Tag: animals

Memory Lane: Lucky Kitty & the Contractor

Cat sitting on fence at 1616 4th St NW. Taken October 31, 2003

I wrote the post below back in the early days of the blog in 2003. I was undergoing my first major house renovation, the kitchen with a contractor I found via some swing dance friends who live (still live) in the H Street area.

That contractor had his own company and paired up with a fellow and they created a company. I see that company’s trucks all over my new neighborhood. But this post is about a kitty.

My neighbors down the street had a cat. They kept the cat outside most of the time. Lucky was a very sweet cat.

Lucky Kitty

My contractor has run off with the neighbor’s cat. She’s doing much better now he says. I kind of miss her. Lucky is an extremely affectionate cat. Of course she mainly wanted food and tried breaking into my house often. But now she’s in a warm house, the neighbors kept her outside, eating regularly, I used to feed her a little & thought her owners were too, and she doesn’t slobber anymore.

My contractor took her home. She was well cared for. She became an indoor all the time cat and got fat. She was in kitty heaven. Well she died after many, many years and is now in kitty heaven.

Memory Lane: Kittens on a rug 2006

The internet is for cats.

Taken June 13, 2006

This could be anywhere, but it was my backyard on 4th St NW.  We had a healthy colony of alley cats in the alley between New Jersey Avenue and 4th Street.  Did they do a good job of keeping down the rodent population?

*shrug*

I had mice issues and used poison bait stations inside and outside to deal with the problem with varied results. But the cats were part of the fabric that made the neighborhood the neighborhood.

There were neighbors who cared for the cats, putting out food. I volunteered to try to trap the mother cat so she could get spayed. The kittens were hanging out in my yard anyway. However, momma cat was smart. She would rub up against the trap to set it off.

Eventually neighbors got all the alley cats spayed and neutered or adopted off (for the kittens) and the colony died out.

MISSING: Neighbor Cat Lila – In Shaw – Mari in the Citi

A cat that is as much of a neighbor to me as her two cat parents, Lila has gone missing.
She is 20 years old. Yes, she is an old kitty, and like some of the elderly, probably has dementia and has wandered off.
She was last seen somewhere along 1st and Bates. Her home is the 1600 block of 4th St NW.
Yes, there are a lot of black cats wandering the neighborhood, but these are the features of Lila:

  • She is 100% black.
  • She has a red collar with a heart shaped tag with her name and her people’s number.
  • Her rear legs are a little stiff.
  • She hates being picked up but she won’t fight you.

If you see her, grab the old lady and call the number on her tag. Her people have put up signs so I’m not sure what phone number is listed.  Please call 413-9699 if you see her.  I’ll update this when I talk to her people. Please help us return her to our street so she may sit on top of her trash can again.

If time is no issue, email me at {removed}.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on May 21, 2016 2:21 PM.

Dead body on RI Ave median

I don’t know if anyone from the city still reads my blog, but there is a dead cat on the median of the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue and today is day 2 of its residence.
Yesterday I called the city 311 number to report the beige beastie, as I noticed it before I went to work and saw it unmoved as I was heading home. As of this morning it is still there. Now once again it was one of those slightly frustrating calls, because kitty had the audacity to die on a median, which the operator seemed very unfamiliar with. I found myself defining what was a median. A median, is sometimes a green patch in the middle of a 4+ lane road. It does not have an address. Because the city sometimes bothers mowing said grass, I take it the city owns the land. No it is not in front of a house. The best address I can give is the closest property that bothered to have address numbers that I can make out.
No it is not on the road it is on the median.
Once again the median does not have an address. It is in the middle of Rhode Island Avenue, which I’m not going to define as a ‘freeway’ as you have as I really don’t want to get into defining different kinds of roadways.
Gaaaah!

Another Chicken in DC story

I could have sworn I read this before, but it is dated for today. Cute kids, chickens, and Tommy Wells. Well there is this little bit:

Ernst’s neighbor and fellow chicken champion, Amanda Cundiff, last week presented Councilmember David Catania (chairman of the committee on health) with a petition signed by 130 people supporting measures to allow chickens in the city. “Eggs hatch in February, and it would be nice if people could raise chickens this year,” she said.

