Diesel Day #2

Mrrrrr Friends,

Another year has passed and another D-Day approaches. Mark your calendars – Monday May 26 is Diesel Day! Diesel Day is a national holiday this year – even the postman gets a day off!

I have a proposition for you about how to celebrate this fine holiday.

First, a little context: Diesel Day is my celebration day. It marks the anniversary of my adoption at the Sauk County Humane Society in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Since that wonderful moment, I’ve worked to make Diesel Day a day to recognize the joy that all furry, feathered, hoofed, and scaled critters bring into your lives. If you have a non-human companion, this is a great day to commemorate their coming into your life. It is also an important day for reaching out to those companion critters who don’t have homes and to the people and organizations who are caring for them and working to make their lives better.

Times are tough out there for humans and companion critters alike. Even in good times for humans, the number of homeless dogs, cats, birds, and other critters numbers in the tens of millions in the US alone. Every year, according to the Humane Society of the United States, 6 to 8 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters. This represents only a portion of the number of homeless, wanderer critters and does not take into account other companion species. In bad economic times, the number of animals surrendered to shelters, or simply turned out of their homes, increases dramatically. The burden on the 4000 to 5000 shelters in the US is prodigious.


Diesel Day is about helping out a little bit. Here’s my proposition: if you’ve been thinking of bringing a critter into your life and are able to make a long-term, indeed, life-long commitment, please consider adopting on Diesel Day. Visit your local shelter, introduce yourself to some of the critters and find out if one of them is that special someone.

If you can’t adopt, you can help my fellow companion critters by doing one of the following things:
1/ Make a donation to the Sauk County Humane Society - $5, $15, $50 or, better yet, $150 buys food, medical care, toys, pays the electric, heat, and other overhead and ensures this awesome shelter has the staff it needs to run efficiently. I urge you to write and send a check on or before Monday May 26, and note on it that you’ve contributed in celebration of Diesel Day – believe me, they remember me. SCHS: 618 Highway 136, Baraboo, WI 53913, http://www.saukhumane.org/

2/ Donate a HUGE bag of food to the Sauk County Humane Society. You know how I love food! I ate many bags when I was there. They serve Purina Cat and Kitten Chow. Take it right in and tell them you brought it in celebration of Diesel Day.

3/ Find your local shelter, go in, and ask them how you can help. If money is as tight for you as it is for them, consider volunteering an hour a two a week cleaning, working with records, or helping with the animals. You could even join the Board if you have that set of skills. Tell them a certain ex-shelter cat sent you.

4/ Ask your veterinarian if they support a local shelter by donating their time to help care for the animals there. Tell them it is important to you that there is a network of animal health care professionals supporting the local shelter. My Wisconsin vet, Mara, gave me a free first visit – complete with shots – because my person adopted me from the shelter.

Remember, most shelters are 501(c) 3 not-for-profit charities. They run entirely on donations – which are, for the money-minded among you, tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

As I said last year, giving away without regret is one of the most important things a being can do. You’ll be amazed at what comes back to you. I still have extended family in Wisconsin and, you never know, you may be directly aiding a furry cousin of mine…another future feline blogger.

Thanks for your support!

Dad

Mrrrr Friends,

I know you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. What could be keeping me from my blog? I haven’t given up on blogging, but it hasn’t been my top priority, what with all the other excitement in my life. I certainly appreciate the constancy of my readers, checking in on me.

I’ve delayed telling you the news, as I know you rely on me for the cold hard facts and this may stretch the human understanding, but I’ve become a Dad. Here’s a picture of my son, Rotor.

No, not the dog! The non-furry human one is my kid. His Mom lives down the street with a very accommodating human guy, who’s kindly agreed to be a foster parent. Rotor spends most of his time with them but comes to see us often. Kinda perfect, huh? My cat pal Trousers, or T-boy, and the dog April are his companions and partners in crime. Here, they are discussing the merits of kibble over blended parsnips. Rotor’s Mom really likes blended parsnips and thinks he should too, but I think you can see where his interests lie.

As all of you who have met me know, I am incredibly attractive to the women folk. Human women just fall all over themselves trying to pet me and scratch under my chin. They want me to lay on their laps. They check on me by phone and e-mail, they send me letters, pictures and bring food. It’s very flattering.

And of course I like the women folk. I especially like Rotor’s Mom. (That’s his cat name – you’re not getting his human name. I don’t want all of you tracking him down for some crazy scientific evidence.) She and I spent some quality time with each other two autumns ago, and in June last year, out came Rotor. I thought he’d be furrier, and I was surprised there was only one of him, but he’s a handful and I’m very proud of him – though he is growing kind of slowly.

Rotor’s human dad is a gentleman. He married Rotor’s mom knowing about our escapade together and has been very cool about ensuring that I have a role to play in the kid’s upbringing, though for a variety of human-centric reasons Rotor is officially his son.

Right now, I’m teaching the little one about walking on all fours. I’m looking forward to teaching him how to climb trees as well as introducing him to the many species of birds, bugs, mammals, reptiles and our favorite around here, turtles. I think Rotor is going to really like turtles. Indeed, I predict he will be a turtle scientist someday. But we are all going to have to wait a while on that. In the meantime, I’m looking into good colleges for him.