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Alien Son

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Posts posted by Alien Son

  1. 8 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

    My prejudices, sure.  They're mine, and I take full ownership of them.  I don't like cooked carrots, either.  We all have our likes and dislikes, and people who don't share our specific ones wonder what's wrong with us.

    C

    Perhaps you could try to not be so dismissive of others' likes.

  2. 17 hours ago, Altimexis said:

    Oh no! I feel like crap for saying that. I don’t remember exactly what Mike posted but I was under the impression that he was feeding several neighborhood cats, against the will of others in the neighborhood. Obviously, I drew the wrong conclusion and feel awful for posting that.

    Thanks, John, for clearing that up.

    Thanks, Steve.

    I probably should have mentioned that they did, indeed, name the cats. The webpage included a photo of each one, together with a description, in the hope that people would be moved to adopt them. I think you're correct that some residents of the complex objected to the feeding.

  3. On 3/9/2024 at 7:07 PM, Altimexis said:

    Feral cats, I’m afraid. Mike loved the cats in his neighborhood and named them. He also fed them and I dared not share my opinion of that. Don’t get me wrong - I love cats. My family adopted several when I was a kid, including a couple from the neighborhood. Unfortunately, feeding feral cats ends up doing them no favors and it decimates the bird population. Unless coupled with sterilization, feeding the cats results in an explosion in their numbers, leading to even more starvation and suffering.

    Mike, God love him, saw things differently, so I didn’t ever bring it up. He alluded to hearing from some of his neighbors who didn’t approve. If I’d said anything, it would have only gotten me kicked off the site. Sorry to go off topic, but I can finally say that this is one aspect of Mike’s generosity that shouldn’t be emulated.

    I'm not sure whether you're talking about some cats at Mike's home in Cathedral City, but if you are, you're quite wrong. Calling them feral cats is a bit of a stretch. Here's the history (quoted from a website Mike set up at the time):

    Quote

    Tierra Del Sol is a sprawling 76-unit affordable senior housing complex located in Cathedral City, California. It features covered parking, spacious indoor and outdoor public areas, well-kept desert and traditional landscaping and a swimming pool/spa area. A HUD-sponsored project, TDS is a desirable place for seniors living on Social Security or other fixed incomes. It is managed by Mercy Housing, which belongs to the Catholic Church
    A bit of history

    With the sudden move of an elderly TDS resident in April of 2015, eight young cats of at least three litters of her roaming female cat - found themselves homeless, hungry and frightened.

    Kindly neighbors began feeding them but a resident services person reportedly told them not to do so and that the cats would be picked up by Riverside County Animal Services, presumably to be euthanized.

    Mary Ewing, Outreach Coordinator of the well known animal welfare organization, Loving All Animals, was invited to speak to residents and it was finally decided to implement a more humane solution.

    Trap – Neuter – Return or TNR is a process by which the cats were humanely trapped, neutered and returned to their place of origin, the grounds of Tierra Del Sol. Loving All Animals picked up the tab for the operations.

    One of our residents took on the job of capturing the cats in traps provided by Loving All Animals. Another drove her and the cats to the Animal Samaritans clinic in the mornings for their surgery.

    It was my job to pick up the groggy young cats in the afternoons and nurse them until they were ready to be released. This varied from two days for the males to 5-6 days for the females. The TDS maintenance manager also took in a few of the cats for the recovery period.

    Since the first of May, 2015 I have been voluntarily feeding the cats every day at sunrise and sunset. A group of about half a dozen residents contributes to the monthly cost of canned and dry food which is ordered online from Chewy.com.

    It has been gratifying to watch these young cats transform from scrawny, frightened kittens to healthy young cats. They are well socialized and get along well with residents and their dogs. Needless to say they earn their keep in controlling the rat population.

    Any one of these cats would make a great pet and since the beginning of the project, two and a half years ago, the ultimate goal has been to have all of them adopted, ideally by Tierra Del Sol residents.

     

    If I remember correctly they were unable to find homes for all of the cats, so presumably they were euthanised.

    ~ John

  4. 15 hours ago, Altimexis said:

    Some New Yorkers fantasize about succeeding from the US and joining with Canada, but of course that will never happen.

    I think you meant seceding, although succeeding would be helpful at this time.

  5. 7 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

    I'm not sure any of the collaborators on this tetralogy are still around.  The early 2000s were clearly a fecund time at AwesomeDude.  At least we still have the legacy . . .

    R  

    Graeme posted a message in the forums when Mike passed away. I lost touch with Aaron when The Mail Crew site went offline. Dewey's site also seems to have gone offline. I haven't heard anything of Grasshopper for many years now.

    We have a wonderful legacy from the early years of AwesomeDude.

    ~ John

  6. Rutabaga has set up a redirect that should take care of that. Any URL that leads to the old CW directory on the AD site will automatically be sent to codeysworld.org.

    In the long term it would be good if you could update the links.  (I assume you're referring to your stories posted on the AD site and not those posted on the CW site.)

    If you're referring to your stories at CW, it might be worth checking to see if they still show the old address because Rutabaga did a search and replace operation on the whole CW site and updated all the links he could find.

    ~ John

  7. Hi, James

    I haven't done anything about Valentine's Day, but I'll be happy to post a story providing it meets the AD guidelines, and I expect that it will.

    Please email it to me at submissions@awesomedude.org.

    I've amended the links in my post above. They dated from before the move to the new domain, and I hadn't updated them. Sorry for the inconvenience.

    ~ John

     

  8. On 1/8/2024 at 6:35 AM, synystraal said:

    And at the end of this tale, we know who are the real heroes. They're not the ones racing to the cameras and microphones to bray about their non-existent accomplishments and denigrate their detractors. The reals heroes work with quiet determination behind the public face so that the work of others can be accessed and enjoyed. Alien Son, Rutabaga, Cole Parker, and others behind the screen are the real heroes.

    Thank you for your kind words!

    ~ John

  9. My apologies to everyone who was not able to see the new chapters that were part of the Wednesday update.

    I uploaded everything and checked that all the links were working, and I was able to see that the new chapters were being visited. The server showed that the home page had been updated.

    Sometime later the new home page was not visible. At the moment I have no idea how that happened, but it has shown us that we need a backup system so that Rutabaga can step in if he needs to. On this occasion he was unable to, and I was unaware that anything was wrong until R sent me a text message just as I was beginning my Thursday.

    The updated home page should now be visible for everyone.

    ~ John

  10. I'll get a swelled head at this rate... but thank you, your appreciation makes the effort worthwhile. It's been a bit tricky working out which stories Mike has already used as Picks.

    ~ John

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