HumidCity

My wife drives me nuts. This is why I love her.

While everyone else in the city (myself included) is running around at war with the month of August — fighting and backbiting and teeth-gnashing and letting their fear and anger get the best of them, my girl Elly is keeping a calm head and focusing on the one thing where she knows she can make a difference. Saving little lives.

At the moment our house is a bit of a zoo, filled with wayward animals that she’s been busy snatching from the jaws of death and is currently seeking homes for. This is called fostering. But she does the rescue bit, too. Every single day.

Our latest little tribe of houseguests is a mama cat and her six babies, and a seventh one (a little orphan) who the mama cat has amazingly accepted as her own, without question or complaint. If only the people in this city treated each other with such generosity. The little orphan has been given a new chance at life from this tight knit little family, just as Elly gave them all a chance by saving them from euthanasia only hours before it was too late.

Please read Elly’s latest blog entry about this unusual family of cats, and their harrowing story of abandonment and salvation. It will warm your heart, remind you how fragile and fleeting life is, and show you how a simple act of selflessness can really and truly put things right.

Elly’s well-written account, called “Cats Can’t Count,” with pictures, is here:

http://waifnola.livejournal.com/2008/08/20/

The cats are named after our favorite New Orleans characters and colorful homeless folks, they are: Ruthie the Duck Lady (the mama cat), Biscuit, Lucky Bead Lady, Head Wound Harry, Mr. Ike and His Harmonica That Cost More than a Car, Geico Caveman, Homeless Bill, and Flash. Here they are:

Have I mentioned that my wife drives me nuts? God bless her for it. She also keeps me sane. Little acts of kindness can have that effect.

Elly’s little neighborhood rescue organization, which she runs with her friend Gail, is called WAIF (Wandering Animals’ Insurance Fund). Please visit their website at http://waifnola.com. Their motto is: “Two Crazy Ladies on a Mission and One Husband Who Barely Tolerates Them.”

I’m the husband. :-)

- Louis Maistros

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http://louismaistros.com

The sweet little black cat who had adopted the entire 600 block of Mandeville Street, known to my family as Spike Lee, was hit and killed by some drunken jackass in a truck who mistook our quiet neighborhood for The Douche Bag 500 Speedway. Spike died quickly and hardly bled at all.

Spike was one of those rare “feral” cats that didn’t act feral. We were her first adoptive family when she was a kitten, right after the big storm, so she got used to humans quickly and was very affectionate with strangers. We wanted to make her a house cat, but she would have none of it. She loved to live outside and mooch off all the neighbors on our block, seducing them with her lovey-dovey ways and taking turns choosing her favorite humans to look after her. Everyone liked to think of her as their cat. Because of her many families she went by many names. But she was always Spike Lee to us.

My lovely wife Elly wrote a nice blog entry, much better than my own feeble efforts here, about the life and death of this important little creature. Here is the link to Elly’s tributary entry:

http://waifnola.livejournal.com/1338.html

Elly and her friend Gail run a little neighborhood animal rescue operation known as WAIF (Wandering Animals Insurance Fund). They are trying to gather support and awareness for their cause, so please “friend” Elly on Livejournal, and also on Waif’s Blogger, Myspace and Facebook pages – or visit their brand new website (all these links are at the bottom of this entry). They have their own (and very prolific) spay-neuter-release program for the strays, they foster when needed, and also help indigant folks pay for their vet care among other excellent deeds. They have saved a lot of critters around here, and it makes me very proud of them. Unfortunately, they can’t save them all.

Spike Lee sure was special, and I will really miss her. I like to think I will miss her most of all, but I know there are many people in the neighborhood who will beg to differ.

- Louis Maistros

WAIF links:

http://waifnola.livejournal.com/

http://waifnola.com/

http://www.waifnola.com/blogger.htm

http://www.myspace.com/waifnola

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1111203748