Last night I decided to set Latte (the 2nd rescue kitty from the parking lot AND the mother of the 2 kittens named Craig). It was tough to see her go and I hope she’s happy here on the grounds of Chez Weldon. Most likely she’ll hook up with the probable father of her children, Parker, and they can live happily ever after! I gave her the cat equivelent of a steak dinner before I unlocked the cage and opened the door so I hope that made her happy. She is still quite wild and thrashed around the cage out of fear/nervousness when I got too close. I just looked at her and called her a silly goose. Hope that wasn’t too harsh. In the meantime, some more pics of her adorable children who are driving me crazy!


AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY!!!!!!!

HOPE LATTE NEVER COMES FACE TO FACE WITH HIM!!!!! GOOD LUCK LATTE, HOPE TO SEE YOU AND PARKER REAL SOON!!!!!!!!!

After rescuing Parker I soon came to realize that more cats unfortunately lived in the horrible parking lot that boarders the 110 fwy. I established a feeding relationship with a cat that I never saw. Last Friday I finally put my trap out and soon found my self in posession of “Latte” (as in parking latte!). I took her to the vet and upon picking her up on Monday was quite dismayed to discoverd that it looked like she was nursing. That meant poor little kittens were somewhere in the parking lot without their mom/food source. A quick call to Carol Olson, cat Mother Theresa of Simi Valley and she gave me some advice on how to find the kittens.The questionn was, would I really go around a parking lot “mewing”? The answer is of course yes, well fortunately for me, I only had to appear insane for about 2 minutes because somehow luckily they came to my call immediately. I’m posting a picture of the vast green area that surrounds the parking lot and fwy so you can kind of imagine how challanging this could be. Needle in a haystack! They were so dirty but let me get them quite easily. They are about 7 weeks old and I just scooped them up. Miraculously I had my cat carrier in my car as I had just taken Giovanni to the vet that morning. Fate? Anyhow, everyone in the office fell in love but no adoption took place, yet anyhow. I’m working on finding them a nice home and will keep you posted. here are the pics!

DON’T YOU AGREE CATS SHOULD NOT LIVE HERE?

LOTS OF LOVE IN THE OFFICE



WHO THE HELL ARE YOU???

I spent a couple hours this past Saturday working with toddlers at the Sydney M. Irmas Transitional Living Center in North Hollywood, California. This place is truly amazing – it provides safe and secure homes for clients who come from temporary and emergency shelters and require additional time to acquire sufficient independence to secure pemanant housing. On this particular Saturday they needed volunteers to play with toddlers while their parent(s) take part in a finance management class. The “library” had just been newly repainted and really looked great. There were about 7 of us and I’d say about 12 kids – and one or two moms who kept popping in. I bonded with “Heaven”, a really smart 6 year old (she’s one of 4 siblings all who live with their mom in one large room). Heaven and I started with puzzles and soon moved on to books. I had her read me a couple and she went slowly and carefully. I loved it and you know what she said that made my day” she said ” I love to read because Readers make Leaders!” Wow, someone out their is really doing their job! I hope to work with Heaven again!

Last night our book club finally met at supreme hostess Brandy’s house – well, kind of, she was house sitting but anyhow Brandy had set the mood for our discussion of our book The Namesake by Jlumpi Lahiri. Sunflowers (straight from a page in the book), lots of candles and Indian delacacies set the mood, oh and lots of great wine. It was unanimous that we all really enjoyed this book and we discussed the cultural struggle of a family and in particular one boy with life in the United States versus India. Very interesting and highly recommended! Our book club meets again in 6 weeks and our next novel is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls a true story sure to rivet us!

Col-Coa Cozy! Col-Coa is the name of the French Film festival that was in Los Angeles April 16-22. Col Coa stands for City of Lights/City of Angels. I was invited by my very good friend Jerome Curchod (pictured with Dominique below) who did a brilliant job of designing the brochure/website and all signage for the festival. Bravo Jerome! On this rainy Sunday afternoon (cozy!!!) we went and saw the Catherine Deneuve, Emanuelle Hubert film “Le Heros de la famille”. A pretty good family story and although a death is involved, I didn’t walk out of this film scratching my head wondering what the hell had happened as I sometimes do and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE French cinema but it is VERY different from American! Wish I’d been able to see all the other movies but will use Jerome’s program as a guide of what to look out for or put on my NetFlix list. Pics from this day! And if you’re wondering, yes that is an eleven foot long chocolate cake!!! I certainly picked the right day to go! Tres delicieux!

Many many years ago, somewhere in the early ’80′s I liked dressing up my friends and taking pictures of them. One overcast day I was at Malibu beach with my then French boyfriend Chris and his sister Beatrice. I don’t remember what exactly the bird was doing but here is the picture. And why I bother to post this is because my parents held on to this photo for such a long time, it just so happens that it stuck around longer than they did. So thanks thanks thanks big sis for making a great copy of it and mailing it to me. It’s like a great double memory for me and it seens like it’s definitely found a new home. I love seeing it on my wall! Incidentally, the brother and sister, Chris and Beatrice were the children of the famous German actor Horst Buchholz. Check him out on imdb.com

Cats should not live in parking lots. Especially ugly concrete ones that boarder nasty freeways. But this is where if found “Parker” living and as I started leaving food for him I thought about how nice it would be to get him out there and relocate him to my house on Weldon where there is lots of places for a kitty to roam around. So When my sister Lisa met Carol the Cat Rescuer the plan was formed. I borrowed a humane trap, went down to the parking lot one Saturday, baited the trap with some canned tuna and within minutes I had Parker. Off to Carol the Cat Lady and within days he had the doctors seal of health and was newly neutered (sorry Parker, it just had to be!) Although he was supposed to “adapt” to his new surroundings at Weldon by living in this cleverly constructed cage, he pulled a Houdini and escaped. But Parker is a survivor and he has already figured out where to find his food and water and I see him wandeirng around my patio at various hours of the day and night and I dare say he enjys living here at Chez Weldon! Welcome Parker!