The Dangers of Kitty Crack

This is Kitten (a.k.a. Jack) speaking to all humans out there who live with felines.  Remember, you don't own us, we own you. By the way, I ended up staying behind when my original human moved out. They got stuck with me and the vet bills.

Today's post is a warning to your humans about the dangers of dry cat food (kibble).  You probably thought this was about catnip, didn't you?

Last month I was miserable.  My bottom hurt and I had to go to the litter box every five minutes. Mom took me to the vet.  I hate that place, it's noisy with dogs and smells funny.  They also probe and prod you and give you shots.

The first time wasn't too bad.  They pushed my bladder to make me pee and gave me an injection of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory.  The vet told Mom I had a urinary tract infection and that I should be fine in a couple of days.

Less than a week later my bottom became sore again and Mom called the vet for another appointment.  It was back in the carrier (horrible!) for me.  I was also very hungry because the vet told Mom I had to be sedated for an x-ray of my bladder.

I was in that office all day and it was torture.  I was starving, I had to pee, and I had to deal with the stink of frightened animals and the noise of barking dogs.  Hell would have been better.  I was so happy when my human picked me up to go home.  According to the vet, there was nothing wrong with me, so she recommended an ultrasound of my bladder for the next day when the sonographer would be in.

Again, it was another day of hell, no food from midnight on, the nasty smell of dogs, and my bottom was on fire until they finally sedated me sometime after lunch.  When the technicians ate lunch it nearly drove me mad. Being sedated was a relief.  Maybe this time I would be put out of my misery.

I woke up and the humans told Mom they had found nothing.  I was sent on my way with antibiotics (ersatz beef flavored pills, horror of horrors!)

Mom tried to hide the pill in my food. That didn't work.

Then she got reinforcements (Dad) who held me down while Mom popped those nasty things down my throat.  I even spit it out a few times. I wasn't taking that abuse, even though the humans said it was medicine. Those pills tasted like poison.

For a few days after the sedation, my bottom didn't hurt.  Maybe it was the pills. It could have been the aftereffects from the anesthesia because I was groggy most of the time.  Then the pain began again and I had this constant urge to pee.  When I didn't make it to the box in time, I went on the paper in the recycle bin. Mom wondered why it was stinky.

Mom called the vet and requested some painkiller.  Now the humans forced some nasty tasting liquid down my throat.  The pain went away.  I was high all the time.  I spent my time staring at the TV and craving kitty crack.

I noticed Mom had put away the kibble.  I craved that stuff so bad that I learned how to open the kitchen cabinet.  I dragged the bag of dry food onto the kitchen floor and dove into the bag..  I ate every morsel until Dad caught me.  He wasn't too thrilled with the mess on the floor.

I became a picky eater for a few days.  I wasn't having those meaty bits in gravy. Why did the humans change my food?

During one of my lucid moments I found out why.  Canned food has meat and water, which are lacking in the dry food.  Mom had been reading posts on the Internet and didn't want to spend any more money on trips to the vet.  She planned to cure me by changing my diet.

It worked.  After several days on the painkiller and a week on Friskies  shreds and Sheba, my bottom didn't hurt any more.  The humans stopped forcing nasty liquid down my throat. The urge to pee all the time went away. I felt good enough to attack my humans' feet again and I lost my addiction to kitty crack and pain meds.

Please tell your humans we are carnivores.  We were not made to eat meat flavored corn, especially the genetically modified kind. Besides urinary tract problems, a diet of kibble can contribute to:

Obesity
Diabetes
Kidney disease
Blockage of the urinary tract
Heart disease

It can also be hard on your wallet. Vet visits are expensive. I haven't been to the vet in several weeks.

Thank you  for reading my message.

Sincerely,

Kitten (a.k.a. Jack)

Translated from Felinese

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Cats and Income Tax Season (you can read about Fatso, who died April 9, 2011.  Cause of death was congestive heart failure.)

Copyright © 2016 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved.

Fourth Anniversary of The Springfield Tornado: an Anecdote

Winter turned into summer within a matter of weeks.  As soon as the massive snow mountains were completely gone, the temperatures got into the 70's and 80's and in late April we got our first taste of summer.

Since today is June first, all the newscasters have been rehashing the Tornado of 2011.

