Status Update – The State of Humanity

Wednesday morning I had an 8:00 meeting downtown. When it finished up, I found that it was pouring rain and storming. Drove to work with a massive headache, 55 mph on the highway because of the rain and visibility. Turn down the road, near the shelter and see that some brilliant person has left two cat carriers inches from the road, a good 50 feet down the road from our sign. Mind you, it is pouring. It is also thundering and lightning.

I pull ahead to the driveway, get out, run back and grab the carriers which are full of several inches of water and two really freaked out cats. Some of the fluid in the carrier is likely urine. I run the carriers to the car, shove them in, then drive up to the building.  If I hadn’t had the morning meeting, they’d have sat out there until we opened at noon.

What kind of person abandons their two front-declawed cats inches from a busy, 45mph road during a storm? No blankets in the carrier, no toys. These cats belonged to someone. They had homes. They had names. Imagine how terrified they were at the side of the road. Then, they are brought inside a shelter with barking dogs and lots of smells. They are pulled from the carriers, dried off and placed into steel cages with food, water, toys, blankets and a litterbox. They have nothing familiar. Everything of their previous five years or more is simply gone.

That, my friends, is the state of humanity on a stormy Wednesday in August. And frankly, I’m sickened by it.

Garden Update

On a happier note, here are a few photos from the garden. The bees are going nuts for the sunflowers. See the pollen baskets on the bee legs? If you’re interested in learning more about bee legs and pollen collection, check this out.

This next one is yarrow. Lots of little insects seem really interested in this particular plant.

This year I caved and got a perennial hibiscus. We’ll see if it comes back next year. It’s lovely, though.

Again, this has been a lovely summer, weather-wise. Everything is so green due to regular rain, and it hasn’t been incredibly hot. I am seeing some leaves on maple trees down by KCC starting to turn. The Rhus typhina syn. R. hirta (staghorn sumac or stag’s horn sumac) alongside of the highways is in full color already in our area. I feel we may have an early autumn.