Critters in the Wasilla Wal-Mart parking lot

I took Margie to work and saw that kittens were being given away in the parking lot. "I must go back to photograph those kittens," I told her as I dropped her off at the door. So I started back toward the kittens, but then saw puppies being given away out of the back of a pickup truck. 

I stopped to photograph the puppies, but I had barely begun when I looked back toward the kittens were. I saw a lady approaching the vehicle that held them. I feared that I if I lingered any longer with the puppies, the kittens might all be given away and be gone by the time I finished. So I left the puppies and headed for the kittens.

When I reached the vehicle where the kittens were being given away, I found a red-headed lady cuddling a kitten.

This is the girl, who, along with her mother, was giving away the kittens. She called this one "Little Fuzzy." I got the impression that she loved Little Fuzzy and that if life were as perfect as she wished it were, she would have kept Little Fuzzy.

If I understood correctly, they had started out with three kittens. One had already been adopted and taken away and the remaining two had been claimed - sort of.

The hand of the woman who had "sort of" claimed the two kittens reaches in to give the other, "Chimichanga," a stroke.

  

This is Rhonda Weinrick, the woman who had come to take the kittens. I say she had "sort of" claimed them, because she was not going to bring them home to live with her, but rather she was going to take them to a shelter that she is affiliated with, Mat Valley Kitten Rescue Group.

Rhonda wants all kittens to wind up in good homes where they will get their shots, will be spayed and neutered, and will be made into house cats, never allowed to roam outside. That is the rules all would-be kitten owners must agree to before they can adopt from the shelter. Rhonda told me that they are very picky about who they allow to adopt a kitten. They must get  the shots before the kitten even leaves, and must convince the shelter that they will follow through with the rest.

A kitten can be adopted right in the Wal-Mart parking lot and still wind up in a good home, but it might not. That is a chance Rhonda would rather not take.

As Rhonda transferred the kittens to her car, I hurried back to the puppies. I spotted a parking space and this scene at about the same time. I hurried and shot the picture through the car window before turning into the space. I knew it would be blurry, but the moment would be gone by the time I could park.

Truth is, the moment immediately before this one was better yet, but when you have to shoot a point and shoot, as I still do, you miss many moments, because sometimes you push the shutter button and nothing happens for a couple of seconds. Other times, you push the shutter and it shoots, just like that.

Most vexing!

As I parked the car and headed for the puppies, I saw them being admired by the same red-headed woman who I had first spotted with Little Fuzzy.

I had hoped that she would snuggle one close, and that I could photograph it framed in her dangling curls, but she did not snuggle the puppy. She just looked, smiled, and moved on.

This boy is a member of the family giving away the pups. He has been eating a red popsicle. He and the pup look good together.

An older couple stops to admire the pups. The boy tells the man that he should take this one home. The man says the pup is a good one, but he can't adopt it.

The older couple moves on as a young woman cradles another pup. She likes it.

 

The woman hands the pup to young girl. She likes it, too. She wants to adopt it. The debate about whether or not she can will still be going on when I leave.

Rhonda shows up. It seems the shelter takes puppies, too.

As children adore puppies, Rhonda explains the mission of the shelter.

 

I drive from Wal-Mart to Machaus, a Macintosh computer store, to check on a hard drive that I ordered. It has not come in yet. As I return to the car, I see this dog, waiting on a truck bed.

I head for home. Soon, I come across this cat, lying dead on the shoulder of the road. I feel that I should pick it up, take it home, and lay it in that place in the meadow behind our home where I have lain other cats that I have found dead in the road. But what if it's people are looking for it? If I take it now, they might forever wonder what happened to it.

I know how bad this can be. But I don't want it to rot away there, either - which I have seen just about happen with other cats that I have gathered. So I decide to give the cat's family some time - until I return to pick Margie up from work.

Four hours later, I come back. The dead cat is gone. I hope its people found it.

I drive to Wal-Mart and park by the curb to wait for Margie. This couple comes by, headed into the store. 

In her most recent column, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd came to this very parking lot, as part of her attempt to gain a better understanding of just who Sarah Palin is. This is what she observed: "I wandered through the Wal-Mart, which seemed almost as large as Wasilla, a town that is a soulless strip mall without sidewalks set beside a soulful mountain and lake."

I wondered about that statement, and what Maureen Dowd actually saw of my town. I assume that this, Pioneer Peak, is the soulful mountain to which she referred. I can't be certain, though. Wasilla is surrounded by mountains. Look any direction, and you will see them.

"A lake?" Wal-Mart seems almost as big as Wasilla?

Wasilla is enormous, it covers a huge area and it would take some doing to count up all the lakes in the community known as Wasilla. 

To an extent, I will agree with "the souless strip mall" - that strip being one part of Wasilla, but not the whole by any means. And look a little closer, Dear Maureen, and even within that soulless strip mall, you will find soul.

Hey! My second son says he went to Mocha Moose for a coffee and in the drive-through found himself in line behind five reporters from the New York Times. Even though it was a drive-through, they were on foot. He says they were a bit annoying, that there was condescending talk about Alaska, and that one in particular could not wait to leave this place.

Hopefully, Maureen, that one was not you. Whoever it was, that person did not know really see the place in which he stood. That person had no comprehension at all of where she stood.

None, whatsoever. And yes, I read the New York Times every day. I look forward to your columns. You are very bright, clever and witty, and often I find you right on. But not always.