we've had a cold snap and this picture reminds me...
of the days that I used to care for several "neighborhood" cats...
I didn't have tents, but I had warm, dry nests tucked away outside...
and on really cold nights, I could always count on finding "old Red"...
[or any number of others, including those just passing through...]
snuggled inside, all toasty warm and dry...
I once found the body of a stray who had crawled into one of the nests...
and at least, had had a warm, dry spot to die...
a very sad thought, to be sure...
but the alternative of dying under a bush...
miserable & sick in the cold & wet...
would have been a much worse fate...
and a terrible memory...
I no longer have any regular feline visitors...
[of the, "I don't officially live here, but you feed me", kind...]
perhaps because the critter situation made me stop putting out food...
or maybe my street is now just too dangerous for strays to survive...
but I know that there are still so many out there...
struggling to survive...
with no understanding of why their "people" just left them...
and never returned...or dumped them out of a car...
their survival is marginal at best...
in this weather, nearly impossible...
unless someone helps...
so if you're a "soft-touch" like I was...
and are, "rescuing the perishing" on these frigid nights...
by providing a safe, warm & dry place for stray kitties or doggies...
bless you... 'cause there are 'way too many homeless pets these days...
and it is truly, the least that we can do...
and still call ourselves, human beings, that is...
how can we be better ? be a responsible pet owner...
spay & neuter your pets, support animal rescue organizations...
adopt rescued or shelter animals...
take good care of your companion animals...
but above all, have a heart...
Gandhi said that you could tell a great deal about a society...
by how it treated the weakest and most powerless beings amongst it...
we have a long way to go, don't we ?
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