ASL Session in the Portland Oregon Temple

Attended the ASL session of the Temple today. So spiritual!

I suppose that first I should explain about our temple. It is a little unique. Here is the front of the temple:

However, most Portlanders don't think of this as the front! Here is 'our' front:

Beautiful! Right?

Anyway, in January they started having monthly temple sessions in ASL. Today was my 2nd time attending and it was fantastic. I don't know if I can adequately explain how cool it was to get the message in a language other than my native language (English). I really had to concentrate on what was being said. And, truthfully, I didn't get it all. Which I was fine with. I wasn't there trying for perfection. I wanted to learn... which with me is always a haphazard, imperfect experience.

I did feel an extra closeness with the branch members that were there. That was weird. I go to church with them every Sunday. It was cool though, to chat after the session and feel like we were of one mind.

So, next month I'll go again. I'm pretty excited about that.

Also: In the chapel session I was reading in Alma about prayer. That it is not only important to have formal personal prayer (I call this physically praying) but to also have your every day activities and thoughts to be focused in prayer (I call this spiritually praying). Alma explains that both are important. Woot. Or: Word!

Feral. Cat with an attitude. And not a good one.

It has taken me several years to get a decent picture of her. She is very skittish and doesn't like to be cornered. And, to be honest, she is very afraid of all things human. Except me.

My fault, really.
She was born down the street from my house. I only learned about her because her mother, and a couple of her aunts, would traipse to my porch twice a day to scarf the cat food I left out for my two cats. My cats, at the time, were outdoors cats. As far as I knew, both were perfectly content to live outdoors. Until this colony of kittens kept showing up and eating both breakfast and dinner.

I got tired of feeding every kitten in the neighborhood and started searching for a rescue organization that would help me with the cost of fixing the lot. Oh, let us be honest. I was flat broke and wanted them to foot the entire bill.

Animal Aid came to the rescue.
If I would keep at least one of the cats/kittens and feed the (now we know) ungrateful thing for the rest of its life AND help find homes for the remaining cats then they would pay to have the cats health screened, altered and ear knocked. Ear knocking is done so that they can tell, on the off chance that the cat is stupid enough to get trapped a second time, that they have already screened and fixed the cat.

I heartily agreed.

Feral is actually a twin. She and her twin were inseparable. That is, until the day I lured them into the trap. The twin escaped. Never to be seen again. Feral, on the other hand, was carted off to the vets to be screened, altered and ear knocked. When I got her back I kept her in the cage for two days so that she would know for sure that I would feed her. When I let her out she bolted. It was several months before I saw her again, peeking out from behind my Japanese Iris.

Truth be told, I was glad she was alive. I had worried that she had run off and gotten herself killed in some unpleasant manner.

I managed to catch a glimpse of her every few months and felt bad that the whole trap/vet situation had traumatized her. Then came time for me to move. I didn't know what to do. I had made this commitment to take care of her and yet... she really wanted nothing to do with me. Just about a month before moving day she did something extraordinary. She came into the house. I had left the front door open to catch a nice summer breeze and she just sauntered in and sat by the door. I stood up and she bolted. This went on for a couple days and I was beginning to think I may be able to lure her into a trap if I had it in the house. No need. She decided she liked me and climbed into my lap.

WOW

I managed to get her and my other two cats to the new house, a long story that deserves its own post, and more or less comfortable. Now, three years later, I finally get a picture of her.