Posted on 01/11/2013 9:35:24 AM PST by Slings and Arrows
PITTSBORO, N.C. - LIKE her name, Siglinda Scarpa seems to be from another world. And not just Italy, where she was born. But one in which you can hear the animals speak, and everyone gets along.
Ms. Scarpa, 72, lives in a wooden house painted robin’s egg blue, in the middle of an open woodland, with old oaks and pines rising over sandy soil. With its second-story porches covered with the canes of Lady Banks’ roses, Carolina jasmine and wisteria, the house could be something out of a children’s book.
Some people come here to adopt a cat from the Goathouse Refuge, the animal sanctuary she runs, tucked back in the woods. Others come to buy her pottery or ceramic art, which is displayed in the sunny showroom on the first floor of this whimsical house: abstract pieces that evoke storms brewing in the sky; clay roasting pots shaped like squashes, with frogs or artichokes on their lids; or teacups molded like the face of a cat, the lines of cheek and jaw, nose and mouth drawn by a knowing hand.
For there are real cats everywhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What are you talking about?
Hi, Gabz-I wondered about that, too...
My wife would love to spend the rest of her life caring for all these cats...
What a haven for cats!! They all look so content, and well fed, and even tho from all over, they appear to get along with each other.
I’m a cat lover, but never had more than 4 (and kittens from time to time) but I took a step back when I saw them all at mealtime! That’s a lot of dishes to wash!!!
Good thing they are indoor/outdoor kitties, or there would be a lot of litter duty, too!!!!!
LOL! We only have one cat, but she sometimes got 2 extra meals by plying her wiles on my husband, my daughter and me. Then we got an automatic feeder. I fill it every afternoon after work, and at the programmed times, the portion cup is rotated to the opening, so she can eat. She finally is losing the weight the vet said she needs to lose!
My cat did that, we found out she was sometimes getting 6 meals a day! We solved it by getting an automatic feeder with a built-in timer.
This keeps her fed, but still sleek enough to catch mice.
That’s a lovely story. I’m out my way out right now, but I’m going to check out the slideshow when I get back.
Hearing how those cats grieve for the families who abandon them.....that tears my heart out. Poor sweet babies. I gotta get a Kleenex now......
The feminist movement was designed by the “feminist” men,FOR the feminist men (people like Bill Clinton, the uh Father of the Year— with x number of “babys”).
The “losers” in this movement (as in the abortion “movement” for the “convenience” of all with no moral downside, they said)were the women who were sold this bill of goods. Some found husbands who were “true”, but way more found them who treated them like— well, a convenience, many times,in the absence/opposite of love. The one part of their lives that stayed true was/is nature and nature’s creatures. My observation anyway.
Seeing this lady, among so many- she has found unconditional love in kitties (and other critters too, apparently). More precisely, she has found something to give her love to. People, humans (and not so humans) without guidance, or who have rejected or mis-delivered real Judeo-Christian guidance having proven to her to be a great disappointment in our “progressive” love-less, God-less world (OK, that is some wide license being taken by yours truly— but it is a thought).
To wit, this link to Emmy Lou Harris’s Animal Rescue facility (I’m serious):
http://www.bonapartesretreat.org/#!/Mission
For dogs (like hers, Bonaparte, who have “run out of time” from the Humane Society, rescued by a songbird (an older one with a big heart)whose career is singing of love-lost,never had,and otherwise.
The cynics/realists here will say this relationship would last as long as animals are fed or can find food— and that is true for all of us in nature (we ARE part of something’s food chain after all). The connection of how we treat animals to how we treat people is a telling one, in the balance. Even to the point of trying to get people to behave as they can “train” them (Lenin and Pavlov story)in the new world order. Woof, woof.
Deo Vindice.
You beat me to it.
God love you
btt
Hey there T-5!!!! Heck the only spinster I know is going to be 80 next month and hates cats!!! I also know a lot of those gals born in the 60s and 70s - they’re the moms of my daughter’s friends!
I’ve been being called a crazy cat lady for years, and I’ve got a husband and child. I am down to only 3 “permanent” cats, most of the others share joint custody of us and my across the road neighbor - in fact I’m watching one trot back over to her house right now!
How are you doing?
Fine with me.
[I covet your kiln]
;D
My favorite book as a child.
I would be honored to live among the kitties with you guys/gals.
Lots of cats, a few dogs, and did you see she had chickens? For some reason, I’ve always wanted a chicken.
I’m seriously thinking of vacationing down there this summer just to see all the kitties and maybe buy some pottery. Maybe she would let me volunteer for a bit. I’d live in my car to help, it would be worth it to me!
I’m okay, how are your hubby and munchkin?
I’m a widow, not a spinster, and I only have a dog and 3 cats of my own, but I do put food out for 2 feral cats that have managed to escape being fast food for the resident mountain lion or coyotes. Do I still qualify as a crazy cat lady?
If you raise chickens from babies, they make surprisingly personable pets.
I taught mine to do simple but entertaining tricks like jumping for bits of bread.
They were a lot of fun.
They followed me everywhere in a line, right behind the Dobermanns.
Ducks are cool too.
So...when is a good time to tell Gefn that I’ll be bringing along a passel of constrictors, as well?
;D
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