The weather was unusually hot and muggy that day and thunderstorms were in the forecast for that afternoon.  Things changed very quickly when a funnel cloud started to form in Westfield.  The tornado made its way eastward over the Connecticut River not far from the South End Bridge right around the time my husband was headed home from work.  I was worried because that is the route he takes home, and he was in its path. About ten minutes after I saw the broadcast on the news (in the basement!) he arrived home. What a relief!



A few weeks ago I was at Pynchon Point Park. It is a pleasant place to hang out on a beautiful spring day. Many anglers go there in the spring for the striped bass and the shad run. I have yet to see anyone catch fish there, but I'm sure they do. The river near the park is shallow for quite a distance, and with the warm weather they probably prefer the deeper water. Here's a picture of the bridge that was parallel to the tornado. Notice the fishing rod on the sandbar. The tornado went over the river not far from the spot where I took this picture.

I spoke to one of the fishermen who was there with his family. They had been displaced by the tornado four years ago. His home was totally destroyed and they had to move in with relatives. He was elated that their new house was almost completed and they would be moving in a few weeks. Although he lost everything (and for a few frightening minutes his son was missing), he was very thankful that they had survived the ordeal and that no one in his family was killed or injured by the Tornado of 2011.

You can see some of the houses that were destroyed in last year's post.

Four years later, things have pretty much gotten back to normal, and there is little evidence of tornado damage, except for the spindly trees that were planted to replace the hundred year old ones destroyed in the storm.

I will end this with a haiku, inspired a man who lost everything, except what really mattered.

death and destruction
sadness and loss will never
replace memories.

If you like haiku, I highly recommend the The Art of Being Human, Volume 11.  There are many talented writers featured in this book.  My haikus are on pages 13-14.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved. Photos and poetry © Katley Demetria Brown (with the exception of YouTube video courtesy of Severe Weather & Hard Dance Music)

Where the Hell is Spring?

Where the hell is Spring? Kitty can't wait to go on the (enclosed) porch and spend hours watching the birds.  Instead she's confined to a small perch on the window sill.

I took this picture back in February.  It is now April and the vernal equinox is several weeks behind us. Most of the snow has melted, but it hasn't been all that warm. There was heavy rain in late March which washed away most of it.

As the snowbanks gradually became smaller, I took pictures of them just to see how long they would take to finally disappear.

The first photo was in February after we had a major monster snowstorm.  I used cars as a frame of reference.  My guess was that this snowbank was at least eight feet high.

The next one was taken a month later.  Notice how the snow became darker and dirtier.  The snowbank shrank maybe a couple of feet. 

Early April:  Snow loses to springtime sun, but not quickly enough:  It's about four feet high.  It will take some serious warm weather to make this disappear.

Although it's officially spring (I don't go by the calendar, but by the crocuses in the flower beds), I still haven't ditched the winter coat and the boots yet.  The first crocus came up the same day that I took the previous picture (April 2).  Several days later they popped their purple heads out all at once.

April is a very cruel month, and on tonight's news I heard a forecast for sleet and freezing rain, as well as a winter weather advisory for tonight and early tomorrow.

Maybe spring has been cancelled this year.  After all, there was a year without a summer.  I find that prospect depressing.

Since April is National Poetry Month, and I didn't include a poem for this post since I've been involved in a number of projects (including the dreaded spring cleaning), here's the link to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land."

Once everything turns green and colorful around here it won't look so much like a wasteland anymore.

Copyright © 2015 Katley Demetria Brown. Photography is © Katley Demetria Brown 2015 and may not be reproduced without permission..
Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved.

The 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Piece of Berlin Wall by Katley Demetria Brown, 2014

Last week I was at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  A piece of the Berlin Wall was on display.

I remember that cold November day in 1989 very well.  My daughters were born just a week before.  They were seven weeks premature and were still in the hospital.  I was worried about them since they were both in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

November is not exactly a happy month for me because of the lack of sun (I have a mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder).  Having two babies in the hospital was also very stressful, especially after a C-section. I tired very easily and had to depend on my husband to drive me to the hospital every day to see the girls; and I also had to take care of my three year old son while my husband was at work.

One night I was feeling down and my husband told me to have a look at what was on TV.  It was a broadcast from Berlin, Germany.  People were partying at the Berlin Wall.  It was the beginning of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe.

