Update On Dexter

Well, finally good news! Last weekend Dexter went back for his second feline leukemia test and it was NEGATIVE! I was so excited I jumped up and hugged the doctor (silly me).

We have to take him back in another two weeks to re-test again just to be sure it's not another "false" test. If it's negative again, he can get all his regular vacinations and finally be incorporated with the other cats. Yippee!!! (Sometimes I think these vets just run up charges unnecessarily).

Hang in there, Dex. You are one brave little feline. He's coming along so wonderfully and now weighs four and a half pounds! What a miracle. Left for dead and now flourishing. He is truly a wonder kitty!

Which One Is It....

The Starbucks phenomena. People, for God's sake it's only coffee. Stupid

Harry Potter craze. Only in America will kids line up before dawn to purchase a book about a juvenile warlock. Stupid

The "You Tube" craze. Americans have wayyyy too much time on their hands. Way too much. Dumb

Psychics. It's astonishing how many people believe this ish! How come they never predict who's going to win the California Million Dollar Lotto? Why no prediction on Hurricane Katrina? Aw, get outta here with your crystal ball. Dumb and Stupid

"The Biggest Loser". Who wants to see a bunch of fat people sweating and exercising? And then...(drum roll,please), the hi-light of the show: the weigh-in! Come on. Dumb

Playing video games all day. No wonder so many American kids score low on SATs. Parents should take away all those video games and buy some books for their illiterate knot head offspring. Clicking a controller all day - how boring! Dumb and Stupid

Brittney Spears. Can't sing, can't dance, still behaving like the "trailer trash" she is, bad mother, loose morals, psycho behavior - yup, no wonder she's a star. Dumb and Stupid

People talking on cell phones in restaurants. When I see and hear this, I want to go over to them, snatch that thing out of their hand and hit them over the head with it! Who the hell wants to hear your phone conversation while they're trying to have dinner? Inconsiderate jerks. Dumb and Stupid

People (usually young urban types), who wear false gold teeth, aka "grills". If they really knew how damned pathetically ignorant they looked, I would hope they'd stop this negative attention-getting tactic. Dumb and Stupid

Tattoos all over one's body. Need I say more, really? What fool does this and why? Do you really think this makes you more attractive? It doesn't and in addition to being less attractive you also look totally out of touch with reality. Having one or two tattoos is no big thing but when you want to make yourself look like a walking advertisement for all sorts of stupid-ass cartoons, swastikas, crosses, hearts, etc., YOU CRAZY! Dumb and Stupid

Those Jenny Craig commercials with Kirstie Alley. Sorry, Kirstie, hon, you still look heavy. Don't get off JC quite yet. And, please try not to speak so much as your voice is so damned annoying! Dumb and Stupid

Star Jones. Having bypass surgery didn't help this chick's looks at all! Instead of a blimp, she now looks like a pop-eyed scarecrow. I can't figure out why people are interested in how she lost the weight. It should be fairly obvious it was surgery and besides that, who the hell cares about her? Let's see: a lonely, successful obese woman who marries a gay man (she claims she didn't know he was gay - ok, sure, Star. If that's your story, you stick to it, girlfriend). It's been done before, people. Dumb and Stupid

Saving Dexter

Dexter is an adorable little black kitty that wandered onto my patio steps a few weeks ago. How did he know an avid cat lover lived here? I was speaking on the phone when I happened to peek out my patio door windows and this small black creature was staring up at me with huge, hollow, sad yellow eyes.

I opened the door and he let out a weak, pathetic meow that melted my heart. He was all skin and bones, so weak he was wobbly, dehydrated from the sweltering heat that day. I hung up the phone, ran to my kitchen and came back with a dish of food. He was so weak, he could hardly eat. I went to my garage and got one of my cat's pet carriers and gently pushed him in. He gave absolutely no resistance. He couldn't. He was barely alive. When I lifted the carrier, it felt as though it were empty. My God, I thought.

