The Smell of Death

Good evening, dear readers.

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the horrible sight, so here's a mommy and baby kitty pic instead (pic found here)

Today, my husband made a grisly discovery.

He was going out to round up the cats for their morning feed when he noted the horrible smell of something dead and rotten wafting around the yard. He followed his nose to the front of the trailer, where the smell was strongest. Getting his drill, my husband unscrewed the soffet covering the bottom of the trailer and found the source of the smell.

It was a litter of dead and putrefying kittens.

A few days ago, we heard the sound of kittens mewing under our trailer. The Siamese minnie who we believe to be the mother of Puppy, our youngest cat, was pregnant and had now given birth. Since we had no idea where the kittens were under the trailer, we couldn't check on the newborns to see how many there were and what condition they were in. After hearing silence for a few days, I had assumed their mommy had moved the nest. It's not uncommon for minnie cats to move litters from one place to another after giving birth. Well, apparently she hadn't. My husband noted that from what he could make out in the remains, they still contained the afterbirth. It was like the Siamese minnie had just dropped the litter and abandoned them, not knowing what to do and not caring whether they lived or died.

With the help of a plastic bag, a shovel, and LOTS of garden lime, my husband buried the remains in the garden, right near White Chin's grave. It was heartbreaking to know of what became of the litter of kittens that the minnie had. I was looking forward to raising another litter of kittens, or at least whichever ones that I could catch. It literally put in perspective how miraculous it is that Puppy is even alive. Granted, her mother isn't very healthy (she wheezes constantly when she comes around) and was likely abandoned herself, but to drop a litter and walk away is just mind blowing. Perhaps its my own motherly hormones that make me feel this way, but to contemplate why the Siamese minnie had done such an irresponsible act made me feel depressed.

Powderpuff, 2013. She was my husband's favorite girl cat. He'd raised her from infancy and watched her grow into a strong and capable mommy cat.

True to his Catholic views on all forms of contraception, my husband has never been particularly big on spaying/neutering animals. But, upon making this grisly discovery, he has been adamant about trapping the Siamese minnie and taking her to get spayed. His view on spaying was always to do it after the minnie had at least one, maybe two, litters because having so many kittens can literally kill them. He'd seen this lesson play out many times over the course of his life. I saw it happen to Powderpuff, our beloved tortoiseshell calico who my husband brought into our marriage and whose untimely demise from birthing too large a litter too close to her last one was only the second time I ever saw him shed tears in front of me. Now, we're looking into getting a trap and seeing where we can get free/low cost spaying done. We plan to do a TNR, since the Siamese minnie is rather feral and doesn't like being around people much.

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Night on Mt. Baldy

Good evening, dear readers.

I recently stumbled across an article about a tragic event that took place right here in southern Arizona. The article, though written in 2012, described how on a mild November day in 1958, a group of six Boy Scouts went on a hike up Mt. Baldy (now called Mt. Wrightson) in the Santa Rita mountains just south of Tucson, AZ. What should have been a relatively uneventful hike became a fight for survival after a freak storm blew up over the valley, pummeling Tucson with six inches of snow and walloping several feet on the mountain. With no trails to walk on and no landmarks to guide them, the boys were lost in the deathly fog which enveloped Mt. Baldy. It is said one of the boys broke his leg and with help from his fellow scouts, fashioned a lean-to to try and protect himself from the elements while waiting for help. He and two others perished from hypothermia and while the surviving boys were found by a massive search party and taken to safety, the bodies of their companions remained lost. The three dead boys were discovered weeks later by a rancher, their bodies removed by soldiers stationed in nearby Ft. Huachuca and a memorial erected on the site just off the trail where they lay. The memorial still stands to this day commemorating the tragedy that befell there over fifty years ago.

One of the memorials dedicated to the lost Boy Scouts. Pic found here

The story of the lost Boy Scouts became the subject of a haunting memoir that was written by the sister of one of the deceased Boy Scouts in honor of her brother's death and sparked a renewal in interest of the tragedy so close to home. It was actually the subject of an NPR book review, which was how I first heard of this event right here in my part of the state.

As is often the case in the aftermath of a tragedy, the questions begin to arise. What if modern meteorological technology had been available back then? Could modern technology like cell phones and GPS have led to finding the boys alive? Was there anything that could have been done to prevent this from happening? Can anything be done to ensure this doesn't happen again?

