In the gutter - Fragile

I biked Grace over to the home yesterday to visit Grampa Dom.  They are doing OK--they've got a huge pantry, and a diesel generator and a full storage tank and the families have bonded together to make regular visits and bring what supplies we can spare.  Grampa Dom is thin, he doesn't like the food so he doesn't eat much.  "I'm sick of beans" he grumbles.  I tell him that's all he'll get until the crops start to come in.  We've got deals with some local farms--we take turns protecting their fields and they give us a share of the harvest.  Uncle Frank has been taking the night shift, and then he comes home in the morning and watches Grace when I go to the store.  My days there are numbered, I know, but I keep showing up and they keep giving me a paycheck so that cycle goes on. 

Funny how none of the banks have closed down. 



Tom calls every night and talks to Frank before he goes out on "guard duty" and I think it's helping.  He's got a sense of purpose now, with his patrols.  I just hope he's not stretching himself too thin.

A scruffy, thin dog--I think it's a lab mix--wandered into our yard the other day and it had a tag so I tracked the owner down and called them to come and get it.  The woman who answered the phone sounded pretty out of it, I had to repeat myself alot.  "We don't want him," she said, "you can keep him."  I told her we had enough to worry about without taking care of her dog for her. "Then take him to the pound, I don't care" and she hung up on me. 

I can't take him to the pound--they are just killing anything left for them because they don't have the resources to take care of anything.  The ACO still shows up because it's a government job so he's still getting a paycheck but it's just a death factory over there.  And "no-kill" shelters aren't accepting any new pets, they're full to bursting.  People have started abandoning their animals because if it's a choice between Fluffy and Spot or Little Tommy Jr., well, you know. I gave the poor thing some water and a spoon or 2 of leftover beans and barley from dinner last night. He licked the bowls clean and then wagged his tail slowly and licked my jeans.  Dammit what do I do with him now. Grace calls him "Shaggy".

So here's your mission.  Find the most fragile thing in your community.  Is there a nursing home that is running out of supplies?  Can they get the medicine they need? Is there an shelter that can't feed all its animals? Families with kids that are slipping away? Find them.  And think of something you can do to help. Dogs can guard people and property, cats can control mice and rats.  Seniors know how to live frugally and have a closer relationship to a world without gizmos and gadgets.  You might find someone who knows how to repair machinery, or keep bugs away from crops, or someone who can teach you how to knit and crochet, or make braided rugs out of strips of rags.  Don't let that knowledge slip away.  Even the most fragile of us can offer something. Their fragility will soon be ours if we don't help.

(sorry about the ads, I had to "upgrade" my account so I could post the picture)