I took him to the vet and the tech, horrified, looked at his little belly crawling with fleas. There were so many it looked like letters on a newspaper. He was infested! He was extremely dehydrated (totally white gums and skin that stayed pinched instead of snapping back into place), runny sad eyes and full of worms. So much for one so small to endure. The vet informed me that he wouldn't have lasted much longer had I not brought him in. He was on his way out.

They kept him for two days while feeding him intravenously and giving him B-12 shots. They also bathed him and combed out legions of fleas from his little body! They were eating him alive. Because he only weighed one pound, they couldn't de-worm him because he wasn't strong enough. I almost cried when I left him, afraid he wouldn't make it.

After returning in two days, he looked better but his eyes were still sad. I took him home and isolated him in the spare bedroom from my other cats. He still needed all his shots but had to gain weight before he could get them. Slowly, but surely, he started to eat and eat and eat! My daughter and I rejoiced to see he'd gained a whole pound in a week. What a fighter! He'd wait until I left the room to come out from under the bed to eat and then, scramble back under it. Our cats sniffed under the bedroom door and stalked back and forth relentlessly, wondering who had invaded "their" house. My daughter and I would come in, take him from under the bed, play with him, snuggle and kiss him, all the while cooing about what a brave boy he was. He purred so loudly and had such a grateful look in his eyes that I vowed to spend every penny I had to take care of him.

When he went back to be de-wormed after gaining his whole pound, the vet gave us devestating news. His feline leukemia test was positive. We were crushed! The doctor told us to bring him back in a couple of weeks to be re-tested as sometimes the FeLV test produced a "false positive". We're keeping our fingers crossed, believe me.

My daughter and her friends talked on the phone about what to name him and came up with "Poindexter", Dexter for short. I loved it! Dexter now plays and romps with his toy mouse and balls, climbs on his cat furniture, nips at our fingers and does everything a healthy, normal little kitty does. What a beautiful gem left for dead. I feel so good knowing I rescued this sweet animal and he has graced our lives, regardless of what his next FeLV test shows.

Have you saved a life lately?

LA Freeways are NOT Free

LA's freeways are some of the most dangerous in the country. Each time you get behind the wheel of your car, you take a severe risk due to thousands of uninsured and unlicensed drivers, drunk and drugged out drivers, fools on cell phones, the list goes on and on. Honestly, the total disrespect they have for other driver's safety is alarming. You had better be alert behind the wheel on any major freeway in Southern California. One of the worst is the 405 - it is, quite literally at times, a parking lot.

I mean, really, there's a lot of clowns out there! People driving in gridlock, which is scary enough, talking incessantly on their cell phones. What's so important you have to be on a cell phone when it's pouring rain or traffic is bumper-to-bumper? I've seen people reading a newspaper or map (honest!) while driving on the freeway. Why? If you needed to find out how to get to your destination, why the hell didn't you find out BEFORE you left home, or wherever you came from? Why put all those around you in danger because of your stupidity?

People zip up and down the freeways in big SUVs (Hummers, Expeditions, Tahoes, etc.),oblivious to the fact that other cars have the right to share the road. You know the old saying: "An oversized vehicle means an undersized something else". I agree. lol It seems if these guys drive a bigger vehicle, it makes them feel better about themselves. I've heard them say they enjoy sitting up high and looking down on other cars. Oh, okay. Little things please little minds.

Some of the very worst are illegal immigrants behind the wheel in raggedy cars. If they hit you (and they frequently do), they leave the scene of the accident, esp. if someone's been injured, and flee across the border where they blend into the local populace. This costs honest insured drivers millions of dollars a year! If they do happen to stop, they claim not to know how to speak English and then you know for sure they're uninsured. WHY is it I have to have a valid license, registration and insurance and all these people do not? It's truly pathetic. The bad part is, it's only going to get worse.

Let's not forget those in so-called luxury vehicles, i.e., Mercedes, Audis, Jaguars and Porsches. They dip in and out of traffic because they can. Just because you have a fast car doesn't give you the right to cut in front of someone without signaling, regardless of how fast you can do it! Add to the mix all the young drivers under 25 and it's truly scary. I live in a small city that has several colleges. The number of college students behind the wheel is frightening. I try not to go near those colleges but can't keep those drivers away from my street. (Shudder)!

