Thankful Anyway Thursday

While I was feeding the Sprout yesterday morning, I heard a lady outside screaming.  Unfortunately, this isn't a rare occurrence, but this was more wailing than angry shouting.  As always, I went outside to look when I heard swearing (that is my cue to go look) and I saw a woman distraught standing with her children, who are also crying, looking at a marmalade cat who is sleeping on the side of the road.

I walked over to the lady, because obviously this cat was not sleeping, and I ask her if it is her cat, and she cries "yes".  She has a towel in her hand and I ask if she would like a hug (something I don't do for many people, just ask my dad) and she says "yes".  It was a horribly sad situation.  After a look over, I decide that the cat had been hit by a car (something I can't believe doesn't happen more often considering the amount of cats around, and the amount of cars that zoom through).  I give her piece of mind that that was the cause of the end of her cat's nine lives.  Luckily the cat didn't look bad, just a bit of blood.

Because I had worked in a vet and because it was not my cat, I asked her if she would like me to pick the cat up and put it into a box, she says "yes".  One of my neighbours comes out of her house to take her children to school and she asks me if everything was alright and I tell her what happened.  She stayed with the woman while I went to get a box (I was lucky I had one).  While I was gone my neighbour told the woman that she needed to calm down and get the children out of there because it wasn't good for them, something I had thought about but didn't say.

When I returned I asked again if she wanted me to put the cat in the box, but this time she picked up the cat and squeezed it and told me how much she had loved the cat and how she knew she shouldn't have left it out.  It was amazing to me how fast the stages of mourning were happening.  She placed the cat in the box and we talked about what she should do, and I carried the box to her doorstep as she left to take the kids to school.  I went back to my house, picked some pansies, rosemary and lavender, looked up the number for her to call, wrote it down with a little note and my phone number, then went back and placed it on the box.

I had a strange energy of peace going through me.  It was the calming energy of being able to be calm in a stressful situation.  But when I sat down to return to feeding the Sprout, I began to sob, not just cry, but sob.  It was so sad, especially to see the kids on the other side of the road crying and watching their mother mourn over the loss of her cat.  It was heart breaking.  Luckily Richard was home to console me.

I am thankful anyway that I am a good neighbour.  I still don't know the names of the majority of my neighbours, but obviously I care enough to look outside when I hear something is wrong.  The other day, I heard a woman two doors down raging at her children from inside her house (this wasn't the first time).  I stood outside the house to see how this would escalate, but when she threatened to physically harm one of the children (there is a toddler and a baby) while screaming for the child to get out, I got the lady across the street and we knocked on the door and offered to take the kids.  Of course they said "no" (the husband was there too), but we had to let them know we could hear them .  Their neighbours conveniently took their garbage out and left their door open when they heard us knock (a trick I have done before, so I knew they were snooping), but they weren't going to intervene.  I know they could hear what was going on because the walls aren't that thick (I mean you could hear them from across the road).  So yesterday I decided to report them to child services when the girl that lives behind me told me that the woman does it all the time.

Because I know that we will be living here, I finally have a sense of permanence.  Something I have not had since I lived with my parents.  Because of this I have been getting out more, looking to see what is around, and feeling more comfortable getting involved with my neighbours.

I recently discovered my backyard joins with one of the ladies at my Bouncing Babies group, and a couple of the other ladies live really close.  All of our babies are around the same age.  We go to 3 groups together and I am enjoying their company which feels really good.  After having ridden the train to E's I feel more confident about traveling to her house and I hope to see more of her.

Some of this also comes with it being Summer.  It is so much easier to go outside when I don't have to bundle the Sprout up and it is sunny.

But I digress...
I am happy to find that I am a good neighbour, open to meeting the people on my street and to find that I am calm in ugly situations.