What a season it has been. Pastel gave birth to four pastel-colored kittens--white with grey or buff spots above. By now their eyes are open and they're toddling about, building strength in their too-short baby legs. Their behavior has suggested names: Dora the Explorer and Diego, another pair like Minnie and Max where the smallest kitten (though Dora is a pretty good size actually) tries to keep up with the biggest one; and Dilbert, who has a white collar, and Drudge, who has that smoky grey pale-black color cat fanciers call "blue" all over its back and the back of its head. Drudge and Dilbert are being called "it" as a courtesy though I suspect they're male. They are extraordinarily quiet, social, and well behaved kittens who like, so far, to snuggle. They're just starting to try pouncing on each other, but their tries, so far, tend to end up with them flopping down in their nest and snuggling.
They have long tails, like Pastel and Serena, but seem to be going to have broad-beamed, heavy-boned frames. They will not look Manx, although they're all carriers of the Manx gene. They will look more like British than American Shorthairs, chunky-shaped and heavy-boned, likely to weigh more than ten pounds if they live to grow up. Diego may or may not be an extra-large cat; he's certainly an extra-large kitten. Unlike Serena and some of her kittens, who were born "premature" by a day or two, these kittens were born looking a few days postmature.
Pastel had not had kittens before. It had seemed as if she might have been trying to put off giving birth on purpose, having lost a few premature siblings. One night I heard an unusual cat noise and went out into the yard to find Pastel, not even trying to go to a nest box, walking away from a large kitten that was crawling blindly about on the ground, Then she made that peculiar noise again, flopped down on one side, dropped another kitten on the ground--that was Diego--and seemed to ignore him, too.
"Pastel," I said, "this is what comes of hanging out with Borowiec. He has not been taken care of as Trumpkin and old Sommersburr had been. Those who dance must pay the fiddler. Lie down in that box and take care of your kittens."
Fortunately that was the first of many times when Pastel's healthy maternal instincts kicked in once they were validated by Serena or me. Such social instincts and intelligence as Pastel has seem as if they may be a bit of an inconvenience to her Once she found herself lying in a box with her babies, she knew exactly what to do. But first she had to be told to use the box. Though very far from being the cleverest cat in her family, she seems more shy than stupid..
That was before the Bad Neighbor started spraying poison.
Bayer has claimed to have changed the formula in "Roundup" so that glyphosate is no longer the primary ingredient. Different formulas are being sold in general stores, to private people, and in farm supply stores, to "farmers" or rural people. The serious stuff being sold to "farmers" with heavy chemical dependencies is a mix of five poisons.Is that what's been in the air lately?
The effects are easy to trace. Glyphosate, or maybe its chemical sibling glufosinate, is in the mix, producing its bewildering variety of reactions in different individuals. So is dicamba, or something similar, the known carcinogen whose primary effect on me is a raspy, not really inflamed, throat. So is the one, or something similar to the one, that makes my pulse so irregular. But the most noticeable effect on everybody, cats and humans, is the irritation of the eyes.
Poor Pastel always had that as a glyphosate reaction, too. Even when friends offered to snap her picture for youall to see, we never seemed to catch her in a photogenic moment. She's a pretty cat when her eyelids aren't all puffy and tear-stained. For a large part of her life they have been.
This stuff is giving even Serena and Silver that sore-eyed look. The kittens' eyes have opened slowly.
Taken as a single dose of combined poison in the air, it feels more than anything else like having measles with a bad case of food poisoning thrown in. The distinctive odor that characterizes virus in the measles family is missing, but the sore eyes, laziness, and gurmpiness are...hard to work around.
The kittens seemed so healthy before this horrible poison got into the air. They never cried. They cry now.
There is one good thing about all of our misery--though it's not at all certain that any of the kittens will live to see it. Bayer profited from the COVID panic and was obviously hoping to get away with "phasing out" glyphosate on their own schedule, without having to pay the bills of all those patients who, when they ask doctors to test tissue samples for glyphosate in all internal bleeding disorders, are going to have solid claims against Bayer. The corporate honchos must have thought they were going to skate away from this one. They are not. Literally everybody and their cats have a claim.
This summer may go down in history as the Summer of Tears, but if awareness is kept up, this may also be the year Monsanto-Bayer dies, its wealth redistributed to a pitiful remnant of the people it has harmed, its career a warning to be repeated at the beginning of every college class in chemistry forevermore.
I really would have preferred to have seen Bayer get on the task of patenting safe steam sprayers and perhaps weeder robots, back in 2018. Their stubbornness and arrogance surprised me. I would have liked to think human beings were, if not nicer than that, at least more prudent. Bayer seems determined to furnish the world with another example of the hazards of hubris.
Gentle Readers, if you or your pets have eye problems this summer, don't waste time trying to medicate the symptoms. Find out who sprayed the new "herbicide" formula. Remembering that in most cases the individual responsible did not intend to harm other humans, educate that person. I am not saying that a row of indignant people towering over a neighborhood-poisoner is not an effective aid to learning. I am saying that, unless you know for sure that the guilty person is a Professional Bad Neighbor trying to make everyone miserable enough to sell their homes cheap, you should give the person a fair chance to demonstrate that person knows what to do about unwanted plants, on per knees, with a trowel, begging everyone else's pardon and thanking everyone else for letting person live with every breath.
It has not been pleasant trying to look at the screen to type this post. (Note lateness of post. Note that a book review bumped up to appear on the scheduled publication date, yesterday, that went live after the book review originally scheduled, is going to have to count as today's book review.) It has not been much more pleasant trying to look at cat pictures; that's how sore my eyes are. Rain expected late this evening should bring some relief (but don't count on it). And meanwhile the corporations are still STEALING TIME on this privately owned computer, for which they need to be forced to pay, lavishly--please keep track of "wait time" on any privately owned computers you use, Gentle Readers. Anyway, here's a sampling of the Eastern States' cutest photos of shelter cats. In honor of Pastel's kittens, these are white cats with colored spots.
Zipcode 10101: Ripley from New York City--Caution
Ripley is described as a late summer kitten from last summer, bouncy-pouncy and fun to play with, but his web page raises concerns. He may be a stolen pet rather than a genuinely homeless one. Research will need to be done.
Zipcode 10101, Alternate: Speedy & Snappy from New York City
More bouncy-pouncy late summer kittens, these two sisters are described as intelligent, possibly even Listening Cats who answer to names and respond at least to basic "stop that" instructions. In foster care they avoided jealousy by each kitten bonding with a different human. They may be hard to adopt because they sound so happy with their foster home.
Zipcode 20202: Skye from D.C.
The only thing likely to keep this fluffball from finding a good home is that she seems to have fallen into the hands of control freaks. She is described as a playful, energetic young cat who may not be so good at listening to find out what you want, but will tell you what she wants.
Zipcode 30303; Ernie & Bert from Avondale Estates
They were unwanted strays born in a trailer park. Ernie wasn't very healthy when rescued, but has responded well to veterinary care. Bert is more confident. Ernie may have that "dodge the human to show respect to brother's property rights" instinct going on, as well as being cautious because he's been ill, so don't expect him to snuggle up to you on the first day. Bert might do that. They are another pair of last summer's kittens and may grow a little bigger than they currently are, like the other winners of this contest.
