Beautiful Day Today

Am still hating the fact that the little orange cat got hit by some random stranger in a car who was too busy/drunk/indifferent whatever to see that he was trying to cross the street.

But am trying to let it go. I just hope he didn't suffer.

It was lovely in the park this morning. In fact, it was so beyond gorgeous in one particular part that I had to whip out the cell phone and take some snaps, despite knowing my camera phone can never do my light-filled park justice.

Northern Ramble of Central Park, approximately 9:34 am.
And just one more.
I'd upload more but the computer is super slow tonight. Enjoy, and I'll be back with more.

Oh...right, how's my week going in regards to weight loss (the reason I started this blog, after all!). Um. Not great.

For a variety of reasons, this has turned into a boozy week. Alcohol is kind of ever-present in my career, and I have to be very careful to avoid office gatherings, which tend to be beer-fueled.

Normally that's not hard for me. While I do enjoy a nice hoppy beer, I really prefer wine. I often just skip the the drinks with no effort. But this week was different.

Wine over the weekend, beer on Wednesday night because of a totally random (once-in-a-lifetime) chance to swap stories with a legendary columnist at a local bar.

Eating has been spotty. Not weight loss portions for dinner, and yesterday I even took a cookie from the snack station at work. I have not sampled anything from that station for over a year.

It was only one, but it worried me. I'd broken that habit. Do not want it coming back.

Also, fighting a cold, and somehow hurt my knee. Thursday morning's walk to work was my only exercise this week.

So I'm not looking forward to weigh in.

Sad News

Hey guys,

Remember my post not too long ago about a little orange cat who ran across my path as I tried to get to the gym?

He'd been cruelly tossed outside by someone who no longer wanted him, and I and a friend have spent the past two weeks fruitlessly trying to trap him. Sometimes he wanted to come closer to us, but other times he'd stay away. It depended on his mood, I guess, and the weather and his hunger.

He died today -- hit by a car.

I'd actually set out the cat trap we borrowed from a local shelter -- we've been doing it periodically on days when one of us was going to be around to check it every few hours. Today my friend was free, so I brought out the trap on my way to work, baited it with some fresh sardines, and crossed my fingers.

She checked it at 3pm and found our little orange guy in the street, the victim of a careless driver. Nobody stopped to help him.

I'm ridiculously maudlin about these sorts of things. But it's made me very sad.

I can say that I didn't run to a store to stuff my face, which I always used to do when confronted with a strong emotion, particularly sadness.

So now I sit here, and I'm sad, and I wish I'd done a million things differently -- starting with not letting him get away the first night I saw him. And setting the trap more often. And working harder to get him off the street.

I wish I could have helped him find a safe home. Don't worry, I'm not going overboard here and getting all crazy. I see lots of street cats here in NYC, and most of them -- when not victimized by twisted humans -- do just fine. I've got no illusions about how miserable many cats are when they are brought to shelters and stuffed into cages for the rest of their lives. That's no fun for them.

But I hate to see cats out on the streets who don't know how to safeguard themselves. They're not born to it, and some rediscover their wilder instincts too late. Those are the ones I try to pull into a safer environment, when I can.

I'm so sorry this one couldn't be saved. He was sweet and winsome, and would have blossomed if he'd gotten a home full of love.