Am I Good Enough to Have a Cat?

So I finally caved in.

My son has long been a fan of having a pet but I thought the best way would be the route of learned responsibility. I never felt the need to rush him into a situation where he would not be prepared to handle the responsibilities that come with caring for another living thing.

So he began with caring for a hermit crab, to a rat, to a few fish. Along the way he learned so much about feeding, cleaning and caring for organisms that depend upon him for their survival.

I should point out that one day my son will be chained to a tree in Northern California fighting for old growth forests. He has a liberal streak that must come from my wife, because I am sure that my views are nowhere near that far from the right. I applaud his belief in all things green and in protecting all things living.

That gets us to his inevitable desire to have a cat.

After a great deal of research, discussion and preparation for both our children and our home we decided as a family that we would all be prepared to take on the responsibility of introducing a cat into our lifestyle.

So, the best route after talking with my fair share of “experts” was to go the adoption route. A few facts that I was made aware of through adopt a pet that helped in this decision to go with adopting a pet:

• 7 million adoptable pets are put to sleep each year, including millions of cats and kittens.
• It is estimated that 70% of homeless cats and kittens are "put to sleep
• According to the Humane Society of the United States, 10,000 babies are born in the U.S. on any given day. On that same day, however, 40,000 kittens are born. Match those two statistics up, and you'll see that there will never be enough homes for all the kitties born in this country unless we all pledge to do two things: 1) take responsibility for spaying and neutering our pets, and 2) adopt a cat or kitten from a shelter or cat & kitten rescue organization.

After reading enough information from and completely reacquainting myself with the habits and necessities of cats with the help of an incredible resource at cats.about.com

We prepared ourselves to find a new member of our family at our local chain pet store. Saturday pet adoption days bring in a lot of cats and kittens and we spent an ample amount of time acquainting ourselves with a few animals and my son settled on one as he said, “He already loves me”

The process was explained and I began the journey through the application process. A two page application that contained more detail than recent mortgage applications was handed to me. (Maybe that’s why we are in a financial mess in this country, a topic for another day) I did my best to fill out the application as honestly as I could. My son sat beside me and we answered the questions together in order to involve him in the entire process.

I was told they would get back to me in a couple of days. We left the store and my son was excited at the prospect of getting a cat. He was well aware of the reason behind the application, although he was a little disappointed he liked the idea that people were treating the animals with the respect and care he would any other living thing.

Two days later a response was in my email in box with these two questions.

In processing of your application a couple of questions have arisen.

1] You have mentioned that you don’t know when / how much time the kitty would be spending outdoors. Can you elaborate a little bit about what this would depend upon, and whether there would be any restrictions to the kitten’s outdoor access (i.e. length of time, time of day, etc.)? Also, a little information about the area where the kitty might be allowed access, such as is it fenced to protect kitty from the possibility of a dog attack, would there be places for kitty to take shelter from sun/rain?

2] You did not answer the section that asked if you were prepared to cover any vet expenses your pet may incur throughout its life and if there is a limit, how much is too much?

Now I have to say that I was already put off buy some of the questions on the initial application as I was forced to make decisions about how much I could actually care for a cat. I made sure that my son answered honestly because there is no value in having your son create answers just to make things go his way.

This is my response:


Thank you for your consideration of the application.

We wish to retract our application for a kitten through your service. I applaud your efforts to place these incredible animals in the right situations.

It seems as though the questions both in this email and on your applications place too much weight on the unknown. Do we know how much time we will have the Kitten outside or inside for that matter? No, obviously we would find the correct amount of time for our family. Do we know if we would spend an endless amount of money on a cat? Once again these are questions that I could easily fabricate an answer to but realistically do not know. Do you want me to wholeheartedly agree to support the unknown? That would be unfair.

I do understand that your organization does a good job of placing animals and I also am fully aware that you have had to deal with the wrong type of people who have attempted to adopt animals. That is fully understood and not discounted but I am not, and my family is not prepared to fully answer questions based on your strict criteria.

My wife, our two boys and I are looking for an addition to our family. We have thoroughly thought through the process and have done a great deal of research. We just believe that some questions do remain unanswerable until we actively have a pet in the household.

Thank you for your consideration and continue doing a great service.

Zeke Quezada

We did eventually get a cat, but we did not get an animal from this adoption agency and it made me think about the growing numbers of cats without homes in our country.

Are those people who are trying to be part of the solution also part of the problem? Are there families out there who would be a good fit who just do not fit the mold for an arbitrary decision by a person who is volunteering their time by screening would be pet owners?

We were never turned down, but the process was such that I soon felt that I could have created the best possible scenario on paper and would have been given a cat. Instead I told the truth and the truth was not going to work.

I’m conflicted, did I do the right thing by abandoning the initial service and going a different route with adopting a pet?

One thing for sure, my children are excited, the addition to our family is having a wonderful time and the story ended fine for us. But I can’t help to think that somewhere there are cats who do not get placed because one person has decided that only a select few will fit the bill.

Did You Help Heal The Bay?

If you considered how well you lived your life would it be fair to say that you have taken as much as you have given? Have you done your part to deplete as much as necessary to make sure that at some point someone that you know is not going to appreciate one of the things you enjoy?

You know what I’m talking about, fossil fuels, sea bass, swordfish, oil, coal, or even water?

