ok...screw the eating thing..i just about lost a finger to max.

i should write a blog dedicated to the last of the americats, they changed the face of saints in many ways. there is only the rock left...and for how much longer will he be here?

maybe awhile... he is doing pretty good.
there are animals here that for one reason or another..i consider to be the foundations of all the best animal stories here.

the rock is a foundation.
we all know where these cats came from and how they suffered at the hands of misguided rescue. so i am not going to regurgitate the tale. but what is interesting about the rock, is the epiphany i had a few weeks after his arrival here.
it was when i discovered that the rock had no teeth.

two things swam thru my head...how hard it must have been to survive that horror without a tooth in his head. AND...who took his teeth out?

was it the rescue before they went so bad? were they good enough to care for him at some point before they lost their minds? OR...

is he one of those sad cats that gets rescued, gets dumped or lost again and then gets rescued by someone else? was it a different rescue altogether that helped him at some other distant past?
how many times have you been rescued rock? (we know all about FLOCK, and then the big and thank god! Best Friends kitty rescue before you came to saints...who else rescued you i wonder? )

OR...

did he once have home that loved him enough to do a major dental surgery so he could feel well again?

so i have all of these questions for the rockman...where did you come from? where have you been? how much of your life sucked? and how much of your life do you really miss?

and rock can't answer me. he cannot unravel for me the mystery of his life. he just lived it, every moment in time, whatever his reality was.

but what rock can tell me is who he is today.... mr. "i have something to say to you"...mr. "come on in here and visit me"...mr. "be kind and gentle and friendly to everyone."....mr. "i will take care of you because you do not feel well today."

the rock is a presence. he is larger than his cat body. he is bigger inside than most people i know.

it does not surprise me that he is the last one left standing...the rock is steadfast and impervious to time.

he is the foundation of all of the animals here...american and canadian, timeless, rock solid goodness, inside, outside, underneath and all around him...the rock has no borders, he has no limitations in who he grew to be in his lifetime.

what a gift to know him, to love him, to share this life with him.

he is our rock..embedded in the heart of saints for all time.