Of Skinned Knees and Stray Cats

Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts. ~Author Unknown

Since I retired, every morning sounds like a line from a popular childrens' song - "when we were out in the woods today". Its one of my favourite parts of the day no matter what the season. Now I may be fifty four years old, but I've never quite outgrown the klutz, so it really wasn't anything out of the ordinary to skin my knee on a rock hidden under the slippery frosty leaves.
Its no big deal today, but I expect tomorrow we'll be moving a slightly more sedate pace... whether or not we get any of the promised snow: )))
Sometimes I think we romanticize our childhoods and that the harder edges are softened as we "grow up" I believe thats a necessary step if we are to move through our lives with any grace at all. At some point, no matter what happened, we have to stop nursing grudges and get on with living.
That's one of the lessons our brilliant cats can teach us. Two years ago last summer, when my daughter and I brought George home from the woods ( after of course he had a quick detour to my vets for a test and first vaccines), we were worried that Clive was going to sulk forever. After a couple of days, Clive realized that George was more than just competition for affection... he was the cat who WOULD play with him. After a year of being ignored by my two eldercats, Clive wasn't long warming up to George after that. To see them now one would never guess how much hissing and spitting there was at the start.
One of my favourite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes is " When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" It would be easy to focus on the small penalty awarded yesterday that the preventative aspect of the twenty year prohibition could get overlooked.
Our legal system is about deterrents not vengeance, and as such it sadly many times falls so desperately short of the mark. I still maintain that as long as animal cruelty is lumped in the same category as all other property offences that there will never be sufficient legal repercussions for crimes against living breathing sentient beings.
We should not romanticize the events of this year..... the only justice that I can see in the whole sad miserable story is that the Celtic Pet seizure became the catalyst for the first glimmers of desperately needed change with the society. There would be no justice that I can see in cutting that short.
PS - For those of you who are wondering, to date the live trap has only succeeded in coralling a few squirrels, one chipmunk and had I not been paying attention at least two of the pet kitties from my neighbourhood . I am hoping the little cat has been taken in by one of my kind hearted neighbours, but as the only practicing witch in a neighbourhood full of Jehovah's Witnesses, I may not find out if that was so : ))) It will take some more snow to know if that little cat is still around I think.