CATastrophe and the Libertarian Party of Canada

A good family friend of ours had her third child this week. I remember when their first child was born. That was the summer that I started working at camp and he was a delight to have around. A baby at camp is perhaps not the most usual thing to have other than at family camp but somehow the experience kind of made us all more of a family. My friend having her third child made me think of what it would be like to have children. In fact, lately I've been feeling more like a mother but to my cats.

My brother decided to get a cat this past winter probably when he was feeling lonely in the big ol' city of Calgary. His name is Athanasius and for all intensive purposes, he is a lovely cat but he does have his quirks. All he thinks about is going outside, trying to eat the buttons off people's shirts and when the next time he'll get the some wet cat food is, which is a treat in our house. He's been living in our house for the last week and a half while my brother has been back in Calgary. Erik didn't want to subject Athy to the terrors of having to sit in the car since my brother is coming back to Edmonton this next week.

My two lovely and trained cats, Sebastian and Lena have been dealing well with the young whipper-snapper so far. There have only been a couple of incidents where the claws have come out and hissing has occurred. They treat him like the little child he is especially when he is outside. They follow him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble. Unfortunately, this has caused a little bit of a costly problem. While Sebastian was outside on Wednesday morning, he tore his ACL. Yes, that's right. The same ACL that professional athletes pull. I didn't think that was possible but apparently it is quite common in animals, at least in dogs. There were two options that we could have done, have surgery or do nothing which would result in arthritis in the knee and perhaps pain and discomfort. I think Sebastian was hearkening back to his younger days by trying to climb a fence which he has not done in years.

I have been looking after my little boy for the past two days, making sure he has been eating, drinking lots of water and making sure that he is resting. I've been upset to say the least but my mom said something that I think will come in handy when I have children. She said "You can't shield them form everything." I have always known this but I think person is often not ready to have something perhaps traumatic happen like this to someone or something you love. You never know how you'll react.

I took Sebastian to the veterinarian this morning so he could have surgery. Yes, it costs lots and lots of money to get his leg fixed but I had to do it for him and myself. Watching him limp around the house for the rest of his life was not an option. I came across a quote last night that I thought was relevant to this situation. It went like this, "Where there is positive thinking, there is hope." Believe me, there is nothing but positive thoughts in this house right now.

Call and Answer

My friend Tim was ordained a couple of weeks ago. He has been called by God and the church to be a pastor and he has answered it. Its funny because last time I had a "vacation" was two years ago when I went to Tim's wedding and this year, my "vacation" was going to his ordination. Anyways, next year I'll have two to go to as my brother will be ordained as well as our friend Sean. Here are some highlights from the day.

*The Bishop welcoming us.

*Sermon

*Tim receiving his stole.

*Giving friends communion.

*Happy for Tim.

Lesson Learned

I went to the Synod Conference Convention this past weekend where they tried to stuff a number current and former Bishops into a Smart car. I thought the picture was funny. People who are often considered stoggy, boring pastors took time out of their busy and perhaps tense day to have a laugh. Its about time!