A time to be born

and a time to die.

This verse came to me as I thought about the sudden loss of our shop kitty yesterday at the store where I work. Everyone loved Sammie. They would stop in just to say hi to Sammie as they went about their day. He loved them and all the atention he recieved. He was a very special cat. I am having a very hard time writing this. You see, he was a kitten from my now spayed female cat. He was one of 5 kittens that I brought to the store to find homes for.
Kandi, my awesome boss, fell in love with him and wanted him for a shop cat. She would never admit it, but she fell for him because he was small and his brothers picked on him. Kandi has 6 foster kids that she has adopted that would never have have a fighting chance in this world without her. She has the awesome ability to love people where they are at. She is always kind to people, no matter who they are or what they have done. She loved this kitty who was the underdog. Why did this have to happen to such a wonderful person? I think of all the a**wholes
out there abusing their animals for years and they get away with it. And this kind, wonderful, gentle hearted person looses her kitty for no apparent reason????

Which leads me to another verse...

The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Not too much of a comfort right now, but a reminder
of the realities of life.....and death.

R.I.P. Sammie, we love and miss you.

My new obsession ;)

I accidentally ran across a new blog the other night and ended up reading it past midnight, which for me is very unusual, since I am not a night owl! http://thethriftychicks.blogspot.com/

I have always been into the 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' mindset, even before it became fashionable! We we raised to NOT WASTE. Period. I remember my dad cleaning out jars and using them for nuts, bolts and whatever. He turned ketchup and mustard bottles upside down to use everything up. (a practice that I inherited!) Toothpaste tubes were cut when they reached the bottom so that the toothpaste could be dug out. He even build our horse shelter from reclaimed wood and nails. Anyway, the author of the above mentioned blog put my thoughts perfectly into words, as I pondered the "Blur of Christmas". So, to make a long winded blog short, (you'll have to readThrifty Chicks!), I visited a Senior Center Thrift store yesterday. Even though I didn't find anything for gift giving, I did find some little treasures, dwindles, you could say, but for $6.25, I walked away with a weird giddiness that only a thrift store/garage sale shopper could relate to!
I ended up with a beautiful, very heavy oval shaped vase, made in the U.S.A., (how about that?)
a kitchy little ketchup holder, also made in the US, a heavy glass, square candle holder that flips over for use with round candles, a perfectly sized clear, heavy, glass mug with snowflakes on it (I love interesting mugs!), and last but not least, I fell in love with a beautiful hand painted soap dish (?) shell with a little pansy on top. Even though I don't know what I will use it for, it called out to me and for the total price that I spend for a little bit of happiness on a day that I desperately needed it, I really didn't really care!