HOW IT BEGAN
How do these things ever begin? I love animals and have always had pets. In my last bout of bachelorhood, though, I decided not to have any. I had a fairly nice mobile home at the time. Yes, I know. That's not the accepted term for them now. The dealers at least want you to call them “manufactured housing” or even nothing different from just “house”. It took me a long time to get past calling them “trailer houses” though, and it's getting a bit late to change for me.
Anyway, I decided on no pets. They were allowed in the park I lived in. However, I enjoyed not having dependents for once. Over something like 33 years I had been married twice and raised five children. I was fairly recently divorced and the kids were mostly grown.
I had a short commute to work and was enjoying the ability to eat out, go to movies, even take a long weekend away from home without needing to arrange care-taking for pets or kids.
I missed my kids, definitely. I missed them a lot. I missed my wife bitterly. It was a bad break-up for me. Still, it was a new experience for me to have no commitments for once except to myself. I still had the occasional company of an affectionate Siamese cat that lived in the neighborhood, so I wasn't totally bereft of furry friends.
I actually had a couple of years of bachelorhood before two things happened, almost simultaneously. My mother moved in, and I fell in love. A cynic might say that the first thing may have forced the second. I won't speculate. My mother had mobility issues and needed a place to live. I had never actually lived with her after I was about 4 years old, so it seemed nice to get to know each other. I turned over the master bedroom and bath to her and she settled in.
About the same time I met Terrie Lynn (AKA Cat Dancing). We were both members of the same email group, though we hadn't met before. We had crossed paths a couple of times without meeting. She noticed my email address in my response to another member and liked it so we started emailing and set up a meeting. It was only partially a disaster. In fact it was pretty much love at first sight!
Things progressed and got serious and eventually I moved out of my house and turned it over to my mother. I moved about an hour away. She later got into a subsidized housing arrangement and I sold the mobile home.
Back to pets.
Terrie Lynn had a son, Michael, three cats, (Simba, Isis, and Salem) and a dog (Sky) when we got together. While we lived there Isis was killed by dogs and Sky disappeared. We also adopted two kittens. A black named Panthera and a siamese named Pongo. Pongo ultimately was also killed by dogs or maybe coyotes. All three losses were pretty traumatic for us.
In 2011 we moved over near Bastrop, Tx. We rented a place with six acres and a nice little house. We also built our own vending booth at Sherwood Forest Faire, a rennaissance faire nearby. Cat makes Intarsia wood art, and I make flutes, mostly of the Native American Style.
Cat became aware of conditions at the Bastrop County Animal Shelter. This was a kill shelter but volunteers were able to take at-risk animals and foster them to adoption. Cat took in a cat named India that needed medical attention and became friends with several of the staff and volunteers.
Over time we fostered more and more cats. A few them became “foster fails”, or as I call them “Velcro Cats”, as they velcro themselves to your heart and are hard to let go!
We worked a lot with Bastrop Animal Rescue and after a time Cat teamed up with a friend and started Bastrop C.A.T.S. a non-profit TNR organization. TNR stands for Trap Neuter Return. They help people trap ferals and strays, get them neutered free or cheaply and return them to where they were if possible. As such, in addition to the regular fostering, we often overnight feral cats on their way to or from neutering.
These organizations as well as other volunteers have brought down the numbers of euthanized animals at the shelter considerably in the last few years.
Over time we’ve reached a point where we don’t directly foster as many cats ourselves but network with other volunteers and rescues to manage it. With lots of friends who also foster or donate time and funds we manage to cover the need. Currently we’re toward the end of kitten season and we have a few visitors.
We, ourselves have a resident population of around 20 cats, a few of which are outdoor cats. Some of them have medical issues that make them hard to adopt out. Others we just couldn't bear to part with. We also have a wonderful dog and two less wonderful macaws, all rescues of one sort or another.
And chickens. We have chickens.
In future posts I plan to tell the stories of some of our furry family, in no particular order, just as they occur to me.
Stay tuned!
