LIFE IMITATING ART

MY LAZY BUDDY

   Exploits of Hemingway our polydactyl have been documented here in previous posts. But here is something you may not know. He is a rescue cat from HART our local shelter-The Homeless Animal Rescue Team. He was an abandoned "freak," an off spring of feral cats in Paso Robles.
   The woman who brought him to HART had been watching a feral cat as it prepared to birth kittens. After they arrived the mother carefully moved the litter over a fence, except for Hemingway. Instead she dropped him elsewhere and left. Rescuers reason she wanted nothing to with a kitten who had six fingers on each paw. Being dumped by your mom could give you an attitude, right?
     When he arrived in Cambria he was put into a separate holding cage because he was wildly rambunctious and a "biter." They warned us he might be a handful but everyone loved the little scamp. They gave him an apt name.

   Hemingway was even a "poser boy" for a benefit.

  He is the first of his "line" to be domesticated. Nothing in his genes prepared him to be a "pet." Perpetually curious and affectionate he's been a delightful pal. A little slow, I call him a Palooka, he is playful. The trash trucks and mail unit scare him. He shows evidence of hypersensitive hearing. But he is playful, easy going and loves attention. He knows he's family. Good, for a "left for dead" creature.

  Well, as he has grown he's perfected the Garfield Syndrome. When not eating he loves to nap, often in the Jade planter on the front deck. Here he expresses his pique at being disturbed during a nap.

   But it's not about nothing. Of recent he's learned to resemble a corpulent old man dozing in an easy chair. That jade makes a perfect back support.  The good life!

   Life confronts us with complexity and the news suffers no shortage of inhumanity, but pets, from rescue shelters especially, are memes of caring. In return, we have fascinating entertainment while we abet a job description to pine for.

WE WERE BORN THAT WAY

    Bob Christy, a former colleague and longtime friend, who's blog can be found in the Rich Blogs Column to your right on LightBreezes, posted recently on the difficulties vexing transgender people. 

    We are in a learning curve. Societal understandings are morphing. Prejudice, ignorance-often because of limited or narrow life experience and exposure and a moralistic judgementalism will be overcome. Demographic cohorts of 12-40 year olds get it. You see the fault line? Life is more intricate than old black and white television. 

     The CBS 60 Minutes piece on a swimmer on the Harvard mens team is a case in point. He was born a girl, but didn't fit the gender. She had been a champion in girl's competitions and was offered a scholarship. But a gender change changed more. He now competes on the men's team. He is taking hormone treatments, had a breast removal and is a man with a vagina. 
     Generational perceptions influence how we think and react and that is especially so in this area. But more new challenges are due. Pharmacological advances, regenerative medicine, medical technology and artificial intelligence in particular will have humankind scratching our heads trying to determine what makes a human, human? That is an easier question today.

PINERIDGE ONIONS

   More evidence of why I appreciate that Lana likes to play in the dirt.

    One of our favorite Italian chefs is receiving a gift. 

    See you down the trail.