Author: Stacy Horn

If only I had checked my voice mail a little earlier they would already be here. But I got the call that I could come pick them up yesterday, so I am just waiting anxiously for the ASPCA Adoption Center to open at 11am.

I will be back with pictures of their return. They grew so much in these two weeks. They’re not little kittens anymore. But as any pet owner can tell you, they will always be my babies.

Bleecker, when he was just a little kitten.

My kittens are not back, but I visited them on Sunday and saw on their medical chart that their diarrhea was worse than what I was told. It doesn’t make their absence any harder, but now I understand why they are being held, and I’m glad they are getting the right care (I wrote a thank you on their chart).

I’m hoping against hope that they’re okay now and that I’ll be taking them home today.

I was on jury duty yesterday, but was dismissed after one day only. Most of us were. But I used the waiting time in the jury room to get a good start on the source notes for my book.

The ASPCA is holding onto Bodhi and Bali because they have a touch of diarrhea. The timing couldn’t be worse. After losing Finney so recently, I feel especially vulnerable. When I got the news yesterday, after thinking this was going to be the happy day I could finally bring them back home, I just lost it. I curled up on the floor and sobbed. Even Bleecker is acting depressed. I’m going to ask them to please let me treat them at home. I work in their Kitten Nursery, and I’m certainly capable. But maybe they will call me and tell me I can come get them today.

My book may have illustrations, and I’ve been collecting images for possible use. I’m shocked though, at how few there are out there. Really, there’s only a handful. I keep finding the same pictures over and over in all the archives I’ve checked. Given the number of people and workers and visitors who passed through, many in a time when lots of people owned cameras, why haven’t more pictures come to light? This is the Octagon, that was once part of the Lunatic Asylum, and is now restored and part of an apartment complex.

I saw the new movie, A Ghost Story. I wanted to love it more than I did, but I liked it. It’s strictly my problem. I want answers about life and death, but who really has answers?

For this reason, my favorite parts were the very very brief times when the ghosts talked to each other. It was the sharing of confusion, and lack of answers, that touched me. It’s really all we have (I have). The ability to share our need and uncertainty.

Bodhi on my lap. I miss my kittens. They are back at the ASPCA, getting neutered. A process that takes two and a half days, the ASPCA way. (24 hour med check, procedure, 24 hours to check the healing.). They’re going to forget me and Bleecker!

I’ve been trying to find the best spot at Carl Schurz Park to sit and eat my lunch. Sitting right on the river is lovely, but it’s too hot out in the sun now. When I sit at one of the few benches in the shade, ants appear and start crawling on me. Not many, but enough to be annoying.

So I’ve been exploring inside the park. The problem was locating a spot I liked that’s both in the shade and has a nice view and feel. Then yesterday I stepped down into this. It’s a quiet circle of benches, most of which are under trees, and it has a slightly secluded, Secret Garden-like feel.

There might be better spots but this is already on the edge of too far from the ASPCA Kitten Nursery, where I work. I don’t want to spend half my lunch hour getting there and back. So I’m declaring this as my spot!