I couldn't believe what I saw.  And it made me smile.

The Wall was a symbol of tyranny for so many years.  It was part of an Iron Curtain of barbed wire and watch towers that stretched from East Germany to Bulgaria. According to the Communist Party, it was to keep the Westerners and their capitalist ideas out of Eastern Europe, but we all knew better.  The Iron Curtain was built to keep people from escaping.  And escape they did, often by dangerous means: tunneling, hiding under cars, or floating down rivers One of my closest friends left Hungary as a three year old child with her parents during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Here is a poem I wrote five years ago about the fall of the Wall:

 A New Beginning

Communism
A way of life for so many years
In so many countries
In Eastern Europe
Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria
And the nation once known as the
Deutsche Demokratische Republik
Held hostage for over 40 years
Its people imprisoned by barbed wire
Watchtowers and concrete
And West Berlin, an island
In a sea of red its people isolated
Until the wall fell
And everyone rejoiced

Die Mauer ist gefallen
Berlin ist wieder Frei!

And twenty years ago
The people of Eastern Europe
For the most part peacefully
Toppled their communist governments
Like so many dominoes
And tore down the barbed wire
And watchtowers
And we shall never forget

Die Mauer ist Gefallen
Europa ist wieder frei!

If you like Balkan music, please visit my other blog The Alien Diaries.  It features music from the Balkans. Until 1989, some of these countries were behind the Iron Curtain.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Photography is © Katley Demetria Brown 2014 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Also, please check out the following websites:

Poetic Expressions from the Heart

Cahaba River Literary Journal

Why Autumn in New England is Overrated

October 12, 2014 Street Scene, Springfield, MA

I think autumn in New England is overrated.  However, it hasn't stopped a certain species of tourist, the Leaf Peeper.  The Leaf Peeper's goal is to take pictures of as many multicolored trees as possible before all those beautiful red and gold leaves litter the ground (a problem for those of us who have yards full of leaves every October and have to dispose of them). Some years the leaves fall as late as November, making the job even more tedious.

 

Pynchon Point Park, October 25, 2014

Leaf Peepers are responsible for traffic jams on the roads.  They can be recognized by the upward tilt of their heads and the clicking of their cameras or camera phones as they capture fall foliage for posterity. Accommodations around here are booked for a solid month. Why people will travel such long distances to look at leaves is foreign to me.

I suppose I'm jaded because I live here and all I have to do is look out the window at the huge tree behind my house decked out in orange autumn finery before the winds and the rain (or maybe snow!) knock the leaves into my backyard.  They are not so beautiful when its time to rake them.

Fall Foliage, October 25, 2014

The downside of autumn leaves can best be described in one word: Snowtober.

Back in 2011 there was a period of beautiful fall weather at end of October.  A cold front moved up the East Coast and brought snow and cold. The trees had not yet lost all their leaves. When the snow fell, it was heavy and wet.  The combination of heavy wet snow and autumn leaves was a recipe for disaster.  Trees crashed onto roads, cars, homes and power lines.

Many communities were without power for a week or more.  I had no electricity for a week.  Since there was no heat, many people, especially the elderly and families with children, stayed in hotels or shelters.

I chose to stay home (at night anyway) because my house faces south and there was enough sun to warm up the house during the day. I couldn't prepare hot food since my stove runs on electricity.  I lived off ready to eat food (fruit and yogurt) from the cooler, Chinese take out from the restaurant that had electricity, and horrible cafeteria food from the high school which was designated an emergency shelter.  I also used their shower facilities. The public library, fortunately had power and I spent much time there; they had light, heat, books and best of all, computers!

The laundromat was also open.  It was packed with people doing laundry, and it was warm from all the dryers going at the same time. During that week there were electricity haves and have nots, it depended where you lived on the power grid.

That week was an ordeal I wouldn't like to repeat. Towns banned Halloween trick or treaters from making the rounds, it was too dark and dangerous with fallen trees and no lights.

By the way, these beautiful autumn trees can turn into monsters.  During the storm many fell on the roads and crashed onto the roofs of houses, costing homeowners thousands of dollars in roof repairs.

This month's poem is After the Storm.

After the Storm

Monster trees

weighted down

with snow and ice.

