Fosters: My foster kitties have been doing fantastic and growing too fast! I love that my kittens are healthy enough to develop into the cats they’ll become, but at the same time it brings me some sadness. As kittens age, their likelihood of adoption begins to diminish. I still have hope these three will find homes. (Thankfully, Sushi found his loving home the beginning of October!) Wasabi is the one I worry about most, because he will need someone patient and willing to work with him. Though he’s come a LONG way, he still is very shy. Miso and Mochi are just huge loves, who just want to play and cuddle. As we come upon month 3 of my fostering, I begin to worry… Will these sweeties find a home so I can save more?
Pen and Paw Books: Our sales have been steady but small. October we sold more at the expo in NY than we did online. But the holiday season has begun and I hope some will purchase them as gifts and get our sales up a bit. I will be doing another expo in November and hopefully raise some more funds for Salem’s Community Cats!
Personal life: This time of year has had its sorrows in the past. Today I was reminded of one of those when I stumbled upon this poem I wrote in 2021. This year, I am a little more prepared for my seasonal sadness. However, I thought I would share the poem here because it is still relevant to me today, as it always will be.
Bystanders:
How do I smile
When the world is on fire
When the world is filled with hurt
How do I sing
How do I dance
When songs are stolen
When the silence of dread hangs over an empty hospital room
When the creaks of a full house come to rest
How do I eat
How do I drink
When the world is filled with bloated hungry bellies
When thirst sucks dry the world,
leaving cracked husks that we hope to forget
How do I hold my loved ones?
When love has been held from so many?
When death hangs waiting
or finished and full
like a heavy line in the sand
How do I sleep in my bed?
When not even the ground is safe for some
When the earth becomes hungry
swallows them home
Things come and go
But it is no comfort to me
We are all the bystanders
Waiting for heroes that aren’t us
Watching without doing
Because there is too much
And we are stuck on our own lonely tracks
forced forever forward
and apart
Writing R and R 