2005-09-01 -
1:47 p.m.
My Life: A Quiet Evening at HomeWent to the store today. I go once a week. Usually I don’t devote much time to work on days when I go to town. Today was different.
I had to go much earlier than usual, so that left the whole day to accomplish things. One of those things added itself to my to-do list shortly after the coach picked me up.
We were turning onto the road that goes past the church where I work and there was the black pup. I had seen him several times during the previous week and was worried because he was so young, apparantly on his own and obviously frightened. But whenever I spotted him, I was always walking my dogs and he would run away when he saw them.
This time I got a close look at him and he’s in terrible shape.
Of course, the coach runs on a schedule and we couldn’t stop, though I know Stacey, the driver, would have if she could. I vowed to look for him after I got back…maybe bring some food and water to entice him…maybe find a way to leave my dogs behind so they wouldn’t scare him.
Well, after I got back I had to work on my daughter’s website so I could talk to her about what’s needed when she called.
Then, I had trouble getting my dogs to come inside so I could leave and go hunting. I think they sensed something was up.
Then I discovered Runtessa. She hadn’t been feeling well the last few days and I was trying to keep an eye on her. Found her under the chair in dire straights.
I dropped everything to see what I could do to help. But she was already so far gone, I didn’t hold much hope. This disease, when it decides to take them, does it pretty fast.
I settled for giving her water (which she took) and some canned salmon (which she wouldn’t take) and trying to make her comfortable. Figured I’d just go for a little walk to see if the pup was around. He wasn’t. But as I turned on to the road, I saw something white.
It was my neighbor’s dog…another pup. His neck was broken. I’m friends with all the dogs around here. I knew this to be a very sweet fellow. I was so sorry and knew I’d have to call and tell her. But I decided to finish the task at hand since the other pup was still in trouble. I just wish I could have found him.
I called my neighbor and commiserated with her for a while. She knew about it because she was the one that hit him. She was sick about it and too upset to deal with it. Her mother, who has advanced alzheimers was in the car with her, so she called her husband to please take care of him while she took her mother home and got her settled. Things have been so hard for her lately.
I checked on Runtessa and tried again to get her to take something. But she wouldn’t have it.
So it was evening and I was ready for the day to be over. I went outside and pulled some of the invasive grass that takes over and grows to 3 feet high if neglected. The day was cooling off and I finished half the yard. I planned to make supper when I was through.
It was then that Runtessa died. I held her wrapped in a towel and tried to soothe her to ease her passing. While I was holding her, I watched TV. Big mistake. They were reporting about the situation in New Orleans. Within minutes, I was in such a rage over the mishandling of this crisis and trying to be so gentle for Runtessa. I didn’t know where to go with my anger.
However, she passed shortly after and I was upset about that AND mad at what I was seeing. I started raving and yelling at the TV. Scared the bejeezus out of my animals, but PEOPLE ARE DYING and those idiots in charge didn’t have a clue or a plan or the common sense to get the job done right. This is the result of acting on ideology instead of facts.
Believing reality won’t bite you if you only do what you want instead of what needs to be done AFFECTS REAL PEOPLE. What morons! They can’t listen to the experts because the experts were all fired when they told the truth instead of what our Idiot in Chief wanted to hear.
I was also struck by the evidence of the constant misrepresentation from the right directed at the poor, the disabled, the elderly (they’re just lazy, they’re users and manipulators who don’t want to work, they’re living high off the welfare hog all driving cars and watching wide screen TV) that has dictated public policy for decades and made the poor more desperate with every budget cut and policy change. The welfare reform bill that Clinton signed was the most egregious “We have to make them want to work”. Ronald Reagan’s Welfare Queen was LIE! But those in charge bought into it to the extent they refused to believe the poor are really poor. What all that accomplished was to make the poor more desperately poor and maligned for it as well.
And the federal folks in charge of relief had no clue that over 100,000 people in New Orleans would be UNABLE to get out.
So I logged on to the Internet to see if I could vent my rage in a way that didn’t frighten my animals. I started checking my emails when all of a sudden my dogs are barking like crazy and I’m running outside to see this big old rattlesnake surrounded by cats and mad as hell. His rattle was about 4 inches long. This guy was OLD.
I shooed the dogs and threw (yes, literally) the cats (I have about 20 of them so it was several at a time) inside the house and grabbed my shovel. Now he was in the part of the yard I hadn’t weeded and these broad-bladed grasses are about a foot high. Too high.
I knew I couldn’t leave him there because the cats weren’t all inside and they could get out without my help anyway by going through the greenhouse. That rattle is loud and attracts them and he was mad enough to keep it going. So I poked him with the shovel a few times in the hopes that he might bite it and expend his venom or move on when he decided biting metal wasn’t useful. It didn’t work.
I don’t like killing things that haven’t offended me. (My neighbors are sure I’m crazy. To them, rattlesnakes must die. No mercy, no prisoners…unless you’re collecting them for the roundup.)
So I shoved the shovel under him and tossed him about a foot…again trying to get him to go away. He still refused to get the message. So I did it again, but now he was getting into the deep grass…it was already 9:30 and dark. I didn’t want to lose him in the grass. I decided I needed to get my flashlight. When I got back, he was in the same place rattling just as loudly as when I left him. I was sort of glad about that.
One of the things I like about rattlesnakes is the rattle. You know where they are, especially when they’re mad. That’s a good thing. I finally got him out of the yard. I just hope he continued on his way.
I came back in and finished going through my email and some forum messages in time for Night Line and got upset all over again. It was wonderful that Ted Koppel was giving the head of FEMA, Michael Brown, hell for this debacle. I’ve been so frustrated with the media for so long. It did my heart good to hear it.
Earlier, I had seen David Muir at the Convention Center helping a lady hunt for something to drink or food in the darkened center—not for her, but for those who were in dire need. They broke into a caged off area and found bottles of orange juice. Sounds like looting to me.
This is why they pulled the police off the search and rescue operation. To stop the looters. This is why the National Guard is tooling around New Orleans in empty flatbed trucks and empty personnel carriers, driving right past the dying, sick and desperate, thirsty and hungry survivors who are supposed to be evacuated but aren’t so the Guard, armed with M-16’s, can restore order(?) to the toxic pond that used to be New Orleans. It sickens me.
It is now 1:00 am. Though I’m still outraged, it’s quieted to a simmer and my venting’s done for now. Poor little Runtessa’s in a box in the kitchen, the snake is gone (I hope), my dogs are finally settled down and all is peaceful. And I just remembered, I never had any supper.
