Stacy Horn

Some of you may remember that a kitten aspirated while I was feeding him over a month ago. I thought he was going to die, but he pulled through. He and his brother have had a ton of health issues, but they are out of the woods and I am going to adopt them.

Because I felt responsible for Bodhi’s problems I’ve been loving on him and his brother ever since, and they are the sweetest kittens in the nursery (to me!).

But someone snapped them up and took them home to foster them while I was off the past two days. I thought they were too young for foster!! So I quick put a hold on them, so only I can adopt them. But now I won’t see them for weeks! They’re going to forget me!!

In much worse news, Finney, who seemed mostly fine, has turned a sad corner. I don’t know if this is it, but he’s now eating less, which is the sign I go by. I don’t know how close we are, but we’re now firmly heading there.

This never gets any easier, apparently.

Poor Bleeck, relegated to the floor at my feet while Finney gets the prime real estate, my lap. But Bleecker has two kittens in his future, cats he can really play with like he never could with Finney, who was always too old. So his life is going to get much better. I hope Bodhi and Bali are up for this. Bleeck is a handful.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’m going to rename them, but I don’t hate Bodhi and Bali for names.

I took this back in the day when I was able to take full hour lunches away from my ASPCA work in the Kitten Nursery. I’d sit along the East River, gazing across at the former Blackwell’s Island (I have a book coming out next year about what happened there) feeling so relaxed.

Now we have so many kittens I have to figure out how to manage my time so I can do that again. My problem is I’m a relatively slow bottle feeder. They had someone (Judith, aka the “kitten whisper”) come in on Thursday especially to watch me and give me tips on how to take up less time, which she generously did. We shall see how I do next week!

I saw this on a stoop on my way to work this morning. Plastic rats with Trump wigs. The box they are eyeing says Veritas (truth) with a poison symbol. I love people. Thank you, whoever did this. Made my morning.

His Kickstarter campaign is almost funded!! It’s based on his views and experiences regarding adoptions, and it’s called: Mothers’ Voices: A “Rematriated” Adoptee’s Art Residency.

From the Kickstarter page:

My name is Daniel, I was born in Qbeih, Lebanon, in 1963. Two months later I was adopted by an American family, and grew up in New Jersey. In 2004 I returned and lived and worked in Beirut for 12 years. It was last year at this time that I learned the truth about my adoption narrative, was reunited with extended family, that I visited my mother’s grave, but then was obliged to leave the country and return to the States. I was recently named a resident artist at the Newark Print Shop, and have proposed a printmaking project entitled: “Mothers’ Voices”. The project is detailed below, and a fuller personal narrative is included. I thank you in advance for your time and consideration of this project.

I know Daniel from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, where we were both grad students, and where we both later taught. (He’s one of the most fun people I know, and very passionate and smart.)

I grabbed this picture of Daniel from a New York Times piece about Daniel’s search for his past. The photographer is Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times.

I’ve made this joke many times, that I’ve wanted to title my books We Will Never Learn and I Have Proof, but I’ve never wanted to more than with this one. I’m giving my book a final read before sending it to my editor, where it will go on to copy editing. It’s a chance to step back, and reflect on what the book says as a whole.

This book covers so many areas: criminal justice, mental health, poverty, health care, and I’ve had the opportunity to learn how we, as a society, have handled very difficult problems in these fields for the past 150 years or so.

But what I’ve learned, as so many historians learn over and over, is that we keep doing the same terrible things over and over. It’s most striking in the area of criminal justice, where I read about the same appalling practices that John Oliver covers in his show Last Week Tonight.

I’ve probably posted these sentiments before, I’m sure I’ve written posts with this title before, but I’m just really feeling it now. I’m going over what I’ve written about prisons full of teenagers and poor people, and the bail system, and it’s just appalling. What upsets me most is, I don’t know how to turn it around. I have no suggestions. Well, no realistic suggestions, but I’ll post about that when my book comes out.

I’ve certainly made my book sound appealing, haven’t I??

Tomorrow is my birthday, and this is a present from a friend!