Ewok teddy bear cat (31 Days of Halloween Kitties Day 14 Year 3)

It is an ewok, teddy bear cat.

I think that this is a cat. Or maybe an ewok. Or maybe a teddy bear. Or maybe Big Foot's lovechild. Honestly, I am not really sure what it is. But I am betting that it is just a rather strange looking cat...and if I am wrong, and it is an evil alien in disguise, just run screaming down the street and I am sure that I will get the message also.

Plans and lessons (31-HP Day 14)

Dear Brother of the Art,

Question of redemption

Read the trestle board
Dance the cards and stars
Adam Primus
So Above, So Below
Build the Tree within
Climb up from the Kingdom
Upwards to the Crown
Rung by rung
Step by step
Day by day
Hour by hour
Gather Mercury, Sulphur
And Salt
Grind and distill
Until the Great Work
Is completed
Strive to be
More than Human

Sincerely, an Adept

Of the Rosy Cross

Super Kitty will save you (31 Days of Halloween Kitties Day 13 Year 3)

Super Kitty is here to save the day.

Have you ever wondered exactly what type of superheroes cats would be? They would hardly be the type of hero that Superman and Batman are. No, they would be more like Super Sleeper, and the Amazing Tripper, and the Mighty Escape Artist. And they would not rescue everyone...in fact, outside of their chosen humans, I am not sure that a single person would ever be rescued by a cat.

There will be some people who might argue with cats being willing to rescue their owners. But for record, my cats rescue me whenever I am feeling down and depressed...hey, my cats are superheroes!

Fickle (31-HP Day 13)

Meow! says Miss Clio.

Meow. Pay attention to me.
Meow. Pet me now.
Meow. Quit touching me.
Meow. Feed me now.
Meow. Not this food.
Meow. I lay here.
Meow. I lay here instead.
Meow. Too hot.
Meow. Too cold.
Meow. What? Me? Fickle?!

Cute little devil (31 Days of Halloween Kiities Day 12 Year 3)

Devil Cat shows true colors this Halloween.

Now back to the parade of cats wearing Halloween costumes. Here is a cute little cat wearing a red devil costume...though I am not sure why there is extra fur around the horns. I am not daring enough to try to get my own devil cat to wear a Halloween costume; she would so rip my arm off.

Here is my own Devil Kitty--wearing a box.

Rant--helping the poor is in your best interest (UBC--day 12)

Apologizes to all who have been following the Halloween (witchy) poetry series. But this morning, I was reading a post by one of the other bloggers doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge and I feel a rant coming on; therefore, it is probably best that I just get up on my soapbox and address the issue that I am raging about today.

(For those who are curious to read the post in question, it is "Rant--stop hating on the poor for not being 'poor enough'" that you can read here.)

Dear people who think that the poor are not poor enough to deserve help,

Let me appeal not to your human decency, which I presume that you do not have, but rather to your enlightened self-interest. There are good reasons that you want to make sure that the poor have roofs over their heads, warm clothes, working fridges, cable TV, computer games, internet access, and phone service. Quite simply, it is in your best interest to make sure that the poor have these things.

Why? Because you do not want to die.

No, I am not talking about an armed uprising. Your life will be endangered long before the poor take up guns to take away your belongings. Why? Because we live in the same areas that you do.

And more importantly, we occasionally handle your food.

Stop and think about it. The poor need clean water, safe and healthy living conditions, including warm clothes and working fridges, simply because without them, the poor are a pandemic just waiting to happen. And don't think that your money and holiness will protect you from a raging disease that starts and spreads among the poorer citizens (and non-citizens) of your nation. It just takes one bad contact and the disease will leap to those who have money.

A pandemic can wipe a large hunk of the population out. I can hear you say, "Good, less poor people." Just keep thinking that--because poor people will not be the only ones to die in such an event.

The 1918 Spanish Flu killed off fifty million people (3% of the world's population at the time). And it must readily killed off the healthy people, not the typical kids, elderly, and infirm that a typical outbreak kills off. Half of the deaths were adults between the ages of twenty and forty years old. And it did not care about your social and economic class either.

And the potential for a pandemic to develop in the poor populations of the civilized world increases once you start to take away basic survival items, such as working fridges.

Plus mistreating the poor will inconvenience you long before that. For instance, internet service--are you aware that many fast food restaurants are now only accepting online applications? No applications from the poor, especially those who need the aid (such as food stamps to supplement their dirt-poor wages), and you will have no one to serve you your Big Mac. Or bag your groceries. Or...well, the list goes on and on.

So just remember that if you get your way, and cut off aid to anyone who does not appear poor enough to deserve aid, that you will reap the benefits by gaining the health hazards of a third world nation (go to India and tour the poorer areas if you think that you might want to do it anyways).

Oh, and just remember that we live in an equal opportunity county. Just like everyone can work hard, or simply get lucky, and become rich, every person who is not living in poverty can become poor (stock market crashes, etc.).

Blessed be.

[And for anyone curious, I grew up poor, and have never made more than nineteen thousand a year--twenty years in restaurants making minimum wage or close thereof--hence my membership in the ranks of the poor...which is why this issue annoys the hell out of me, and why I am so well aware that poor people are touching your food.]

Raptor kitty (31 Days of Halloween Kitties Day 11 Year 3)

Raptor kitty does not need a costume.

The greatest asset you can have is a playful imagination, or at least that what I tell people while I am pretending to be a spiritual and productive guru. And here we have a fabulous kitty demonstrating the fact that you do not need a costume to improvise a character. "Roar! I be mighty dino-raptor! Now give me your sandwich!"