Friday, June 25, 2004

Taking care of the Homeless

Cathy Seipp writes: Cecile is helping the cat get settled at Paradise Ranch, the cagefree dog (and a few cats) resort hotel that's the only place I don't feel terrible about leaving the animals when we're gone. The cat gets this entire actual bedroom all to herself. She can sleep on the bed, or under it; whatever she wants. And when things are quiet in the office (adjacent to the cat bedroom) she can come out and sit on people's laps. She's 17, OK? She deserves it. The picture doesn't show the dresser, decorated with ceramic dogs, which I think looked charming but suspect is lost on the cat.

Other bedrooms are filled with dogs (the main clientele), carefully selected from the outdoor play area to see who gets along best and should bunk together inside.

Elisabeth Irwin writes: I applaud the availability of such housing for the animal companions of the well-to-do while they vacation. Still, what does it say about our society that dogs and cats are better housed than the tens of millions of homeless people regularly sent out onto the streets by a heartless national policy that would rather tax Americans to kill Arabs than spend money to house Americans?

A Fly on the Wall writes: Cathy has a very generous and loving attitude toward the homeless. She has even adopted her own derelict that she feeds, cares for, and tends in a generous and selfless spirit, notwithstanding his antisocial and borderline delusional ravings. His name is Luke Ford.