Save an animal: Adopt from a shelter.

I am someone who has always purchased from pet stores. There was never much thought behind such efort, it was just a place that had animals I could look at and maybe take home. I have two rabbits I purchased from pet stores. I love them dearly and they have a home that any pet rabbit would envy. Their house is a crate that was made for German Shepherd sized dog breed. Levels, houses, wall-to-wall carpeting, a large litter box, and they are provided excellent room service daily including turn-down service and vacuuming. They have an indoor running area and an outdoor running area, both very spacious, and an owner that would pay any vet bill (and has) to make them more comfortable.

It is only recently that I have realized that there are a lot of animals out there that would have no knowledge of such a life as a possibility. When I was looking for my second rabbit, I contacted some rabbit foster services, but had difficulty getting timely responses, and would have little to no questions answered before filling out an application, which I did, and still received little to no enthusiasm for my interest. One day, while with my significant other, he saw a rabbit in a pet store that he adored, and we got it. I was disappointed it was from a pet store, but it was still a life that would see a wonderful change and be provided a good home.

When I was looking for a cat - something I've wanted for year and years - I made it my goal to rescue something. I wanted to be able to "heal" something that needed healing. I browsed the internet and was heartbroken to see the hundreds of pictures of cats in shelters, squatting uncomfortably on newspaper in a metal cage and gazing at the camera with a look that appeared to be beyond apathy. Many looked as though they had given up and were just waiting for it to inevitably end.

That is when I came across the Hamilton/Wentworth Overcroweded Shelter rescue. The website said that if you are interested in a cat, to not hesitate with inquiries, as it could save a life. This site provided pages and pages of cats with brief stories. There were kittens, but I wanted a young adult, someone less likely of being scooped up immediately.

Many cats "jumped out" at me while browsing, but when I saw Penny, I instantly saw her future with me. Her eyes didn't plead, they looked angry and vacant. She was guessed to be between 2-3 years old and her history described her as declawed and spayed, meaning once upon a time someone cared to spend money on her, but had since forsaken her.



I contacted the email address provided immediately and was met with a timely, enthusiastic response. It was a Wednesday and I was on night shift, so I expressed my interest to see her once I was done and had caught up on sleep, and ready to make the drive. My contact hinted that it would be best if I came as soon as possible, as Friday was euthanasia day and she was on the list. I told her I would come Thursday right after my night shift.

So, I did it. I worked 8 hours overnight, went to a store and bought oodles of cat supplies, grabbed a coffee and went to Hamilton. The shelter was located beside the SPCA, which I saw many happy animals entering and exiting. There was nobody entering or exiting the shelter.

I got there and quickly realized how different a shelter is from a Humane Society location. There is little to no funding, and thus a "no kill" policy does not exist. My contact walked me down the hall, she was so excited for me. As I passed the cages of rabbits and heard the dogs barking in the back, I began to shake and become overwhelmed by the sadness of the place.

I walked into the cat room and immediately almost all ran to their doors meowing at me. I was instructed that Penny was at the end, and walked down, where I noticed a tag that said to "hold" her. Behind the bars, was that picture in life form. I was informed she had an upper respiratory infection, common for shelter cats, and had been there for three weeks. She was crouched in the corner on newspaper, her eyes leaking to the point that I wondered if she could even see. She was coughing and sneezing. I was terrified of this sick cat.

"Do you want to hold her?"

I forced a smile and said "Sure", and reached in the opened door. She stood up to meet my hand with her head, still wheezing from her upper respiratory infection, and pushed her head into my outstretched hand with what seemed to be all her effort. I pet her, and immediately noticed how thin she was. I could feel her entire spine, and her hips jutted out.

The worker picked her up and commented on her bright, green eyes. I could see them, underneath all of the liquid in them, and held her against my winter jacket. She sneezed and I could feel the saliva and discharge on my neck, but quickly forgot about it. She was very thin, and holding her terrified me even more. I felt like she might break.

I briefly considered the situation and remembered my contact telling me that if "Penny" was not what I wanted, I could look at other cats. Penny was what I had chosen before meeting her, though. I thought about my life with her since I had seen her picture, and she deserved every bit of it.

