Beast Mode, the Mall and Cat Lady

So Yesterday didn’t go as planned.

A half hour before I was to head out for the Pain Cave, I received a message from Trainer asking to move the session to today ─ Thursday, because he was once again stuck in court.

Something to do with his failed attempts, in 2019, to get full custody of his daughter ─ and that attempt failed only because daughter didn’t want to get her mom in trouble for what mom had allowed the stepdad to do by refusing to believe it was happening.

With daughter refusing to speak her truth, and Trainer afraid his daughter would hate him if he told and mom got arrested, or left with no support because stepdad got arrested, the court appointed child psychologist told him that there was nothing he could do but to relinquish his parental rights. Which is what happened and I heard no more of it, but figured daughter made a big mistake ... that being in that environment wasn’t going to get better.

With Trainer being called into court, these two years later, my thoughts were Maybe daughter changed her mind and is now willing to cooperate in her dad’s efforts to help her ... get her out of that situation?

At any rate, I had no problem agreeing to rescheduling to today, no matter what the reason. Outside yesterday looked cold, dreary ─ we did get rain showers, so I was happy to remove workout wear, jump back into my warm camo onesie pajamas.

So, though I did enjoy not having to head out yesterday, I figured the remainder of the week was going to be rough because I’d be going beast mode ─ back to back workout days with tomorrow, Friday, being my next. Plus, I’d have to give up part of my weekend by driving to the mall to curbside pickup the new coffee maker.

Heading out, I saw what looked to be really nice furniture piled up at the dumpster. In fact, I’d seen management rolling really nice furniture down the walkway, towards the main office, most of the week. Which, to me was a sign someone had died, had no family, and management was confiscating the best of what was left behind.

I’d intended to ask Apache who died, but I’ve not run into him since providing that letter.

However, as I was perusing the furniture management did not want and had piled up at the dumpster, here comes The Preacher.

“No one died”, said he. “They put her out, evicted her. Even had her car towed away, It wasn't working and they asked her to get rid of it many times and had it towed away when they put her out”.

I wasn’t sure who he was talking about, but what was being done sounded cruel.

“What happened to her?”, asked I. “Where did she go?” 

“Last I saw her walking away, she was going down the street that (indicating east) way”, said he.

Getting in the car, after that conversation, heading to the Pain Cave, thinking this isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen management do, and how lucky I am not to be at their mercy, and how Apache isn’t someone management can take advantage of, like they did to whoever this resident is, I pushed it out of mind and had a good workout.

I wasn’t stiff and sore after so, taking advantage of feeling good, I drove to the mall, picked up that coffeemaker. So, now I don’t have to give up any of my weekend. I can stay snug as a bug inside.

Returning to the complex, I saw a friendly chatty neighbor from the next building over perusing the furniture left at the dumpster.

Looking to find out what she knew, I asked about who the furniture belonged to.

Turns out it’s a long-time resident we called, “The Cat Lady”. I don’t know how many she kept in her unit, but she was always walking the complex, collecting strays and leaving food for those that wouldn’t be caught.

She’d gotten in trouble with management multiple times about leaving food, because she was told the food attracted other less desirable creatures.

No matter, she’d continued to do so.

”Is that why they evicted her ... the cats?” asked I.

”Nooooo”.

The way the speaker explained to me was that, maybe off her meds or just plane crazy, Cat Lady accused the neighbor, whose back window ─ with the ugly curtains, is directly across from my patio, of killing her cats. She walked through that neighbor’s unlocked door, began yelling at him and his wife about killing her cats. Even picked up a chair and tried to hit the wife with it.

The speaker didn’t say how that incident ended, but that neighbor's wife passed away just two weeks ago, after which Cat Lady called the police claiming that neighbor was killing cats and humans.

It’s hard to believe the cops believed that, but they followed up in a spectacular manner. The cops paid that neighbor a visit, guns drawn, and searched his unit.

That’s what ended Cat Lady.

Management evicted her post haste, had police remove her from her unit, and are in the process of clearing out all her things.

Even though she appeared to be a danger to others ... can you imagine what would have happened if the resident she said killed cats and humans had been Black? Yet and still, just putting her on the street sounds cruel. Evict her yes, but there must be some agency they could have called to take her in.

As for Trainer’s daughter, there was an incident with the stepdad "beating her up".

Stepdad was momentarily taken outside, feigned a medical emergency and, with mom still protecting him, and daughter refusing to talk, daughter was the one removed from the home. She is now in foster care.

Trainer is trying not to show how distressed he is.

Speaking from my own experiences with Twin 1 and Granddaughter ─ who are both fine now, I offered comforting words that you can’t help someone who is not willing to be helped. Sometimes you have to focus on saving yourself, let go of the other and let God.

However, how I really feel ... and I don't care how harsh it sounds, the girl is now 16. If she’s not willing to speak up, say and do what’s necessary, then to heck with her.

And yes, Margaret, it’s another Carnac-styled title. LOL.