We're different and the same.

Some of what's going on is about how we're different and it's not being tolerated by some people.

We're all the same in a lot of ways; we're all humans, we have similar bodies: a torso, 2 arms, 2 legs, a head, etc., but we're different in the details.  Some of that is not acceptable to some people.

We're also the same in a lot of ways in our behaviors, in our emotions, in how our minds work, but we're different in those details as well.

These differences can sometimes be seen in children:  there are shy kids, there are aggressive kids, there are happy kids, there are hesitant kids, there are loud kids, there are quiet kids, there are kids who prefer to be around a lot of other kids, there are kids who prefer to be by themselves, there are kids who are curious about things, there are kids who are nervous about a lot of things.

Some of these tendencies we're born with, some we learn from our families as we grow up.

Some kids share.  Some kids don't.  Some families share.  Some families don't.

Some kids grow up being very much like their immediate family members.  Some kids grow up different than their family.  Some people stay close to their families.  Some people move away to make their life.

Some people stay the same most of their lives.  Some people change a lot for various reasons.

People who live in other countries and who have grown up in different cultures and practice different religions and speak different languages are also the same and different.

Most people in the world are busy just trying to live their lives the best they can and have the best life they can and get along with other people.  

These are all natural, normal aspects of how people are.

Some people have, since childhood, spent most of their lives trying to cheat their way through life, for whatever reason, lying and stealing and hurting and even killing other people so they can get what they want.  They are everywhere on the planet, even, possibly, next door.  I don't think this is natural or normal; I think there's something very wrong with those people.  Some come from families that are all like that.

There are also many people who for various reasons: physical, emotional or psychological, are unable to manage life normally.  I once met a young woman while apartment hunting who was one of those people.  She seemed perfectly normal but lived on disability and it became clear fairly quickly that life was, for her, more than she could handle.  I suspect that with the proper counseling and education, she could learn to tolerate life better.

Some families take care of family members who have these difficulties, some families don't, some people with these difficulties don't have families.

These people are not cheaters or liars or criminals.

People who have difficulty managing their lives are unacceptable to some people.

This is the world we live in.  It wasn't created specifically for anyone of us; it is what it is.  We can live our lives the best that we can and keep in mind that there are people who have difficulties and there are people who are dangerous and do our best to be helpful when we can and avoid danger as much as we can and enjoy our lives as much as possible or we can be difficult for others; it's a choice.

The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were written knowing these things about people with the idea that living in a particular way may make life more enjoyable for more people while living in other ways may make life less enjoyable for more people.  The idea was to make life in this country as free and enjoyable for most people, not just for some, as it had been.

For me, to be a patriot means to want everyone to have the possibility to have the best life they can manage; certainly a life no worse than mine, as long as we remain aware that we ALL get to have that, not at someone else's expense.  It doesn't mean I think all the time if everyone is happy or not.  It doesn't mean that I donate to everything.  It just means that I wish everyone well, except, of course, those people who lie and steal and hurt other people.

I was born here.  I grew up here.  These were ideas I grew up with.  I could have been born elsewhere.  I could have been born somewhere that's much worse.  I could have been born somewhere that's similar.

In any case, I'm OK with all of what I've written here.  We're different and the same.  You can be very sure that there are things about me that some people find unacceptable; I DON'T CARE.

I'm NOT OK with those of you who think any of this is not acceptable to you.  WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?

Holiday ads

It's coming.

Have you seen those holiday ads on FB lately? all the latest tech toys that would make good holiday gifts.

They're not new; most have been around for a couple of years.

See the photo of the interesting gizmo enticing you to click on the link?  It's nowhere on the page you'll arrive at.

I'm really sick of that particular kind of post.

Not much else today, just bitching.

My Animals

This will be an occasional heading and section of this blog.

I have had animals living with me most of my life.  The cats that were living with me before the 3 that are living with me now I expected to be my last.  I had made the decision to not have any more animals; they do tie you down some.  But, then I moved into this apartment complex that, at that time, was overrun with stray cats and, as usual, my resolve melted.  I was feeding several of the strays and so was my downstairs neighbor at the time, Dan.  One of the kittens of one of his cat's broods got pregnant and she had 2 kittens in my apartment; that's it, just 2 kittens.  They're still with me and their "uncle" who was about a year and a half older at the time of "the girls" birth.

Bastet

Bastet is probably the alpha female; she acts like the stereotype; she thinks she's boss.  She's named Bastet, after the Egyptian cat goddess, because she looks like statuettes of Bastet.  