"She's perfect .... Alright!! What do I do to take her with me?"

They both seemed surprised by my sudden eagerness, as well as the question itself. I expected to pay a fee, but was told that she was free. I pulled my car up and the worker was clutching her at the door for me as I brought out my cat carrier. The worker was petting her neck, as though soothing her, and her eyes were wide with fear. I put her in may carrier, thanked them and told them, "She'll be a queen". My contact looked up at me with a warm smile and said, "You just saved her life". I smiled and thanked them again, and quickly walked out the door as my eyes welled up.

She was uttering exhausted chirps as I brought her to the car. I turned on the seat warmer on the passenger side and placed her carrier on it. Her mouth was opened because she could not breathe through her nose, and she stared vacantly, straight ahead with her eyes mostly closed. She was going through the motions and had given up protests.

I drove home talking to her, calling her the new name I had chosen - Kota (from Coda), from the musical term meaning "tail", to represent the rest of her life in this new chapter (Apparently it is also the title of a Led Zeppelin album, so I'll use that if I don't want to sound cheesy).

I cleaned her up and took her to a vet. The bill was about $80 to be dewormed and antibiotics for her URI. In a few days, she was good as new, gaining weight and eating enthusiastically. She is very social, loves people, loves to play, and is very affectionate. She has had zero "accidents" outside of her litter box and has not wrecked anything.



The SPCA charged over $200 for a lot of their cats. The shelter charged $0. I have paid less than $180 in vet bills, and she is now vaccinated. She has already been spayed (the rescue organizations generally ensure this with all the cats they can) and happened to be front declawed before I got her. I brush her daily and she sheds minimal. She knew her new name "Kota" in about a week and responds to several vocal commands. Smart. VERY smart.

The shelter was an awful place, but sadly it is the best that the workers can provide for the animals until they are hopefully adopted into loving homes. The rescue organization I worked through saves a lot of these cats by volunteering their time and homes and money and cars to find foster homes or forever homes for these cats. Kota is an absolute angel who is perfect in every way. Had I got a kitten, I would be well over hundreds and hundreds of dollars in getting it fixed and vaccinated, let alone adopting it, as most stores or people charge. I get compliments on how gorgeous Kota is regularily, and she was someone that nobody wanted at one point.

Neuter or spay your cat. There are too many that end up at shelters and are euthanized because people refuse to care for their cat or what it produces. We as people domesticated cats, and hold that responsibility to take care of them.

Adopt from a shelter. It is CHEAP and rewarding, Kota is the best cat anyone could have wanted for a pet, but someone didn't want her, and she was almost killed because her chance had come to and end.

I'm thankful that rescue organizations like the one I found exist, and are so wonderful with people and animals. They do wonderful things, and I am eternally grateful that they helped me find my new family member.

Why Call of Duty 4 was a TERRIBLE idea.

Ok....so nobody is a bigger fan of the "COD" series than me. I started from COD1, huge war game FPS fan... bought 2, watched it die, tried 3 a few times on xbox (ugh), and when I heard there would be a 4 I was incredibly excited....until I played it. Now, I own the game and have spent hundreds on computer upgrades to run it at top notch so the graphics would look great, I really really really wanted to like this game, was ready to LOVE it. It didn't take long after my first game to realize what this game promotes, however. Something the COD series have been away from with BF2 and other games suffering....stat camping.

What is stat camping? Stat camping is a characteristic of games where you collect "points" or "promotions" that in turn reward you with better weapons, cooler perks, etc. Because you must play the game to get points, people camp. A LOT. Every server I play on has at least 20% of the players camping alleyways, corners, shadows, behind doors, tops of staircases, etc.... because they want that promotion to get that "cool" gun. Other servers turn blind eyes while people go so far as to lie prone with a gun facing a spawn point holding down the fire key and taking people out faster than they can even see where they spawned. COD4 for PC has turned into a terrible breeding ground for these people....and the small maps and maps such as Shipment only reaffirm "Easy ways" people can ruin the game and collect their points. Its ridiculous, I'm disgusted at the makers, and will NOT be running out to buy COD5 until I play the demo and actually do some research.

