Happy Labor Day!

Yeah, I should have created a Labor Day comic today, but you know what?

I got to thinking about that little button on my iPhone, the one that looks like an old-fashioned phone receiver. They don't make those any longer but we easily comprehend what the icon stand for.

Labor Day is sort of the same way. Originally intended for union workers, except unions are lowly dying out. Eventually Labor Day will just be considered just a paid day off which, if Republicans had their way, would be shit-canned as soon as possible. How dare those poor slobs pick a man's pocket one a year?

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Back story on the cartoon: About sixteen years ago a stray momma cat showed up at my feeding station with a pair of young ones in tow. One kitten was very sociable and, thus, easy to catch and find a home for. The other kitten, a yellow fuzzball, found humans intolerable and I was never able to catch her. Eventually, momma disappeared, problably to find a new sperm donor, and left her rapidly growing baby behind.

The kitten matured, stayed in the 'hood for the free chow I provided, continued to avoid capture, and eventually had two kittens of her own in the back seat of the Mustang. It was at this time that I was able to capture her and have her neutered. The kittens soon found new homes but their mom remained.

Sixteen years later she's begun to tolerate me, even trills at me occasionally, though it's strictly a "No touchy!" relationship. She has subsisted mostly on dry chow and occasional tins of Aldi's cheap wet stuff. She has never attempted to come inside my house, even during the coldest weather.

I call her "Mom".

As I said, she's an old cat, comparable to an 80-year old human. She's quite mobile but three weeks ago she was attacked by another cat and I thought she'd lost her right eye. As she's mostly feral, and the budget won't allow for the thousands in vet costs, I had to just let her heal as best she could.

During this healing period I attempted to help her by providing higher-quality wet food than usual. In the past, when I had seven outdoor male cats, nothing was wasted, no matter how cheap the can of chow. Mom, however, has chosen this moment to become quite the gourmet though I'm happy to shell out a few extra bucks per week to keep her healthy and happy.

Fortunately, it was the nictitating membrane that took the hit, as evolution intended, not the eye itself, so she has a more-or-less permanent squint now. This bit of battle damage kind of looks good on her.

I hope she continues to stick around as she's the sole remnant of a vast herd of felines, mostly black males, that once populated my yard. After all, a house is not a home without a cat.

-Lefty