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The Preakness Stakes was run on Saturday. I missed the Derby - Dad sent me a message while I was gone telling me who won. He said he would have told me in person but he wasn't that good a swimmer. I called him before the race this week and again afterwards. War Emblem won, so there's still a chance for a Triple Crown this year. It would be nice.
Mom called when she was "down the street" on Sunday. She comes home on Saturday and it's sounds like she is really looking forward to it. She's been in Hawaii for a long time . . . although given that's we're expecting freezing temperatures here night, it sounds pretty good to me.
I would have thought that being back a week would have been sufficient to readjust to the right time zone. Guess not. I have been finding myself wide awake at 1:00 in the morning - thank goodness for sleeping pills. I hope to be back in the swing later this week.
I finally got around to cleaning up the place. Did laundry, changed sheets, stowed my gear, cooked something. Some amount of normalcy returned. But there's something lacking - a stillness in the place. So I filled out my application and submitted it to the Morris Animal Refuge here in Philly.
That's right, an application to adopt a cat.
I guess there are a couple of things to comment on here. First, I made the decision to get another cat. I considered whether or not that would be offensive to Alien's memory, but I think she'd understand - it's because I miss her so much.
People who do not have pets - and even those that do, but don't live alone - don't understand completely. If you can think of a pet as a family member, that's a start. But when they are the only soul that one lives with day in and day out, their absence takes on a deeper meaning.
My friend, Nan, had a cat (Pat the Cat) for almost as long as I had Alien. Two months ago, Nan returned from a business trip to find that Pat had died. Now, Pat was - by Nan's own admission - not a particularly nice cat - she refused to let Nan pick her up or hold her or even pet her. Nonetheless, Nan loved that cat and was terribly upset when she died.
When I returned from PNG, I stopped in Nan's office to see how she was. The first thing she asked was, "Does it still feel strange to walk into your house when Alien isn't there?"
[She understands.]
So . . . I've applied. Ah, yes, the other point to discuss. Two forms of ID, employer's address and phone number, past pet history. It takes three days for them to process. I guess that's good. They go to pains to make sure they're placing their animals with people who will take care of them.
I figured I'd try there and see what they have available - of course, it may take a while to replace The Alien.
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