Tortures and Treats�

2002-04-21

Saturday was the busy day. Took the cats to the vet on Saturday. Always a wonderful sight, lining up with our three crates of cats.

Spouse came up with a unique way of getting them all in the carriers. Start with the hardest. Catch that one first. Put in her carrier in the garage. Go get the next. Worked really well with a minimum of trauma. They all know that the carriers mean bright lights, loud noises, pokey things that hurt you and other animals that want to bite you. Hey, that's kind of how I feel about going to work every day!

Even more disturbing was the family that was in line to see the vet ahead of us. A couple with a female pit bull that they couldn't control. The vet was dancing from foot to foot, wide-eyed, outside the front door when we arrived. Inside an ostentatious SUV was a man and a woman trying to get a hold of a barking dog. I thought 'difficult patient' as we went inside with our three. Who were uncharictaristically quiet, by the way. They can tell insanity when they see it.

The cats given their shots and taken home. Spouse says that they were not as distrustful of him as they have been in the past. Hallelujah, Oh my Husband! Grateful I am for the day that I met you. The less stress on the furry ones, the better. Getting here has been torture enough.

Then I went to my folks house. To see Mom, freshly out the hospital for more tests, and Dad. They had another dove

in a fushia basket, but it and it's eggs disappeared. I think possibly a crow, more likely a starling.

Saturday evening husband brought in a box with the mail. There are little happy feet dancing inside of me. I've looked for these for years. My long suffering spouse can attest to that. They're supposed to be tree frogs. The catalog said so. They look like the tadpoles of my childhood. All of the features are familiar to me. The gold-rimmed eyes. The shape, the color. They all look like the toad fry of my youth. I hope the catalog lies.

They're the wrong kind. Amphibians are fragile. They may be a thermometer for a fragile planet. Tell people about germs and bacterial, even plants. Those life forms are too far away from their own. They don't understand. Tell them about something they know. A frog. Two arms, two legs. Ahhh. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? They're coming up with three legs. . . five legs. No legs. I haven't been able to find a single tadpole. In any stream. In any place I've lived in the past ten years.