Monster trees

are the reason

the power is out.

Monster trees

whose lost branches

smash through roofs.

Monster trees

lie in the road

to crash your car.

Monster trees

in the dark

are out to kill you.

I think that I shall never see

a poem as deadly as a tree.

A tree whose broken arms crash down

and bring the power lines to ground.

© Katley Demetria Brown 2012

If you like Balkan music, please visit my other blog The Alien Diaries.   There's enough to keep you occupied all winter :)

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Photography is © Katley Demetria Brown 2014 and may not be reproduced without permission.  You can also view these photos on Flickr.com under the name Katley99.
Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved.

Thoughts on the Autumn Equinox, An Abandoned Bridge, and Poetry Time!

The autumn equinox was a few days ago. I'm really dreading the Dark Days, the sunless time between November and mid January.

The Dark Days start to become really noticeable in November, when the sun sets before dinnertime, and the nights are 15 hours long.  You get up in the dark and leave work in the dark; and it seems to be cloudy and foggy most of the time. How depressing is that?

It's no surprise that that people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I wonder how people, let's say up in Alaska cope with it.   There are cities and towns in Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and Scandinavia located north of the Arctic Circle  that get no daylight between late November and sometime in January.  It must be really weird to live in 24 hour darkness.  I wonder how they cope: sun lamps? solariums? megadoses of Vitamin D? Antidepressants?  It's probably all of these combined.

Right now it feels more like late summer, so it isn't too bad. It doesn't hurt to go outside yet, and there's still plenty of light.

Speaking of summer, I haven't written here in a while.  Most of the time I've been out enjoying the sun before it disappears for another winter.

My husband and I went kayaking on the Connecticut River near Northfield, Massachusetts earlier this month and I didn't bring the camera since I like to travel light. The quality of pictures that can be taken with Smartphones never ceases to amaze me, especially when I enlarge them to fit in an 8 1/2 x 11 picture frame, but for this blog, the small version will have to do.

This photo is a bridge in the autumn of its life span (pardon the pun)  since it has been closed to traffic since 1985.  The Powers That Be have not yet figured out whether whether it will be rehabilitated or demolished. It would be a shame to destroy this bridge because it's such a beautiful backdrop.  No one builds structures like this anymore.

Abandoned Bridge, September, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown

Since inquiring minds want to know, I looked it up on Wikipedia , where you can find just about everything. Not only did this bridge have a name (the Schell Bridge), but quite a bit of history as well. The article also mentioned something there about adding it to the National Register of Historic Places. I really hope it doesn't get demolished.  There is something both poignant and scary about going under an abandoned bridge  in a small boat.  My thought was.....what if this thing falls down?

Here is a photo of another bridge that I took on the same trip: the Amtrak Railroad Bridge.  A train crossed the bridge right before I took this picture; it was on its way to Vermont.

Amtrak Railroad Bridge, September 2014 Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown

If you wonder why I find bridges fascinating, I grew up in New York City, a place surrounded by water and hundreds of bridges. The suspension bridges are especially beautiful at night when the lights are on.

This month's poem is Water Remembers. One day the Schell bridge may become just a memory which is why I wrote about it.  There never seems to be enough money to fix roads and bridges, but there is plenty of money to wage The War on Terror.  One day there will be a tragedy related to a bridge collapse or faulty roads and then I'll be telling the Powers That Be "I told you so."

Water remembers

most people would doubt this

after all it's a substance

that follows the path

of least resistance

it moves and it's alive

the river remembers all

it has heard the melodies

of many civilizations

seen many celebrations

bridges and boats

mountains and cities

and visions of love

along its banks

it has been reincarnated

many times

just like you and me

we carry the memories with us

forever

and see them in our dreams

the river is eternal

and water remembers

If you enjoyed this, there is a post on my other blog, The Alien Diaries, Crossing the River, Part Four about the bridge between Calafat and Vidin, with videos and music.  It is worth a look, especially if you like music from the Balkans. There are many other posts there on a variety of topics, all related in one way or another to Balkan music and dance.

One of my Pinterest boards has pictures of bridges  in Europe and the United States.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved.
Water Remembers ©2010 Katley Demetria Brown

Summer is the Season of Escape, Sneaking Past the Lifeguards and Messing Around in Boats

 

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

After a long, hard winter, I really looked forward to summer, now that summer's here I know winter will come before I know it.

