the truth about cats and blogs

I mounted my bicycle for the two mile trip to Johnson City Medical Center on August 1st. After a lengthy auto commute in July, I was excited to enjoy the fresh air. It was early, but the sun was peeking out and it was summer in Tennessee. I rode through the VA campus and passed my medical school on the left. As I approached the hospital, the first rays of sun glistened on the dingy gutters lining the road. I caught a glimpse of a puffy tail disappearing underground as I rode by.
I wonder what that was.
There was construction around the medical center and in some ways I envied the workers. I was trapped in stale air conditioning all day while they labored in the sun. They ate lunch under a tree. I saw them working or resting on my afternoon ride home. I wondered if they envied me, getting to work indoors with my mind instead of my body.
The next day I came upon the gutters more slowly. Two baby blue eyes met mine from inside the drain.
I think that's a kitten.
As quickly as I thought those words, the creature was gone. I looked again for him on the way home, but he was nowhere to be found. The rest of the week I searched in vain. My husband, Adam, also worked at the Medical Center. I told him to watch for this mysterious creature as he rode his bike to work. The next week I saw Adam in the emergency department. We smiled at each other.
"I saw your kitten." He told me. I was happy to have reassurance since I had also seen the kitten that morning. This time he was scoping out the grass around the gutter, but again raced to safety as I approached. I wondered if the loud construction noises bothered him. I wondered why he was alone. Did his siblings die? Or was he misplaced?
After work I walked my bicycle down the road. I looked more carefully into the gutter and saw the kitten's mother. There were no other kittens, and his mother looked sickly and undernourished. Apparently someone else previously noticed this situation because there was a large pile of cat food in their den. I decided this must have been the construction workers who saw the kitten as they lunched in the shade. How kind. Okay, these creatures are being taken care of. I certainly do not need any more responsibilities.
That night I woke from sleep during a torrential downpour. My first thought was the kitten, shivering and soaked in the drain, with his mother crying because their food stash was being washed away. I could not fall back to sleep and the next day told Adam my revelation.
"I have to rescue that kitten. We could care for it until it is strong, and then find a better home for it."
Adam, who is used to my crazy schemes, told me that if I could capture it, we could rescue it. I did not understand his cynical snicker at the time. How hard could it be?

That night I gathered supplies: soft cat food, treats, our pet carrier, and string attached to the carrier door. When I came near the hospital, I immediately saw the kitten in the grass. I approached like a ninja and set up close enough that he could smell the soft cat food inside the carrier. I lay in the grass on the side of an embankment ten feet away, clutching the string. I knew I would only have one chance. I lay in the grass for a long time. My muscles cramped and I began to have doubts. Kitten was scared. He knew that I lurked somewhere nearby and could sense danger. It took kitten two hours to bravely enter the carrier, with hunger finally winning out over fear. I pulled the string as hard as I could. Trapped! I ran to the carrier to clasp the door. The kitten was slamming his body against it, trying in vain to free himself.
I told him that it was okay. On the car ride home he slurped up an entire bowl of food. At home, Adam could not believe that I had succeeded. We brought the kitten to the spare bedroom and closed the door. We examined him. He hissed at us and ran behind the bed.
Over the next few weeks we fell in love. We named him Omega after the philosophy of the "omega point" which asserts that a certain combination of factors leads to perfect satisfaction and happiness. We set aside talk of adoption. When we found him, Omega weighed less than one pound, was 6-8 weeks old, and could not chew solid food. He is now a healthy, happy cat. And we have found our omega point.

the wedding stinger

Adam and I privately committed to each other one bitterly cold night in West Virginia in 2003. We had been together for a year at that time, and both knew that this was it. The subject of marriage honestly never came up for a long time after that. But then one day it did…

We got “engaged” during a vacation to the Northwest. There was no proposal and no exchange of rings, but we decided it was a good idea to publicly commit and get it over with. We initially had the idea to have a big, informal outdoor wedding. Low key, everyone welcome, fun for all. Before I knew it demands were piling up from all directions. Apparently our vision was not paramount in this event, but to be diplomatic, we refocused and tried to plan an intimate family affair at a bed and breakfast. This may have been ill-fated from the start. To understand why, here is a bit of background on my family.
My parents have been divorced since I was 11, following several years of an on-again, off-again struggle. At one point during this time, my grandmother physically assaulted my mother, who still claims to have PTSD from this incident. Let’s just say the relationship between the two sides is not pretty. After the divorce, my mom found her hippie side and now resides in a commune growing edible plants. My father subsequently bought a mail-order bride, thinking that he could subjugate her. I guess he did not do much research regarding Filipino women.
Now, added to this train wreck comes Adam’s ultraliberal PhD parents, lesbian sister, and outspoken New Jersey grandmother. Uh oh.
The notion that these people could get along in close quarters for a weekend seems absurd now, but at the time I entertained the notion as logical. But demands continued to escalate in terms of what was expected. Ironically, resources were dwindling to nonexistence. The pinnacle occurred during a two week correspondence with my father about the $800 down payment for the bed and breakfast. He had told me “the check is in the mail” several times, but it never arrived. Perhaps he had more insight into this potential disaster than I did.
I was fed up. “Adam, do you want to get married tomorrow?” It was Monday evening. Tomorrow I had a three hour break between classes.
“Well, I was going to go kayaking in the afternoon. Could we do it late morning?”
We debated on whether to call our parents, and ultimately decided that it was only fair. His mother threw a fit and told us she was coming. My mother was upset that his mother was coming and demanded that she come, but that we had to work around her schedule. The only fair thing to do was forbid all friends or family from participating. We did not tell anyone else and went to the courthouse alone on November 9, 2004. It was surprisingly easy to get married. We paid our money and a clerk helped us find an available judge. He asked if we had any family or witnesses with us. When we said no, he told us that people who get married in secret are often hiding something. I told him “That’s interesting. So, is there a staff person who can witness?” After all, I had to be back at school soon so there was no time to waste listening to paternalistic speeches.
After we got hitched, Adam went kayaking and I went back to class. We eventually bought some rings from a pawn shop to really cinch the deal. Do I regret not having a wedding? Hell no. I do wish some things had gone differently with respect to this whole affair, but our families eventually forgave us. It was a good lesson in relinquishing control.