Lucky the Cat

So Mrs. set.element has been up at her mothers house trying to remove dozens of the (more than dozens) of cats that infest the home. This is a big gross messy job, that is not at all made simpler by the fact that her mother is mentally ill in that special un-medicated way. Her sister flew out from Denver on no real notice and deserves canonization for the effort.

What has been going on with her mother seems criminal to me. Besides the three of us, nobody gives a shit. Other family members and the safety net designed to prevent things like this have literally turned a blind eye on what is going on. She needs to hit 'rock bottom' we are told. What the fuck. She is an old lady who has spent years living homeless in the woods. There is no question in her mind what 'rock bottom' looks like.

Poor crazy people are the bottom of the bottom of the pile. Nobody really gives a shit, but it is more like a high powered apathy. As individuals, you might be able to care. But as a class, it is acceptable to just ignore their problems.

Not that this is a simple morality play. People are complicated, the mentally ill even more so. The frustration felt by watching money possessions and love squandered away over nothing is acidic. Demands on money time and life are often rewarded by silence or accusations of conspiracy. The reality is that you can get sick of dealing with the problems because they just don't ever seem to go away.

The real problem seems to be that the current social infrastructure is totally lacking. The people who are supposed to be there to help are so overwhelmed by numbers and underwhelmed by resources that paralysis takes hold. We have mortgaged yet another component of our infrastructure to maximizing shareholder value.

And Lucky? The newest member of our strange family is probably the most broken cat I have ever seen. Extra 'fingers' on the front, and an additional set of knee joints in the back. Kinda shambles around on his knees and smells bad, but friendly as all hell.


Lucky indeed...