We also have a litter of kittens here. It's awesome. Except. They're ridiculously shy with people, because both their parents are feral cats, so it's up to me and the other volunteer here with me Melanie to socialize them. Easier said than done. My plan for the next two weeks is to sit in the room with them for two hours and just read a book or listen to music. I'm hoping I'll be able to repeat what I did with my cat Chris.
Chris is a cat that I raised from the time he was 3 weeks old til now. The problem with Chris is that he has always been really shy around people, and I managed to singlehandedly socialized that cat from the time I was 14 til I turned 18. He was MY cat. Ask my parents, because for the longest time he would come only to me when I called, slept with me, yadda yadda yadda. Now, that I'm out of the house and he likes other people more, that's changed. So, hopefully I can work some similar magic on these 6 kittens.
In other news, apparently, a few before I got here, my lovely lovely lovely boy neighbors next door decided to get matching brands done. I'm all for branding and other types of scarification, but only when it's done fucking CORRECTLY!!! Seriously! One of them has developed a terribly bad infection in his leg because of it.
According to Melanie, about 5 of them decided that they wanted matching deer brands. It may have worked, if only they hadn't actually used a cattle branding iron, and had instead gone to a professional scarification artist. They may have had something a lot cooler, like this. But apparently, they all have these crazy burn scars, and only one of them looks like a deer... only if he points it out to you, squint your eyes, and turn your head sideways. I may have Melanie take me over there to see their handy work.
Speaking of body mods, this evening Melanie, myself, and Jim(the owner of the sanctuary) went over to Target to go grocery shopping, and while looking around I found not one, but TWO tattoo magazines. For those of you that don't know this, Amber and I have a tendency to buy tattoo magazines when we find them at places that they normally wouldn't be, in order to(if only monetarily) encourage places like Target and Meijer's to carry more of them. Then of course afterwards the two of us ogle the hot girls and head-turning artwork on them.
But besides looking at gorgeous women and beautiful ink, I've been looking at them to try and get ideas for a tattoo for myself. I have plenty of potential plans for tattoos, but I know once I take the plunge into tattooing, the endorphins will hit me like a ton of bricks and there'll be no turning back. I'll have an even MORE expensive addiction beyond getting my body pierced, and I'm already thinking about asking my piercer Jared about suspension when I get back in town.
Crazily enough, I looked up on the APP(Association of Professional Piercers)'s website for a studio near me. There actually happens to be one 7 miles away, and I may just go running in there and demand the tattoo artists there to tattoo whatever they want on me. I've been looking through their portfolios and they're AMAZING, and would be well worth the money. Though that may just be what my brain is telling me since it's 2 in the morning.
Actually, one of my tattoo ideas would be to get Mom and Pop tattooed on me rubbing their heads together.
You have to understand, out of all the critters here, I have always had a very special place in my heart for Mom and Pop. Mom and Pop are the oldest leopards I've ever met, and have been my favorites since I was last here in '09. Sadly, about a month and a half after I left, Pop died of cancer. I was heartbroken, because everyday, before I would go feed the livestock, I'd have a heart-to-heart conversation with them. Usually, it was just me telling them how amazing they looked from coming from terrible conditions, living to ripe old age of 20-25(we have no idea how exactly old they are), and if I was feeling down that day, I'd tell them about my problems. That being said, they never really liked having me stand there staring and talking to them. You could tell by how tense their bodies would get, their sudden panting, and how fast their sides were moving up and down, once they realized I had no food for them. But, near the end of my time here, Pop went into surgery to have his tumors removed since one had split open and was physically affecting his movement.
Ever since I found out that Pop died, I worried about Mom being lonely and sad, even though leopards are naturally solitary animals. She reminded of one of those older couples who lose their spouse after 40-60+ years of marriage. Thankfully, those thoughts were put to rest when I stopped by and saw her last January with my mom. She looked great, even though she was still tensed up when I walked up, and starting talking to her.
Today on the other hand, my "conversation" was great! Maybe it was the heat, maybe she's OK with people who don't have food hanging around, maybe it's a little of both. But today we maintained eye contact for five minutes, before she licked herself a few times, grunted, then rolled onto her back, and fell asleep. I found myself patting myself on the back, before prancing away quite ecstatically.
There will always be a special place in my heart for Mom. Always <3
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