Saturday, May 07, 2016

The Festering Village

Village by the Sea - Maurice Prendergast

I wrote about Annie before. Here. Mr. Stan took off on us. Village life became too much and he now lives with his daughter about 60k from here. I miss him. Annie's had a few bouts of bad health. Enough to get her a home care worker every morning. Annie lived in a hoarder's paradise which you can read about in the Mr. Stan link. That's all gone by the wayside now as the homecare worker won't allow it. Her daughter comes by and takes pictures of Annie sitting in her uncluttered hell, idly passing the time away watching teevee with nothing to keep her hands busy. She would litter every surface and table and counter with junk. Her food was put in bags on the floor. Her basement was a fire hazard. Now everything sparkles nakedly and people visit and can sit down and have a cuppa.

This new Annie has to find other ways to entertain herself. And she has.

Her son is in a hell hole of a marriage. You'd have to meet his wife, Pammie, to understand it as she could be certified. For example, she's leery of me (that's another story)but she does call me periodically. A few days ago, for example, she called and without salutation said: "What are you going to do about my 9 kittens?" It turns out there are 9 kittens in her shed and she's already got 4 adult cats in her house. Around here in the FV, very few get their animals neutered. If I wouldn't take one or two or three, she threatened, she was going to drown them. The older I get the more firm I am. Not my circus and certainly not my monkeys kittens. Sorry as I am, pained as I am, I tell her to keep phoning others after she responds to my question about the SPCA. They couldn't give a damn, she says. Cats are overrunning the island, thanks in no small part to her and her ilk. Our town dump alone has about 40 feral cats running around.

So recently Annie's son, Jude, husband of Pammie, hooks up with his high school sweetheart and they are madly in love. So where do they hang out when together? In Annie's house. Overnighters. They even have parties with accordions and dancing with everyone invited. And Pammie? she hates her mother-in-law so she'd never go near the place.

But she complains around the whole village that Jude spends far too much time taking care of his mother now.

While the whole village knows the truth.

And this is just one slice of a story out of hundreds.

13 comments:

  1. the cat problem would break my heart. I would quickly become the kitten dumping ground. you need a spay neuter group big time.

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    1. It's been tried. SPCA have been out many times. 100k drive. Took cats away. Neutered brought back. They even drop off food. But the can't solve the ferals mating & people like Pammie housing the unfixed adults.
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  2. These stories, and others like them, are so common in rural Newfoundland. While we surely don't have a monopoly on this, it seems we've perfected the art form of back stabbing, hurtful gossip and the like. Something no tourist ad would ever show.

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    1. What is also never shown is the tolerance given to the craziest and unstable and the downtrodden. The compassion and generosity of Newfoundlanders never ceases to amaze me.
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  3. Ah, village life! You can't beat it.....or, can you? Sometimes the anonymity of the town or city can seem appealing. Unfortunately, they can be lonely, too. As for the cats, it's an unsolvable problem. Neutering helps, but sadly it's impossible to do them all when they're feral. I've put too many to sleep in my days with the RSPCA, until sickened I decided it was time someone else did society's dirty work.

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    1. A hotbed, RJA, life in a microcosm. Up close and personal like we never really wanted it. The kindness of the SPCA is incredible considering the long drive out here and wrangling all the cats to take them away and return them. My barn has a few who are all now fixed and fed by the cottage dwellers next door.

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  4. so many stories, I have a lot
    and better to not share :)

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    1. I know Ernestine. Some of yours would be juicy I'm sure. ☺

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  5. We are pretty good about the cat situation. Local people aren't all that soft-hearted about excess animals, which is probably just as well. I do think that this kind of thing is overdone, not a universal value. We do have a no-kill sanctuary, which is a horrid public nuisance but garners a lot of sympathy from animal lovers.
    I think we are a large and diverse enough place here that we don't have too many of these "village tales." We did just recently have an awful gun murder, however.

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  6. I am surprised by how much sympathy there is here and how many adopt - like myself. Ansa was basically thrust on me. I resolved several years ago when my last cat passed not to take on any more. I am not much of a cat person though Daughters and Grandgirl are. There were two (fixed by SPSCA) frolicking on my lawn today, very cute but no, I do not feed and do not wish them in my house :) And yes, enough stories out of this wee village to make your hair curl. LOL

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  7. Some very interesting people that you know WWW! And what a story, as incredible as it is, coming from you, very interesting.

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  8. Peyton Place re-visited, would you say? Did you know that most hoarding behavior is triggered by trauma? As for the animals, what have the natives got against neutering? That should be the first requirement if one adopts from an organization or vet.

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    1. Some won't acknowledge the trauma unfortunately E. Cost is the issue here. I sure wish there were travelling vets at an affordable price. It's the poor who cause this problem.
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