Here’s what happens when dogs go walking in a state park and encounter the feral cats that live in the underground tunneled culvert system along the edges of the roads:
We were out walking the trails in the state park and were on our way back to our campsite when they spotted a cat basking on the side of a ditch. Our dogs were on leashes and are nothing but curious, but I fear for these cats with the wildlife and the dogs not on leashes. We saw several of the cats that people have mentioned seeing in this state park. The cats appear to be well fed and mind their own business, but I worry for them because of extreme weather and extreme people. Ollie wanted to play, but this cat wasn’t having it. I’m a bit worried that if they don’t trap these cats to spay/neuter them, then this park will be covered up in cats within a year’s time.
It seems like the culverts would be the perfect situation for trapping them and getting them fixed. And as much as camping folks seem to love our pets, I would imagine that an appeal for small donations would bring a quick response to pay for the necessary procedures. I do hope that someone is thinking ahead and doing the feral cat math before they take over.
Fitz, Ollie, and Boo Radley take to the trails and paths of state parks
Our three Schnoodles enjoy taking to the trails. In Georgia, the state parks have a program called Tails on Trails, and you can even get a t-shirt for yourself and your pups to identify yourself as a Tailer-on-Trailer.
Our boys may look all nonchalant about it, but don’t let them fool you. They live for this. Boo Radley could not settle himself down for all the things he was trying to take in, and Fitz had to pee on every upturned leaf and then kick dirt and pine straw up in a confetti nature parade behind him as he scratched off. He and Ollie tried to scale a vertical cliff like they were mountain goats or something.
Come with us for a few moments as we walk. The band of brothers will lead the way.
Background: We are traveling on weekends these days to see my father and help with some household tasks, so we are spending some time in hotels and motels on the road. Sometimes I just like to eavesdrop and take notes about how life happens for other people – which is what I did on Saturday morning as we sipped coffee in the lobby. There’s nothing quite like a little slice of cultural conversation, overheard, to get the mind racing about what life is like in other corners of the world.
“they finally found him in Statesboro in CCU
after he went into Metter and they transported
him to Statesboro then to Augusta who sent him
back and he was lost, nobody knew where
he was at but he was at a dadgum good hospital
in Augusta and either he checked hisself out
or somebody came and picked him up and
took him back to Statesboro…..
I cried all
night because I messed up my baby’s hair
and it looked like a lawnmower done ran
over it and all the kids teased him in school
but the vet showed me how to hold the
clippers and I did it just like that…..
I called Betty Joyce, Maxine, and you do not
understand sometimes I have to talk to her
and I told her I can’t deal with her actin like
a two year old like she done this morning….
now Barri in Laundry don’t want that job
so I better not hear her complainin one more
time cause it’s done been offered but she
says she don’t want lobby…
there’s three types of tacos up there and I
got off the phone with Ashley and asked Mama
if she wants to share a plate of three tacos
but Mama said them tacos won’t be very big
and she got hers with beef and I got mine with
pickles in those torTILLa shells, and we shared
them but she ate two and I ate one and she was
upset so Denise called and asked her if she wanted
Today’s host for Day 4 of the August Open write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Jeanie White of Missouri, who inspires us to write postcard poems. You can read her full prompt here.
Jeania encourages us to think of ourselves as a sock in a suitcase and somewhere we might find ourselves, or to write from a place we have never been. She encourages us to use one of the short forms – a form that would fit on a postcard.
I’m choosing an acrostic, in which the place I most want to visit reads vertically and each letter starts a new line.
Common Threads 