more than a few of you mention it in conjunction with your day job, the one you have to have until - . But be thankful you are not her, because her soul has been sucked dry and now she wants yours.

She is tall and substantial. That is, she is not slender, but she looks good in her charcoal two-piece suit and practical black, ballet flats. Her hair is shoulder length, plain brown, her face passably pretty, late 50s. She has an assistant with her and he’s learning the ropes. I want to tell him not to. ‘Don’t do it,’ I want to say, ‘Don’t let your soul get sucked like her. It’s not too late!’

It is too late for her. There’s nothing left of her soul but a little lump of black with bits of dark goo oozing out from the cracks. She doesn’t care about me. She has severed the cord between anything she does and the consequences. It no longer matters if people get hurt.

She’s also quite clever; she’ll catch your words and twist them, turn them into something sharp she can cut you with. And smile about it after.



If you can guess her occupation I’ll send you one of my famous bookmarks.



And yes, my Tuesday sucked. But I still have my soul.

Warning: op ed

It is a sad day indeed when a so called man of God chooses to incite hatred and violence rather than promote love and unity. I don’t understand people like this. My heart and mind cannot comprehend how a person who claims to follow the path of Christianity could think that burning the Quran is something God would find pleasing. Because I am 100% sure that God would find such behavior abhorrent.


Which leads me to the supposition that perhaps this Pastor isn’t a man at all. He just looks like a man. But inside there is a demon. I know, you're laughing at me now, thinking I’ve gone from serious to absurd pretty quickly. But it makes perfect sense. Burning the Quran in an effort to incite violence is exactly the kind of thing a demon would enjoy. So I’m thinking, what can we do? And it came to me like a vision from above. We need to do two things and they’re both really easy. The first is to pray for him. Pray that he can shake off that demon on his back. The second and more important thing is to ignore him. He’s had his 15 seconds of fame. Let him burn the books in ignominy with only his few foolish followers as witnesses. Let no report ever be written in any paper, let no pictures be taken, no video, nothing.

That’s my challenge to everyone, especially the media. Ignore him. He’s just another a terrorist.

the neverending stupidity of human beings

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=nasa-funded-monkey-radiation-experi-2009-11-06

I know there are many grants given to various organizations for studies that seem quite pointless from my persepective but this one gets #1 billing. Aside from the fact that I do not believe in using mammals in research (unless they are human volunteers) I find it hard to believe that comparing effects between 2 different species is in any way valid. Monkeys may be very close to us genetically but they are still not human and cannot possibly give us accurate information as to how humans will fare in a similar situation. Not to mention the fact that long distance flight travel is many, many years away. I am not saying that NASA should give up it's goal but the fact is we have so many problems here, on this planet, that it seems prudent to take care of what we have before going off and messing about somewhere else.

Plus, I mean, hello, did ya' all not see Project X?

bad day at the office or mean people suck and should be killed on contact

harsh sentiments perhaps but warranted at times and today was a good example.

It started off badly, with a stray cat that had an abscess. To make matters worse it was an unvaccinated cat with a bite wound of unknown origin which meant that per the rabies laws of Maine the cat had to be quarantined for 6 months. The town might've paid to get the cat well but it wasn't going to pay for a 6 month quarantine. Sadly, the cat may well have been vaccinated against rabies but there was no way for us to know because if it had an owner said person had not contacted anyone to report a missing cat. More than likely, the cat was unvaccinated because altho people are pretty good about keeping their dogs up to date they are notoriously lax in vaccinating their cats. A conversation with the ACO (animal control officer) put the cat on death row.

Later that morning another unvaccinated cat was dropped off by its owner with what appeared to be a bite wound. The doctor spoke to the owner who wasn't sure if she would take the cat home and keep it inside or euthanize it. She came in later that morning and said she had spoken to her husband and they had decided that the cat would be much too unhappy being cooped up for 6 months and they wanted her "put away," like something unpleasant you don't want to look at anymore I thought. She signed the form and the cat was euthanized. I wanted to tell her in my most sarcastic tone that I'm sure her cat appreciated her kindness and that death was always preferable to a 6 month quarantine. I mean, wouldn't you rather be electrocuted than spend 6 months in jail?

It was a female cat, calico, 2 years old.

I could not even pretend to have any sympathy for the woman. And what was worse was that her stupid little dog had gone to a rabies clinic to get vaccinated but she just couldn't manage to bring the cat, too. Curse her and all people like her who should never be allowed to own an animal ever, ever, ever!

On a happier note, our technician agreed to take stray kitty home and quarantine her so she, at least, will live. This is the second cat she has saved from death row and quarantined.