Family of Cats

Closely watching Issac travel through the gulf. Hoping it does not hit New Orleans. For completely selfish reasons as Bill and I are headed there for vacation on the 4th. If a plane can land, I will be there no matter what...........

The facility where I work and my view from the office is the Wissahicken Park. Since I started at FBHS five years ago, there have been several employees who leave out food and water for the many stray cats that roam the area. Sometimes, I see a raccoon (better than the walls in my 3rd floor office) or a squirrel at the bowls. Lately, I have been seeing a family of grey cats/kittens. As a matter of fact, I saw one kitten at the bowls when I left work this afternoon.

What fascinates me the most about this family is how protective the mother cat is. She is always close by either laying on a picnic table or in the wooded area just beyond where her growing family feeds. She keeps a close eye on her babies and at the slightest sound alerts them back to the woods.

The kittens are pure grey as the mother is grey and white. I counted three babies. They seem to be about ten weeks old and I am sure it will not be long before they leave their mother and head out in the woods alone. I used to question whether or not it was the right thing to do by feeding the stray cats, as they keep having babies and the cycle of birth and death continues. Honestly, I love watching them and it brings so much peace in the middle of a crazy day. It also makes me want to catch one and bring it home. Strays are clever. I remember playing in Laurel Hill Cemetery as a kid and trying to catch a stray kitten that lived underneath one of the mausoleums. I clearly remember it was an orange tabby and he/she was fast on those four little feet. I never did catch him though I tried for hours. I never gave it a thought as to whether or not my mom would allow me to keep it as we always had pets growing up. Maybe one day, I will tell you about my ducks.

For now, how wonderful the world would be if human mothers cared as much for their own kids as many do not and will throw the kid away for a bag of dope.

More Oldies but Goodies

 When the boys were little; Shaun and Nikolas.

 100 steps

 Grandmom in 1981

 Grandmom is far right.

 Aunt Kate

 I was five years old. My sister is a year old.

 I was eight years old.

I was three years old. Michael was five years old.

Potters Fields in Philadelphia

When the city's Fairmount Section was undergoing renovations, bones were discovered on the block of 800 and N. 20th Street.

Potters Field was once located nearby at N. 19th Street and Fairmount Ave.

The burial ground at the 800 block of N. 20th Street is believed to date back to 1793 when the city experienced a Yellow Fever outbreak and the estate known as Bush Hill served as its hospital located on the same grounds. Later, the hospital would be renamed the City's Hospital for Contagious Diseases until the year 1855.

Potters Fields were located in various parts of the city for the poor, the unknown and the unclaimed.
Several locations once called Potters Fields in Philadelphia are as followed;

• NorthEast opened in 1956
• Luzerene & Whitaker (now a police parking lot)
• Washington Square

And several other locations.

The last Potters Field was the one located in the Far NorthEast.

When the Potters Field was located at Luzerene and Whitaker in 1914, it served as the final resting place for those who died in the 1918 Flu Epidemic and the Great Depression in the 1930's. At this time, it was connected with a City Hospital.

Today, "Potters Field" is not a burial ground, but a room located in the City Morgue where there is 2400 sets of ashes identified but left unclaimed.