Responsible cat adoption

PetSmart is a pet store chain that has a 'perks' card - and the last time I used it, it gave me a few dollars off some pet food I was buying. It's good for coupons and other credits.

I enjoy seeing the different pets in the store - the fish, the guinea pigs and gerbils, the reptiles. What I found most poignant today was behind plexiglass, down along one wall of the store, playing, chilling, and not making much noise - the cats.

I'm not interested in owning a cat - at least not right now. But I respect good cat owners, and know the cats bring value to their humans' lives. Profiles about these cats up for adoption are posted near the cages. One cat's description said its mother was rescued when she was pregnant with it and six litter mates. So - this cat has never had that one, single owner of its own.

PetSmart is featuring adoptions from Perfect Paws Pet Rescue organization - this requires an $80 adoption fee. This covers testing, worming, vaccinations, and spaying or neutering.

Basically, you complete the application to adopt, and they get back to you. There is also a 24-hour minimum wait period, (maybe call it a cooling-off time) before the cat is sent home.

One thing I found useful on the form is that it helps to remind the applicant of some of the things a pet owner has to spend money on: food, grooming, licensing, medical care, etc. There are some other ways the form helps prospective owners become mentally and physically prepared to be pet owners, and that's a good thing. It's a responsibility to not be taken lightly.

Remember to keep your cat indoors, or on a lease, so it doesn't kill those beautiful songbirds. All good creatures, great and small...

Running again, slowly

Walking or running is a wonderful thing to do this time of year with all the clear fall days, and temperatures in the mid-60s. The trees have been beautiful here this year. Although it's been a dry late summer/fall, lots of colors have hit the tree lines and the urban and rural landscaping. These views make outdoor running and walking extra pleasant and dramatic.

The trees in the photo to the right are at Metea Park in northern Allen County. This area, near Leo-Cedarville, is a great area to walk, run, and take a look at autumn's effect on the trees and shrubs.

After the excellent work done by the Northeast Foot & Ankle Clinic to help fit me with custom orthotics for my shoes, I am able to slowly run again. The orthotics are comfortable; I have been able to leave them in my shoes almost all the time. It felt a little awkward at first trying to run in them, placed under the liners of my new running shoes. It felt as though my feet were up in the starter's blocks for track and field. It was weird for me to feel as though the blocks were still connected after take-off. I could tell my whole stance and posture was better aligned, but my muscles would have to be retrained in that position, and it was uncomfortable at first as my muscles worked anew.

It felt strange, but nothing hurt, and I'm happy because after running about a mile twice over the weekend, I don't seem to have any blisters or other issues. I think this is going to work fine. I just have to make myself use shoes that complement the inserts. I need to say 'goodbye' to certain high heels, sandals, and some others - a sacrifice I think I can make.

Northeast Foot and Ankle is conveniently located on Dupont Road, adjacent to the day surgery entrance at Dupont Hospital. This is close to the I-69 exit, and there's plenty of parking. The physician, Dr. Michael Worpell, has a great 'bedside manner' and is an excellent educator. He taught me a lot about foot mechanics; I felt like I was learning about bi-pedal locomotion from a good college professor/lecturer. He also has a nice sense of humor - you've got to appreciate it.

I'll be cautious, but I'm optimistic about my rehabilitation of my Plantar Fascitiis and my ability to run and hike again. It's happening already - I just need to not overdo it, and stay away from uneven ground, at least for now. The shoes from Three Rivers Running Company and the orthotics seem to be working well. The doctor said he would adjust the orthotics if need be - a grind-off here, a shim added there, whatever to help with function and comfort. So far, I haven't noticed that any of that will be needed. I'll be back to blogging about some different activities!

Shoes from Three Rivers Running Company

It was time for running shoe shopping. I also love to hike. California, southern Illinois, parks around Fort Wayne - any where I can. One place that always pulls me back is Colorado - the photo to the right was taken on a mountain road, near a good place to hike.

I finally received my custom-made orthotics for my shoes from my podiatrist. I had to wait nearly a month after my feet were cast in plaster for them, to treat my Plantar Fasciitis that had stopped my running and water skiing by late summer. This is a torn ligament in the band attached to the foot's heel. I am really happy with new new hi-tech shoe inserts, and immediately felt like I was standing up straighter, with more support. I am leaving them in my shoes all the time, and I can feel them up under the arches under my feet.






With a steroid shot in my foot, by the next day I was ready to shop for new running shoes to get off to the right start with these inserts. All along I had planned to go to the Three Rivers Running company on North Clinton in Fort Wayne. I took my new inserts and went inside - parking is very convenient. I think I've bought running shoes in the mall in Ft. Wayne in the past, but there is no other running specialty store like Three Rivers.







After discussing my situation with the salesman, he helped me put the inserts in a pair of New Balance - my preferred brand from in the past. He then videotaped my feet and legs as I ran on a treadmill to do a gait analysis - the doctor had said I was pronating (to me it's like caving inward). Does a person roll inward or outward on one's feet? How can it be centered? People, experts, know about these things.







The orthotics felt good in the shoes, although I was a little nervous about running for the first time in two or three months. The salesman then had me try on another brand that worked well with my running form - another high end, name brand shoe. I ran in them in the Orthotics as well. I felt the heel cage was a little wider, and decided I preferred the fit of the New Balances, which I bought.







The store is comfortable - there were other staff and customers who knew each other and chatted about local races and training. Fort Wayne's running and fitness community has expanded over the last couple of decades - this store has been open since 2004. They had a lot of good looking running clothes, things for women, and triathletes. I'm talking about wet suits and even snorkels. And one customer was buying the snacks - Power Bars, Gu, that kind of stuff.