What kind of a question is that? It is almost the militant approach to trying to save the environment. Almost as, if you don’t feel guilty about the way you live your life you might as well write letters of apology to your offspring now.

I watched as a group of volunteers did their part to clean Santa Monica Bay and I wondered to myself why I did not feel the need to join the coastal clean up. Heal the Bay is a great organization and they do their best to make sure the water in Santa Monica bay does not get anymore polluted than it already is. Believe me it can look a bit bad on any given day. No, instead of helping out I was gliding across the water as 12,262 other people helped clean up an ocean that is minutes from my own home and in which I spend an inordinate amount of time both in and on.

The volunteers gathered about 181,000 pounds of debris. My son would call it Marine debris, because he is well versed in the plight of the marine ecosystem and our need to step up and protect it.

Did nothing for me, I was still working on my tan instead of lending some time and energy to fixing the problem.

Can you imagine there have been 99 bacteria limit violations over the past six months? The water is practically glowing and I still listened to Jimmy Buffet from the deck of my sailboat.

Why?

Consider that just a tiny amount under 10 million people live in Los Angels County and the total number of volunteers was 12,262. Seems skewed in the wrong direction but I am sure the numbers were closer to being inflated instead of exaggerated. Do people just not care? Keep in mind that each and everyone of us in Southern California do our very best to influence the biology of the Pacific Ocean that lies so near our communities. We eat, drink and reside in the county and that behavior both directly and indirectly plays a part in what happens in our ocean.

Even though I know that I still did not help. What is wrong with me?

I got me to thinking about simple things that the environmental sect like to talk about like global warming and the decimation of rain forest. I then considered gas prices and food prices. Are there bigger fish to fry in our daily lives and that is precisely why we all seem indifferent to the growing problems that plague our environment?

I hear the celebrities talk about Carbon Footprints and Carbon Credits. Imagine you buy a carbon credit so that you can fly your private jet around the world and have no guilt whatsoever. Meanwhile, the guy who saved for two years to finally get his family to Hawaii is told that he is adding to the problem. But, I guess that is why we usually don’t identify celebrities as national spokespeople for what is right?

These days you can also consider a similar credit that is called avoided deforestation, it works in a similar way and you put down some cash, based on an idea that emissions are some how mitigated because you paid up front to pollute. So does that mean that because my children can possibly appreciate a country with such a diverse number of organisms, such as Madagascar they should start saving so as to help pay some company to protect carbon dioxide emissions if they want to visit it?

Now, I do not profess to understand the entire economics of the situation but why just not pollute? I’m sure that would be a much larger issue so I’ll get back to the real issue.

Heal the Bay. How many members do they have? Considering that we all seemingly pee in the ocean in one way or the another shouldn't we all be proactive and do something about it?

We should. But we don’t and I am not sure why.

Our kids will most likely do it because they will know better but a great deal of us could very well ruin it before they arrive. Organizations like kids for saving the earth, Tree People and The Sierra Club do their part to help the future of this planet but what about those of us that grew up riding in the backseat of station wagons and using aerosol cans?

I glide across the water in my sailboat and I know it should be cleaner. How can one group take on the monumental task of preventing a population from dumping on our environment? Is it a catchy slogan? Is government going to swoop down and save us? Should we encroach upon the freedoms of Angelenos by imposing a “bay credit”. Imagine a small fee to continue using your toilet because it inadvertently makes it way to the bay.

All I know is that whoever is running the ad campaigns for the beer companies and the fast food magnets should offer up a little time to get us to participate in something worthwhile. What I don’t believe we need is a concerted effort at making us feel guilty. I rarely do things out of guilt but I am sure I can be motivated to do plenty when I understand the venture.

Maybe I should install a toll booth in my restroom.

You know, just so that I am ahead of the game.

Understanding Freewill

I want to believe we are better than that. I want to believe that we are really not the talking heads we see on network television. I want to think we are not anywhere as trivial as the people who we listen to on our daily quest to find information. I want to believe it but then I listen to the guys at the train station, the people in the cubicles around us, the idiot in line at the coffee shop and then I fear that we might all be screwed.

That is unless we consider the simple fact that way too many people think that being far too serious about very serious issues works to solve them. If you consider the simplicity of harmony versus the convoluted road to disdain you can imagine that if everyone sat back and considered life as a flip flop wearing, wrinkle t-shirt loving person might, things might be better.

Now consider that everything is not black and white, that you can have a fine red wine with a piece of white fish, that you can be both pro life and pro choice, that seeing things down the middle does not make you afraid of making decisions just more akin to considering your options. Imagine it being okay to change your position on an issue after rethinking it.

What’s wrong with playing Rachmaninoff at a house party? So a guy wears pink? Why should fighting in hockey be banned? Who cares who you voted for just make sure you vote again. There is nothing wrong with some bad language. Foreign films are in fact great, but some do suck.

Can you understand where I am coming from?

It’s not about the left or the right, its about knowing where you come from. It’s understanding who you are and respecting others for what they are. Don’t be an idiot and scream about something you only understand because you heard it on the news. Stand on a soap box because you can argue both positions!

When it all comes down to it, look at your ankles, do you have a sock tan? If you are asking yourself what that has to do with anything you might not enjoy what I am about to say.

Stretch out, feel the wind in your hair, let the sun beat down on your face and live dangerously every now and then. When you wake up in the morning and you have freewill you have already won the battle.

Now take advantage of it and enjoy it.