The Yeti\’s Cyber Smithy

Good, Bad, and Evil

Good, Bad, and Evil
Or Five Kittens and a Turtle

I was camping in the wilds of Kentucky during the 13th century of Scottland (www.kyrenfaire.com) when I heard a scratching at my air mattress. Another one of those huge moths thought I, so I rolled over. The scratching became louder. I investigated and nearly peed my bed when I learned that what ever it was that was pawing the side of my air mattress was large and slimy, about eight inches around to be exact. With no light to see exactly what it was, my instinct was to shoo it away with a flick of my arm. With the lights on, I learned it was a turtle and that turtles really can not right themselves when they are on their backs. Why it wanted on my air mattress I haven’t a clue, but I will say its claws are sharp and I need a new air mattress.

It turns out Tony, that’s his name, is a water turtle. He eats minnows, greens, and bugs that fall into his tank. He has webbed feet and although he has land in his tank, he prefers to spend the day in the water. He is very friendly, but I try to keep my fingers away from his mouth. My suspicion is that because this has been a very dry year, his home dried up and he was looking for a new home. When he wandered into my place, he was dried out and his eyes were glazed over. I imagine he was trying to get into bed with me because I sleep with a CPAP machine and I had the humidifier attachment filled. Chances are the machine and my exhaling was pushing water into the air that Tony could smell.

For whatever reason, I was forced to give him a new home. My original idea was to put him in a large plastic tank until I could figure out where he came from and return him. But then I talked to my baby over the phone. “Turtles don’t live in your bed” she told me. “Turtles live at the pet store”.

My baby and I often go to the local pet store when I am home. It’s there that she met her first turtle. A huge creature which is on display in an open tank. So naturally, I had to keep Tony just long enough to show my baby that her father was not telling a tale, this time.

It was on my ride home to introduce Tom the Turtle to my baby Aubreyahna when I met the brood. Since my head injury, I have trouble driving for more than about an hour without taking a break to clear my head. So I have a routine between my home and my smithy in Kentucky where I stop every hour or so. My last stop is at my smithy in Southern Ohio. At that exit, I stopped at the British Petroleum gas station. I could hear their cries from outside the front door.

I do not have the full story on how they came to be five new born kittens in a box at the British Petroleum gas station because there did not seem to be enough time to hear the story before taking action. I was under the impression most new born creatures can not survive without their mother for much more than a few hours. What I did understand was through circumstances beyond the clerk’s control, she had come into possession of the kittens during her shift. I believe she found them outside.

She explained to customer after customer that she had called the County but the County said they were her responsibility. She explained to customer after customer that she was trying to get them to drink milk, but that they were only getting drops off her finger. She explained to customer after customer that she couldn’t leave work because she would loose her job and had a family of her own to feed. Without coming right out and saying it, I believe what she was saying was that if someone didn’t do something soon she knew the kittens would die in her care and she would forever have to live with making that choice. I asked her if she would entrust them to a complete stranger. She did.

I raced along I 71 North into Columbus, OH at an average speed of about 90 miles an hour with the poor things screaming for their mother all the way. I stayed on the CB identifying my vehicle to truck drivers, telling them of my emergency and asking them to warn me of radar traps and police officers. At least a dozen hardened truck drivers assisted me heading North and even more south bounders commented on where the radar traps were in front of us. At one point, I believe I may have passed a police officer because several truck drivers commented on how they were closing my back door to keep Smokey off my tail. I later heard reports of just where he was behind me and how long they had been able to delay him. He never managed to catch up.

In Columbus, I went immediately to my Veterinarian who told me I had a lot of sleepless nights in front of me. Basically, they are fed by eyedropper every three or four hours until they can lap formula on there own. After about a month, they can have solid food but don’t remove the formula until you know they are each eating it.

We can not possibly keep the kittens, but we will not let them die simply because someone decided they were too much to bother with. We plan to find good homes for them after they are healthy enough to be separated. Tom, on the other hand, well that is still in the air. Being a water turtle, he is food in this culture, especially down in Kentucky where hunting and fishing is still a way of feeding one’s family. I almost feel like he came to me for sanctuary. Although I very much disagree with the act of taking critters out of nature, I am not so sure I would argue that someone couldn’t give a lobster a home if one found that lobster in a grocery store. Not that I have anything against hunting, I actually prefer hunters to folk who have no clue where their meat comes from, but after living in Kentucky for a bit I have started to think of the state as one big grocery store. Well, more of a meat department. So I do not much feel guilty about removing Tom from the wild, especially since he walked into my bed. Maybe I will hold him for ransom until he replaces my air mattress. I am still undecided but my baby seems to adore him and he is a friendly little guy.

During that tear filled drive into Columbus, the whole situation gave me time and reason to think. First there was the lighthearted side of thought. Just what does a man say after being busted for speeding with five kittens and a turtle in his front seat? Did I mention my driver’s side window does not open so the police officer would have been talking to me while looking over a turtle in a tank and five screaming kittens in a box? Then there was the serious side of thought. How could anyone leave these beautiful critters they’re screaming for their mother?

I came to the conclusion that there are three types of human beings in this world; The Good, The Bad, and the Evil. A good person is one who is touched by God. As a child, I was always told that “God is Love” and I continue to believe that to this day. Be God male, female, cognitive, not cognitive, or beyond explanation (my thought) the best way to describe that being is love.

Thus Evil is the lack of God or the lack of Love. Evil is the person who left those kittens there. It is a person who can take conscious action, which is clearly not godlike or lovelike. Fortunately, there is very little true evil in this world.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of bad in this world. Bad is the category of people who figure since they are not the ones who took that conscious action which was clearly not godlike or love like; well then it is not their responsibility. Bad is the County Agency, which was called as they would only do their job and not try to help the person find someone who would be able to assist. Bad is the customers who filed through the place and didn’t lift a finger to help the clerk who was obviously in distress or the poor critters screaming for their mother.

Yes evil exists in this world, so does good. Sure we could use less of the first and more of the second. But what I think would really spiff the place up is if people in the middle were to make a clear and conscious decision to be one or the other. So I have decided that these people are “bad” people in the hopes that they will want to improve their rankings and become “good”.

In fact, I think I am going to start a new religion, base it on this principle, and introduce it at this year’s International Real Witches Ball.

Related Links:

Pagan Nation

The International Real Witches Ball