After driving on these freeways for over thirty years, I can understand how road rage could happen if you are not a stable, rational person. I swear, these fools make you want to start carrying a gun!

SICK "Macho" Men and Dogfighting

The recent headlines about Atlanta football player Michael Vick and dogfighting, open an ugly wound in our country. When I heard about it and they flashed the horrid pictures on the screen unexpectedly, I cried. I admit I broke down because these poor beasts don't deserve this. Nobody or nothing does. Americans are notoriously hypocritical when it comes to what they say and what they do. There are far too many crimes like this perpetrated against innocent animals all over the country that people know about, and do nothing about.

It is a disgrace and a crime before Almighty God to hurt anything, smaller and less powerful than you. But, what is it that makes people want to harm anything? Michael Vick is a successful and rich athlete. WHY would he want to hold these dogfights for sport? What, inside of this man, has happened that he is so cruel and hateful that he takes it out on innocent animals? What about his rich neighbors? You mean to tell me they didn't know what was going on with the crowds, noise, dogs growling, a pit in the backyard? This is hurtful and shameful.

I am an unabashed animal lover. I own cats but I love dogs and all animals. Never, ever in this life or any life to come, would I hurt any creature! I teach this to my daughter. From the moment she was a young child, I taught her that animals are God's creation just as people and they are to be treated humanely and they have feelings. They are not just here for food or sport. They're here to be our friends and companions. People don't understand that the world is reciprocal - what you put out you certainly get back in some way, form or fashion.

God have mercy on the poor animal that loses in these fights! What type of man could do that to a helpless animal?? It sickens and disgusts me! Michael Vick and all his cohorts need to be thrown in that pit naked and let a football team of pit bulls tear their sadistic asses to pieces!

This happens all over our country. In the South, "good ol boys" hold dogfights for "bonding". Urban areas routinely hold dogfights and nobody seems to care! Why do we, as a society, tolerate this? I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, really. There was a time in this country that we tolerated other people being lynched, tarred and feathered, and burned alive. We are very tolerant of abuse in this society. All that's needed next is for the ACLU to come out and say Vick's constitutional rights entitle him to do whatever he wants with his dogs, on his property. Don't think it can't happen. We are a very sick society.

Classic Film Review

Director Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" is Film Noir at it's best. This classic flick stars Tom Neal and Ann Savage.

Neal, a down on his luck piano player who has left California, is picked up on an Arizona highway while hitchhiking. His bad luck continues when the man who picked him up suddenly dies of a heart attack in his company. Afraid of being accused of murdering him, Neal gets rid of the body and takes the man's clothes, car and wallet.

While driving down the highway in the man's car, he sees blonde Ann Savage walking, looking exhausted and forlorn. Neal pulls over and offers her a ride which will soon throw him into a nightmare. She's crazy, mean and shrewish and the sound of her voice almost drove me up the wall while watching this film!

Throughout the film she has this awful sneer on her face and you can just feel her contempt for Neal as the movie progresses. You see, while in the car, she suddenly blurts out, "What did you do with the body?" It seems she had been picked up by the car's owner not too long ago and knows Neal isn't who he claims to be.

Under the threat of her telling the police, Neal turns into a simpering wimp and your sympathy for him quickly turns into disgust as he cowers under her continual verbal abuse.

I won't give the ending away but it's a true gem of Film Noir moviemaking.

The Need For Speed

I love a fast car! I love putting my car into 5th gear, hearing the motor rev, turn over and then, almost like an afterthought, a stutter-step, she pulls out like the wind! It's a great feeling.

I own an Infiniti G35 (pictured). It's a smooth machine. My next car is going to be a Corvette. Always wanted one and I'm going to get one. It's going to be black with black tinted windows, gorgeous custom rims and my personalized plate that reads: RKETSHP. If you see me, just get outta my way.