Incidently Xbox360 does not have this problem..... not to NEARLY the degree I have witnessed on PC. The makers don't seem to care, because it still made people run out and buy it.... but I'm generally spinning my COD1 or COD2 games on a daily basis...and not touching COD4.

Don't get me wrong...I don't hate it because I'm terrible at it. I've got all the pretty toys that come with playing the game (the way the game is actually MEANT to be played)....but have very little patience playing with 12 year olds that are content to sit behind where I'm about to spawn with an AK-47 aimed at where my head will turn up.

To the makers : Don't fuck the next one up.

The World is Calling

I felt inspired to make a video, after a 3 hour long drive in the car listening to some real Canadian rock inspired me to get creative. I was having some issues with Windows Movie Maker at the end where it simply kept crashing, so I wasn't able to edit some of the too-fast flashing text parts and such. I still conveyed what I wanted in the end. R.I.P The Tea Party and Jeff Martin is just a genius any way you cut it.

The video is a compilation of selected clips from Zeitgeist and various other images. Credit totally goes to www.zeitgeistmovie.com

"Police Shoot Man..."

How many newspaper, magazine, tabloid and TV headlines start as such? Then while reading into the body of the item, facts to continue that statement reveal themselves to state that it was actually a justified act that legitimately protected or saved a life. I read an article today implying that exact headline, then went onto state that the subject that was shot was found attempting to beat an infant to death. How many people don't read the rest though? ... and shake their head, finish their morning coffee, and talk to the neighbor about how he "heard about some cop abusing his power again".
We are entering a world of overly-sensitive people feeling a very real need to be distracted. From what? Well, that list has potential to be almost infinite with tolerated gripes. People love controversy. People love to read about other people making huge mistakes. People love to read about corruption and point fingers at the way someone does their job. But they don't point fingers at the media. They point fingers at the police. The media has facilitated and encouraged a social movement of "pig haters" for a long time now, and at this point has created a very destructive world for both the police and the society.
Joseph LETTERMAN once discussed a "them versus us" issue that exists between the police and the society, which appears to become more apparent with time. Are there corrupt police? Probably. There are corrupt doctors, lawyers, Wal-Mart cashiers, financial advisers and governments. There are corrupt fathers, children, students and priests. I suppose that logic could be applied to the fact that anything humans have created and use is corrupt in some way. But there is no tolerance for corrupt police. For some reason, they are an exception to the logic that is adopted as "common sense", allowing us to inherently "know" that nothing is perfect and no job is done perfectly. We suspend such logic when discussing the police. It becomes a world where one taser death (not even proved to be DIRECTLY a result of the taser), from the millions of uses that have not involved a death, is a prime focus. Weapons become a focus of a "problem" with police, and a community is outraged that such weapons are used, yet have little to nothing to suggest as an alternative measure to take control over an escalated situation. The fact that the control to be taken NEEDS to be physical is side-stepped in argument, and people really just want police to pull up a stool to the misunderstood bank robber and talk about feelings. This is unrealistic. There are steps of protocol and efficiency that are not just the officer's benefit, but the public's as well.
Authority should be questioned, not obsessively picked at and criticized illogically. People blame police for the cushy jails. People blame police for the criminals that are released from jail on bail. They blame police for a corrupt legal system. They blame police that they got into a fight with their common-law spouse and they didn't attend their residence fast enough to mediate or play counselor. They blame police for focusing on "stupid" incidents and "wasting tax dollars". They blame police when they get pulled over for speeding. They blame police when they see someone that doesn't get pulled over for speeding. Its all come to a ridiculous contradiction.
These are laws you and your parents helped build this country with. The legal system was created with your support (or apathy). If you have a problem with a law, look at your government.
So..... "fuck the police"? How about "stop breaking the law, dipshit"? I don't want MY tax dollars to go to waste just because you have some drug problem or beat up your spouse. Thanks.