A table displayed with fliers had the latest news about upcoming walks, races, and community events for people into running and fitness. It looks like you could hang out and talk about running and find groups with whom to train. Good deal.







I got my shoes, and tomorrow I'll go out and try and run in them. It's exciting - I love running, not racing, but to each his own. I like the breathing, hearing the quiet nature sounds, the rhythm - I walk, I run, I don't stress about it. But I gave it up after the severe heel pain of the initial PF - which I especially felt first thing in the morning. I have been wearing a calf/heel brace some, usually while sleeping, to stretch the ligament. So I look forward to running, and then gradually, hiking, when I'm fully recovered. I can't wait.

A Poem for October

October's ancient infinity


beautiful autumn morning


bluebirds dip in formation
alight on a basketball goal.

Red stemmed prairie grass
grains brown and gold on top
stands at attention
silent sentinel.




Fox grass flirts,
curling its pretty tail.



Birds sing, sprinklers spin,
noises of woodpeckers, combines
boys
birds balancing on Blue stem crowns
a lone cosmos
defiantly shrieks it too, belongs.



'Inside,' even with its malt pancakes
is not the 'in' place to be.



Lines of brush-painted trees
rise above the fields
- a camera is needed



As the great one said, the earth is burning, burning
How about some joyful, brilliant burning
Even the old buildings and barns look beautiful
with their fiery frames of trees.

written 10-10-10 SLG

Fall Colors and Belgian Plow Horses

Autumn is in full swing - it's been dry here, but our trees are nearly glowing with color right now. The maples, and the burning bush as it's called, and sumac - and, the redbuds are yellow. My favorite light to view or photograph the trees is in the morning; at noon, the sunlight shoots straight down and the color is washed out. I suppose our afternoons have been somewhat less clear. Otherwise, the fall colors aren't bad in the afternoons - that light is almost as good as early light for highlighting colors.

The Amish go about their regular work - milking the cows and tending to the animals, going off to their jobs in construction and cabinet making. The women cook, pack lunches for the children, send them off to their segregated Amish schools, do the laundry and garden work, and care for big families. All dressed in their 'plain clothes' - their uniforms, which mean for the women no warm pants (they're in skirts) riding to town in horse-drawn buggies in the wintertime. It's quite a contrast to our way of life. Parallel society?

Prejudice and judgement works both ways. As there are 'English' folk who would call them backward, or hypocritical when they use cell phones and power tools, Amish have their judgements about the rest of us. We are in comparison unfocused, fixated on the superficial and discretionary, vain, greedy, badly dressed, unfaithful. We are lazy, undisciplined. Or so may they discuss amongst them

selves when they look at us. Chew on that.

But back to horses, as I said in my last blog. The previous post mentioned the beautiful draft horses that work in the fields - it's something about the Amish people I enjoy. These horses are dun, or palomino-colored. Blonde, like the Swedes they are, no?

There are also sorrels and chestnuts. These are colors of horses, and it's fun to read the descriptions used for the equine - not only colors but markings, for example. Written on horses' documents are words such as star, stripe, strip, and blaze - notations for facial white hair marks. Nowadays, a horse's papers sport a graphic image of the individual with the marks delineated. This used to be rendered on the paper by hand, accompanied by the word description.

I thought of this while reading about Amish horses for sale online, which have plenty of 'socks' and 'stockings' (white hair) on their legs, and descriptions such as flaxen and dappled. Amish horses go for several hundred dollars into the thousands - seems about like any other horses out there. Not that I'm in the market. As for you, why not drive through northern Indiana in early October, and look at the autumn colors and flaxen-maned horses yourself. Thanks for reading.

A Word on the Amish in Indiana

In the United States, there may be 250,000 Amish and Old Order Mennonites, in states such as Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. When I drive to Grabill, Indiana, where their farms begin and continue over to the Ohio line and beyond, I pass these farms lacking the normal strings of power lines staked to their houses. For work, some may have generators or electricity in their barns. Many of the farms near me have miniature horses and buggy-driving trotters, but this photo is of some of my favorite draft horses used for farming.

Drive through Indiana and you will see teams harnessed and pulling machinery through the fields, driven by an Amish person standing on the equipment behind. Some of the bigger teams may be six or even eight horses wide. It's quite a site, and it's not uncommon to pass one field with a million-dollar, computer-rigged John Deere cultivating or combining, while a Amish man is hand-reining a large team in the next acre plot.

Local church rules apply to the members, who follow a religious commitment and a 'simple life.' These ethnic groups, descended from Anabaptists fleeing persecution in Germany and Switzerland, settled in the U.S. in the 1700s. They follow their church (ordnung) government and fly under the radar sweeping over the rest of us 'regular' - English, to them - folks.

They don't often attend formal schooling past the eighth grade, they take no 'graven images' or photographs of themselves, and no posing for pictures. Yes, they are Christians.

Whether or not their horse-propelled farming is more 'green' is debatable - The New York Times ran an article in June, '10, that Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania produced 61 million pounds of manure in 2007 - causing widespread problems in the Chesapeake Bay. The Amish are also resistant about participating in government programs, such as EPA grants and studies. This may be improving, but it's a concern because we also live on watersheds in Indiana as well.

I enjoy driving past the draft horses, some as much as 17 or even 18 hands tall - several feet taller than your average riding horse. I don't feel bad about talking the horses' pictures, but I respect the Amish and don't photograph them. Although they aren't really surfing on the Internet, anyway, to see. The draft horses may be Percherons, or Belgians, or Haflingers - but more about the horses in my next post. That's all for now.