An appropriately snowy image of the Santa Ritas. Mt. Wrightson would be the tall peak on the left (the one most hidden by the clouds). Pic found here

I suppose modern meteorological tools like satellites could have given forecasters a better idea of what sorts of conditions to expect that day, but even then there is a reason why the old cliche about weathermen being unable to predict the weather sticks around. I don't know that modern satellites and computer models could have predicted this event. As for modern technology like cell phones, those only work so long as you have a charge in the battery. It will work for a while, but eventually the battery will run out and when the battery runs out, the GPS in the phone will go offline too. I honestly don't know that anything could have been done to prevent this tragedy, given the utterly unpredictable way everything went down. I don't think anything really can be done to prevent a freak occurrence like this from happening since no one can see when its coming.

Clearer view of the Santa Ritas. The adjacent saddleback peak to the right of Mt. Wrightson is Mt. Hopkins, where an observatory is located. Pic found here

Many primitive cultures like those of the Native Americans have beliefs about spirits residing in the natural world, such as in trees, bodies of water, and mountains. As such, these spirits demand offerings from time to time as a means of appeasement for their continued existence. Given the freak nature of the deadly storm that killed these boys, can it be speculated that a mountain spirit (or more) became unhappy and demanded a sacrifice? It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. Some basic instruction in Catholic demonology tells of how demons can influence weather patterns to bring about death and destruction which they then proceed to feast on. I'm not saying this is what happened, but it does make you wonder if there wasn't something supernatural at play that deadly night on Mt. Baldy.

If you're interested in learning more about the tragedy on Mt. Wrightson in 1958, check out the book Death Clouds on Mt. Baldy: Tucson's Lost Tragedy by Cathy Hufault

Note: This post was inspired by this video.

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On Guns

On 8/26/15, in a style that rivaled something out of a Hollywood movie, a disgruntled former newscaster went postal and murdered two of his ex-coworkers before killing himself. Just after he'd shot and killed reporter Allison Parker and her camera man, Adam Ward, Vester Flanagan II faxed his manifesto to ABC news in New York, posted his confession on social media, and then turned the gun on himself.

Could easily be a scene from a movie or videogame if it wasn't real life. Image from here

As we enter the "why" phase that precedes any tragic event, one big issue looms like a pink-polka dot elephant in the room: guns.

This year has been a particularly bloody year for mass shootings in America. In May, a South Carolina cracker shot a bunch of people in a Black church in Charleston. Prior to that, there were a bunch of people shot in movie theaters. School shootings happened too. The list continues.

The common denominator in all these tragedies-individuals who have no business even dealing with weapons, getting a hold of a gun and using it to murder people.

Naturally, this brings up the topic of guns in America. As many know, America loves its guns. The Second Amendment of our Constitution protects individual gun ownership by calling for a "well-regulated militia", which isn't possible without gun ownership. At the state level, gun laws are variable and range from open carry (Arizona, Texas) to all but outlawed (Illinois).

With such patchwork state gun laws in existence, the safeguards that exist also vary widely from state to state as well. Here in Arizona, you can buy guns without having to undergo a background check (restricted to private sales and gun shows, while gun shops still require background checks), whereas in my home state of Illinois, the amount of paperwork and licensing requirements are so onerous that it's a pain in the ass to even bother acquiring a gun. Lobbying groups, like the notorious National Rifle Association, don't help matters by buying politicians and stoking fears of "liberals" taking away peoples guns for one end or another whenever the subject of gun control comes up.

'Murica!

I'm no "liberal" (in fact, I'm a Pinko/Magenta Catholic), but even I know not everyone should have a gun. Even if you arm the general population to the teeth, it's not going to stop mass shootings from happening.  We'll just wind up with a militarized society that's a powder keg waiting to explode in a hail of bullets and blood.

But I'm not against gun ownership. As many beefs as I have with America and the way my country is run, I realize that the right to own a firearm is one that not many other nations share. I just believe that before you own a gun, you should have to undergo at least some safety training and be subjected to a thorough background check before purchase. Some individuals should also have a psychiatric evaluation done in addition to the standard background check before being allowed to own a gun if there is something that pops up in the background check that warrants it. I'm in favor of reasonable safeguards. I don't like the idea of banning guns because they do serve useful purposes, like self-defense and hunting. Remember, a gun is an inanimate object; a human holding it is what makes it deadly.

Of course, changing the culture around guns from one of seeing *insert preferred Other (immigrants, Moslems, etc)* crawling out of the walls to one of rationality isn't easy. Guns are a hugely profitable industry, and one that is very well politically connected from the NRA to the military-industrial complex. These people get their rocks off from seeing more mass shootings happen cuz then they can increase profits off the tragedy (arming both sides means more money in their pockets!), rather than support modest changes that would help reduce the likelihood of guns winding up in the wrong hands.The Ammosexual Agenda, if you will.

Stay safe out there. And may the victims of America's gun culture find peace at last