She's lean, has a dignified, haughty stance, and a sculpted face.  However, she has long hair and the traditional Bastet is short-haired.  The Egyptian Mau cats are the epitome of the cat goddess in cat form.  The mobile spaying vet who neutered Bastet and Princess Sweetpea listed her as a Mau but she's actually just a mongrel stray cat whose mother was a tortoise shell colored maine coon type cat.

Many Egyptian Maus are spotted. But like many cat breeds, they have variable coloring.

Bastet looked a lot like this as a kitten but this is the image of a Mau from online.  I don't have a decent photo of Bastet because I'm not good at taking pix of black cats.  Maus often have larger ears than other cat breeds, Bastet has not, in my opinion.  But, her regal, domineering mannerisms made me think of a goddess.  Her name suits her.  She is, though, the most talkative cat I've ever known.

Princess Sweetpea

Mostly known as Sweetpea, is Bastet's twin, but, like many cat litters, she's nothing like her sister.  She's a black maine coon type with a very thick, double undercoat and an impressive mane.

She's just now getting her winter coat.  She has a white blaze on her chest, within her mane, while Bastet has a white blaze lower on her chest, almost on her stomach.  Their father was a short-haired, wirey black stray who, unhappily did not live the good life.

Sweetpea was born with a defective right front paw that never developed normally and nearly died in my hands because, like many defective kittens and puppies, they are not well-received by their mothers.  Despite the fact that there were only 2 of the girls and their mother had plenty of milk, Sweetpea did not nurse well and did not thrive at the beginning.  

One of the kittens, at birth, had the sack wrapped tightly and twisted around the kitten and it took intervention to cut the sack off her; it may have been Sweetpea.

So because of her birth defect and her weak start in life, I had decided to keep Sweetpea.  I often called her that out of affection but added the Princess because it was quite obvious, early on, that she took advantage of my over concern for her survival.  Because of her princess status, she's become quite spoiled and, while she seems to be picked on by the other 2 cats, she's actually, more often, the instigator of conflicts between them, especially with her sister, Bastet.

She's very particular and I cook for her and only for her; chicken and pork chop.  And, her fur is everywhere.

Grey

Grey is the brother of the girls' mother.  That litter was already around when I moved into the first apartment.  I'm guessing that Grey and the girls' mother were about 6 months old when I moved in.  My downstairs neighbor, Dan, was feeding a lot of the stray cats in our area of the apartment complex.  The mother of all of his litters was a lean, tortoise-shell shorthaired cat.  Dan only fed them and let them have kittens in his apartment; he didn't take care of them otherwise and most of them were  covered in fleas and had worms and were not very healthy.

Grey was, at the beginning, a light grey tabby but he developed into what the spaying vet called a 4-colored tabby: cream, black, beige and a mix of the three.

Oddly, the markings on his skin are much different.  At one point, he acquired mange and lost quite a lot of fur before I was able to kill off all the mites that cause it.  It was before I had decided to adopt him.  The healed skin where the fur had fallen off was spotted, not striped.  It took me by surprise.

Grey wants to think of himself as a tough guy, the protector of the neighborhood but he's actually mostly afraid of everything.  Some of my former neighbors (I used to live in a different part of the apartment complex) considered him a bully because he would chase off cats that visited from the surrounding streets.  Now that the stray cat situation is under control and the town's attitude toward strays has changed, there aren't visits from cats from nearby streets because there are no longer fertile female stray cats.  Grey both loves me and is afraid of me.  He's a fairly sensitive cat who is easily startled.  Because I inflict them all with Revolution which kills fleas, nits, ticks, mites and other cat pests, Grey is ever vigilant that I may grab him and do him harm by putting Revolution on him.  It's only once a month.  I do know that it might sting their skin for a few minutes but I think it's more the smell which is horribly potent.  They usually have forgiven me after about an hour and a half but Grey never forgets completely.  It's taken him a very long time, only in the last few years, to snuggle up to me physically and, even now, he is easily startled and runs to hide.

Grey loved the girls when they were tiny but now he's either the grumpy uncle who doesn't like them to bother him or he's the asshole male who likes to try to intimidate them which he thinks of as play.  I sometimes have to intervene.

So, that's my bunch of companions.  I love them.  They're each very different.  I'm beginning to be too old to want the work that they make for me.

A rare occasion when they're all peaceably together.

And, one of my favorite things - curly toes.