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Carolyn Martin - Poet

“All my life I have tried to find the truth and make it beautiful.” – Sting

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Challenges for a Non-Pet Person

It happens this way …

My local friends are probably tired hearing about the anxiety I’ve been feeling — not about important issues like the virus or riots — but about the appearance of a feral momma cat and her two kitties in our side yard two weeks ago.

Feral cats are nothing new in our neighborhood. We’ve banded together over the years to have them fixed so they won’t populate the earth. However, the cycle of birth and rebirth has started again. We have three traps in our backyard ready to be set as soon as the kittens have been weaned. How will we know when? I have no idea.

Interestingly, the momma which we call Dahlia — as in Black Dahlia — was a kitten herself a bit more than a year ago. Her momma who lives next door also had kittens recently, so we have all these  generations running around. Our intent is to find homes for the kitties and have the mommas fixed. But to catch them when they’re here one day and gone the next is crazy-making.

I’ve had to practice letting go and giving control back to Mother Nature. Cats will do what cats will do and, while we have their best interest at heart, we’re not in charge.

As for why I don’t own pets, here’s a poem that captures my history with them.

Love’s Labor’s Lost or Why I Don’t Own Pets

 Three chameleons

disappeared 

into our bamboo shades.

The horny lizard’s

soft-curled back

amazed

then,

like goldfish

in their hazy bowl,

flipped

its down side up.

Unamused,

dad booted out                                                                           

the lab who

slurped

his cabbage soup.

The speckled mutt

arrived

one day,

ran

away the next.            

Need more

reasoning?

A droop-face cop

charged

our summer yard

and shot

two frothing pups.

My heart

can’t bear

another crack.

I fall in love

too hard,

too fast.

*****

I applaud all you pet-lovers and -keepers. You have a vocation that requires commitment and love. This vocation is not mine this lifetime. However, I will do my best by the ferals. That’s the least I can offer the critters of the earth.

Written by:
Carolyn Martin
Published on:
June 6, 2020
Thoughts:
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