So make that cute kids, chickens, Tommy Wells and David Catania.

(HT: Jimbo, who knows my facination for the chicken)

…and your little dog too

Sometime back while walking down R Street I encountered a little white dog off a leash. I wonder if it is the same dog that has been menacing students as reported yesterday on the listservs.

This morning, around 8am, one of the staff at Scott Montgomery ES informed me that one of her students, while coming to school, was chased by a small long-haired white dog. I alerted 911. I was in class and apparently out of cell phone range in the school when MPD responded, so I didn’t speak to the officer immediately. Around 9am, I was told by the officer in a scout car positioned at 5th and O St that she responded and drove around the block looking for the dog and then went back to her fixed post.
I spoke to other students this morning and was informed by several of them that this particular off leash dog is a constant repeated. Since there are many young students who might potentially feel threatened by such an experience.

Keep your puppies leashed.

Chickeen challenge

Someone is openly challenging the idea that chickens are illegal in the city. In the September Hill Rag is tale of two little girls, their chickens and the mean, mean city government who threatened to take the chickens away.

This spring, the Silvermans hatched a small flock of baby chicks for their daughters to raise at their home. The girls learned about heirloom breeds, how to keep the chicks safe and what to feed them. A neighbor offered her side yard for the pullets (adolescent chickens) to graze in during the day. All was going well until a few weeks ago when somehow the police were contacted, and in turn, an Animal Control officer arrived at the scene threatening to remove the birds. Cooler heads prevailed, and the pullets were left alone that day. But Animal Control told the Silvermans that keeping chickens was illegal in DC, which we now know is not the case. What to do?
Chicken Summer Camp
The Silvermans have decided to tackle the chicken controversy head on. They have sent their birds to summer camp outside town. They are working with Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells’ office who has advocated on their behalf with the Chief of the Bureau for Community Hygiene.

Well I for one support the Silverman’s efforts and hope that one day DC citizens can openly raise a few birds (few, not a factory) in their backyards. If you want to contact Councilman Wells about this his email is twells[at]dccouncil.us.

More on the Bundy Parking thing

Well good news, it appears that the Safe Shores folks won’t need the whole lot, read from the Friends of Bundy:

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

The District Department of Real Estate Services (formerly the Office of Property Management) has reviewed the parking requirements for the District’s Child Advocacy Center coordinated by Safe Shores at the Bundy School.*

With approximately 17 spaces available on the school lot, the site will require an additional 42 spaces in the back lot. This should leave approximately 8,800 square feet of space available for other use. [emphasis added]

As a reminder, the back lot is owned by the Federal government. The District cannot proceed with any plans (parking or otherwise) until after the land transfer is complete and funding is identified.

*The Safe Shores project is part of the District’s continuing effort to become a model jurisdiction by expanding the service capacity for children who are victims of physical and sexual abuse. Construction will be complete in November 2009. Subsequently, staff from the US Attorney’s Office, Office of the Attorney General, Metropolitan Police Department, Child and Family Services and the non-profit Safe Shores will move in and begin operations.

Robin-Eve Jasper, Director
DC Department of Real Estate Services
2000 14th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20009

And…

Dear Friends,

This August 7, 2009 announcement from the DC Department of Real Estate Services (DRES), formerly the Office of Property Management (OPM), suggests that there will be ample space left on the vacant lot at Bundy for use as a dog park (see url above).

According to DC’s Dog Park Regulations (Section 733.1 under Dog Parks: Site Guidelines and Specification), “a dog park shall be no less than five thousand square feet (5,000 sq ft) in area where feasible.” Hence, the remaining space on the vacant lot at Bundy — not used by parking for future Bundy School tenants — would still meet the minimum requirements for establishing a dog park.

We will continue our efforts to reach out to neighbors and dog owners in Wards 2, 5 and 6 so that we will be able to demonstrate the impressive support we have for a dog park when DPR begins to process our formal application.

Thank you for your support. Hope to see you on Aug. 21 for Jazz on the Green at Bundy Park with the DC Choro Ensemble.

Payam Bakhaje

Friends of Bundy Park