Those girls are leaving without an animal!

It’s a wrap. Almost. Wow, it was so close to being a wrap. We were all packed up, rolling down the driveway, trying to avoid running over Ali, Molly, and Thumper, when a harried-looking woman in a Subaru flagged us down. She said she had a cat for ‘the people who run this place.’ Animal drop-offs generally happen after 2pm but she was clearly agitated so I went to find Susan for her. As I looked around, the woman followed me asking,’who are you, can i give you the cat? where are the people in charge?’
Susan emerged and explained to the woman (who had not called or announced her arrival but said a couple hundred times that she’d driven a long way) that the cat is healthy and Susan doesn’t take in healthy cats. If she did, she wouldn’t have the time nor the room to take on the sick and handicapped cats for whom she founded Angel’s Gate. It’s a hospice and rehab center, not a pet depository. Only she said that in a much nicer way.
The woman, however, was having none of it and screamed at Susan (who was now holding the fluffy, confused kitty) that she’d done enough! That she’d taken it to the vet! She’d watched it for a day! What the bleep was she supposed to do with it now! She then told us she was going to leave the cat at the end of Susan’s driveway and let it wander back up to Angel’s Gate. Susan kindly requested she not do that. The woman shouted FINE, snatched the cat from Susan’s arms, threw open her back door, and literally chucked the terrified cat in the backseat. Before I could give the woman a piece of my mind, Tracey had planted herself behind the Subaru (nearly getting run over), and told the woman to give her the cat. The woman screeched to a halt and squawked, ‘fine!! Take her!!’, heaved the poor cat into Tracey’s arms, and peeled away.

And now Tracey has a loving, de-clawed, fluffy, adorable cat who desperately needs a home. Followers of this blog, fans of Angel’s Gate, and animals lovers everywhere, please help us find her a forever home. Simply comment on this post on Facebook if you are interested or know anyone who might be (remember to mention the de-clawed part). Thanks so much.

Speaking of thank you. As Tracey and I depart from our shoot, we realize there is no way we can repay Susan and her staff for letting us barge into their lives for six weeks. But here goes. Thank you Justin, Alicia, Kari, Kyle, Katie, Heather, Audrey, Nick, Matt, Sandy, Maggie, and most of all, Susan. We have no idea how you tolerated us for so long. But maybe it will help to know that we abandoned our plan to actually sleep over in your room for a night or two. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but we actually could have been more intrusive. Thank you thank you thank you!

Thank you.

Thank you.

don't let the door hit you on the way out!

kyle with stowaway kitteh

NOW we can leave

Angel’s Gate Family Reunion!

All of Susan’s kids (+ a couple significant others) came up for a few days. Tracey and I tagged along to any event they’d let us. Taste of the Catskills, check. Family Bonfire, check. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Check, check, we didn’t have lunch actually.  We were entertained, fed, and even given interviews. The family got nothing in return. Tracey wouldn’t even make them the brunch she’d promised.

We have a secret. A hostage. A stowaway.  Last Wednesday, the New York City Mayor’s Alliance dropped off a carload of animals. A Chihuahua who walked in circles, a former guard dog who snarled and growled at everyone (not so much anymore), Mizu the Cat who is not feeling well AT ALL, and Tumbles, a teeny tiny kitten with a neurological disease called Cerebellar Hypolasia. I took one look at that kitten, renamed her Camper, and she’s been sleeping with us ever since. While Tracey and I fought over which one of us would take her back to Brooklyn, Janine, a Vet Tech student at Delhi started working at Angel’s Gate. She has two CH cats of her own and Tracey and I had to admit, our little Camper would be better off staying with her. Tracey cried and cried yesterday over having to let her go (or was that me), but we finally packed up her little blankets and her little box, and her favorite toy (a chopstick wrapper), and handed her over. We are going to miss her like crazy. Check it.

The Blessing of the Animals

Angel’s Gate had its annual Blessing of the Animals this weekend. It fell on the first sunny day in a long time so all the animals had a little more spring in their step.  Frankie zipped around in his wheel chair, Lacey charmed the pants off an unsuspecting youngster, and they all waited patiently to be blessed for one more year.  First Minister Jeff Staples and Pastor Martha Vink gave a short service complete with Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.  Then Susan spoke some very generous words about her dear friend Joan who recently passed, and we all spread Joan’s ashes across the lawn as she’d requested. After the ceremony and the blessing of individual animals, The Honest Mistakes played two solid sets. Jazzy the Pug shamelessly hit on the drummer the whole time. 

 

I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self contained. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their conditions. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to god. No one is dissatisfied. Not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another nor to his kind that lived thousand of years ago.  Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

WW

The Honest Mistakes tear the roof off Angel's Gate.