If you've been reading and following this blog you know why I hate winter.  Now it's time for you to find out why I like summer. Many years ago Nat King Cole summed it up quite nicely in this song: (Check out the big guy in that beach chair and the skinny dippers!)


During the summer of 2012,  my husband and I visited friends and family in Seaside Heights, New Jersey for several days.

The ocean was so turbulent that the lifeguards wouldn't let anyone in the water past their knees, and all I heard the entire day was the blast of their whistles. The rip current risk was high that day, and they weren't taking any chances.

My husband, a friend, and I decided to hang out on the beach after hours, and jumped into the surf barely five minutes after the lifeguards went off duty. We found out first hand how powerful the ocean was.. Fortunately, we returned to shore safely, after a few scary moments with strong currents threatening to take us out to sea.

The next day I overheard a lifeguard say "I had to perform a rescue at 8:30 this morning."

Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Jersey Shore three months later, and the ocean claimed the roller coaster. The resort has been rebuilt, but the ocean can reclaim it again.

Usually the ocean off the coast of New England is much too cold for swimming until August, when this picture was taken last year.  Unfortunately, the beaches close in early September because the lifeguards go back to school. It's too bad they don't get a few local people to work the beaches until mid September because that is when the water is warmest.  After what happened at Seaside Heights, I'm not tempting fate again, now that I know how the ocean can lay waste to boardwalks and roller coasters.

  T

What I like best about summer are the long, hot days, the balmy breezes, and going outside without being encumbered by heavy clothing. As much as I like the beach, we don't get their often because it's a bit of a drive and gas is expensive. So we go kayaking on the Connecticut River instead.



My husband and I try to get on the river a few times a year.  Last year we didn't go at all because there were tropical rain storms nearly every day in July, and dangerous high water. He likes to watch the birds and the wildlife, I like the exercise, the scenery, and that  I can cool off if it gets too hot.

We both hate it when people leave trash like red (why red?) Solo cups, empty beer bottles and trash for others to clean up.  We like it when we find unopened beer bottles underwater that people have forgotten.  If they haven't been opened they are drinkable. Free beer is always good :)

Taking a small boat on a large river is a mystical experience.  Foggy mornings are the best.  Although there is a bit of a chill from the fog and the water before the sun burns it off, everything is shrouded in a cloud of mystery.   A couple of years ago we paddled on a foggy morning and watched an artist on his boat, deeply engrossed in painting.  I am, however, hesitant about taking electronics (like a tablet for writing) on a kayak, although the cell phones are protected in the dry bag.  There is enough buoyancy in the dry bag that it will float, and we can retrieve our stuff provided the current isn't too fast.

There is also the challenge of wind and current.  The worst is when you're paddling upstream when the wind is against you, but then it's good for muscles on those arms.  Besides, you get a free ride later in the day when you're tired.

The best thing of all is the warm sun and the cool water. Being out on the river is a sensual experience that can excite all five senses.  (even taste).

Summer is the season of escape.  It is the "get out of jail free" card.  It is, most of all, an excuse to get outside.

This month's poem is about playing tag with the Atlantic Ocean. By the way, the ocean always wins.

A Game of Tag

I stand at

the edge of the

Atlantic Ocean

cold, wet sand

between my toes

while crashing waves

of freezing water

rush to shore

approaching me

as the tide comes in.

Do I really want to play

a game of tag

with the Atlantic?

She's a formidable opponent

whose weapons are the

icy water and the undertow.

I am no match against

something so powerful

so beautiful and

so vast that it meets land

somewhere in Spain,

but yet I am tempted

to join her in her

watery playground.

I could get hypothermia,

you know, or a rip current

could drag me away,

never to return.

In the meantime, a rogue wave

hits me with a numbing blast

of salt water,

knocks me down, pulls me in

and it's time to play...

Tag, you're it!

You can also check out my companion blog The Alien Diaries, if you like dance music from the Balkans. It's good summer reading, with lots of music.

Copyright © 2014 Katley Demetria Brown. Site Designed by Katley Demetria Brown. All Rights Reserved. Photos and A Game of Tag © Katley Demetria Brown (with the exception of the video Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer, song by Nat King Cole, 1963)