Cats of Victoria SPCA: a mechanic named Kate

Bad News: Due to heat, toxicity and some severe seizure/respiratory distress issues, I don’t know how much access to a computer I will have. This blog post isn’t complete but part of a visit to the SPCA of Victoria two weeks ago. Due to overvisiting, the SPCA has closed off visits except for those willing to adopt. We got a ‘pass’ as pseudo-volunteers since we come so often.

There are a great many 8-10 month old cats, some of them gentle, some hiding under things, the personality not yet developed until they bond with their new environment, left off kittens from last fall. We went into a new room which had some very stretchable cats.
One youngster had that ‘stalk’ to the window routine down. But the bird outside had obviously been around this shelter for some time as it was unfazed. Beyond being unfazed the small bird even went so far as to take a mud bath about 8 INCHES away from the cat outside, a bit of a deliberate taunt as it dug and preened.
I met a cat which had no name tag, which I call Kate simply because I know a lot of Kate’s who are very good at riding motorcycles and knowing what parts in engines do what. Kate was attracted to my wheelchair, but not in the way most cats are, where they hide and play with the string. No, I think Kate wanted to BUILD a wheelchair as she kept going up and examining the scissors brakes. Scissors brakes are folded away under the chair to be used to lock the chair in place, leaving only the hands to slow a chair down. However, with no brakes on the WHEEL, it means you can push without fear of having part of your thumb removed. Here is Kate, with her head all around the scissors brakes. I thought she wanted petting but no, she wanted to figure them out.

I was, “Oh, be careful” and showed her how the lever moved (yes, I show the cat the pulley and spring dynamics, okay!), and then she was on to examining the sling. She wasn’t hungry, she wasn’t into petting, she was in THINKING mode and didn’t want to be distracted. As you can see here, while most cats look out from under a wheelchair at other cats, Kate is looking at the spokes (it is an empty room behind me), figuring out SpinEnergy spokes. I think a very good cat to have in a garage, or a barn where you like fixing up stuff.

Inside the other room we found a nice dark black cat Pipi and this cat who was young and BORED. Yes, very bored, let’s play ‘lick my nose’. Okay, now lets play, ‘try and touch YOUR nose’. 'Oh god, this is such a boring place, someone take me where there are children!'
That was about half of our visit, I am sorry I was too ill to do the rest of the photo’s right now.

Good memories matter, every breath sometimes matters. I read a very good manga, I recommend called Jyo-Oh-Sei. Each Volume is 400 pages and took 10 years for the author to write about a murder of parents and the 11 year old twin children exiled to a secret planet. Hecate is the planet for prisoners, but for those who are too dangerous and need a death sentence, there is a secret planet in this newly settled solar system, the BEAST PLANET, where plants are the top of the chain, and can kill you, and each ‘day’ and each ‘night’ lasts 181 days. But it is populated by 5 Rings (or castles), and if you get into one of these, you have a chance of surviving the brutal 180 days of darkness. How though will two 11 year olds fare? And when the only person who can leave the planet is the ‘King’, and one of the children vows to leave and face the murderer of his parents. But how to get from here to there? It is exceptionally good, so good they made a hit anime of the manga. That’s what got me through yesterday, book 1 (If you are interested, I think you can get a good used copy for $2 plus $4 shipping). I ordered book 2 and book 3 finishes the series.

I will use what mind I have, and like Kate, in whatever situation or extremity I find myself. Survival now can be determined by the smallest observation – and my board is full of those. I will have to ask someone to move it to my bed.