Catholic Animal Lover!

This is my cat (again). Berzerker Quaxo Milo. Isn’t he adorable? He’s an amazing creature, really. He’s extremely adaptable, and extremely intelligent. He’s been through a lot of stuff. Like me. He’s 3 1/2yrs old, un-neutered, and often wild.

When my hubby and myself came back here to PA, from Amarillo, TX, and got stuck at my family’s house, Berzerker reverted back to the way he used to be around my family–freaked. He has traumatic memories from this house, a lot like I do–and he reacts to the people here from those memories. Animals are smarter than people give them credit for. And they don’t forget.

So when he came into the house, he started growling, and to make the long story short–no one can really get near him but me. And my husband sometimes. But mostly me. He still scratches when I’m playing with him–like ALWAZE–but he will bite people and hisses at my brothers like crazy.

Husband has become determined to hate him, and tells me constantly how he wants to get rid of Berzerker. But I tell him I’d probably get rid of him if he did (constant jokes of poison etc, happen, and I say if he does, I shall do to him. Which of course isn’t true…right?).

Berzerker has a bad rap here. Everyone hates him, and he went after their other cat, which my younger Sister picked up right when Berzerker went to attack, and so she got scratched. So they hate him more. But he’s a good cat.

To me, anyway. He’s my baby. He will cuddle up by me when I’m sick or sad, and he listens to me. He’s been to at least 4 different homes with me over the past 3 yrs, and he’s been amazing through it all.

It’s tough having a husband, who came in after I already had my cat, because Berzerker was here first, and I guess he was my baby first! Hubby thinks the cat will end up harming our little one when it’s born–I insist the cat won’t, unless he’s given freedom to play with my child–who does that?! Especially since I know my cat is wild!

I care about my family, and my upcoming baby, and my husband. And my cat. He’s not alwaze a demon cat, and he’s not alwaze acting this way. I have people in my life who like Berzerker. He’s just unique. And he’s my baby! And he’s even cute when he looks like he wants to kill you, hehehe…

Heya. Well, I’m writing a second blog for a couple of reasons. First, to patch up the mistakes I made last time, which my husband helpfully pointed out!

The parish we’re pursuing in CO serves the Latin Mass, and there is a difference between the High & Low Masses, but they are in Latin, the ancient, dead language, so that’s what’s important, and they are as they were. Unchanged.  So the Traditional Mass I was speaking of is the Mass “as it was,” so to speak. Not just the High or Low version. Just not the Novus Ordo.

Hey, you’ll have to bear with me–I’m new!! And the Traditional aspect of my Catholic Faith is not something I have fully tapped into yet!

Also, I said there were over 50 Catholic parishes in Amarillo. This was another mistake. When I heard a priest mention this a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t focus on what he was saying, I suppose… He meant in the diocese, not the city alone. Which makes a big difference, because Amarillo itself has about 10 parishes. Which means the other +40 are spread out on the outskirts of the city in smaller towns, etc. Which I find easy to fathom, since there are all sorts of little places outside of Amarillo itself (which is a totally spread out city as it is!).

Ok, so Peter, hopefully this sets the records straight!

Along the lines of other Church-related stuffs, a friend my husband met online–another tradional Catholic suffering here in Amarillo–is going to be driving tomorrow (the 19th, Sunday), to Santa Fe, NM, to go to a Traditional Latin Mass there at (get this) the oldest church in the country!! The San Miguel Mission was built between 1610 and 1628! It is a shrine to St. Michael, which is extra special to my husband and myself, as we hold a devotion to the ArchAngel Michael.

The San Miguel Mission boasts an alter screen from 1798, a gilded statue of St. Michael from 1709, and has a spectacular bell, as well, that is reputed to have been brought in around 1712 (though this is disputed; either way, it’s old).

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on the long trip because 1) it’s a 4hr car ride, & being in my first trimester of pregnancy, I can get sick pretty easy,  2) it’s  with a “stranger”–not that I dont mind making friends, but this will be our first meeting-in-person with this friend, and my husband may just fall asleep on the way home, leaving me to make “small talk” (Hubby will be going on the trip just off of a night shift, not having slept!),  3) my inclination to go to Latin Mass isn’t nearly as strong as my beloved’s, and so therefore I have been struggling with feeling like it will be a waste of a whole day with a stranger. Peter only gets Sun./Mon. off, and this will take away a whole day from our time together, which is precious little, since he works nights. It’s a selfish reason, really. I would chalk it up to pregnant emotions, but really I just am being a butthead.

But rather than gripe about it, and be without my husband for a whole day, or Mass (I struggle with the “obligation” concept, and so would probably not go anywhere here by myself), I’ve decided to go with my husband and his friend, and be in an ancient mission, and hear an ancient Mass. God’s calling it, if you will. So as He calls, I go.

I’ve been charging the batteries for our little Nikon CoolPix 2100, deleting all the extra photos, and am getting ready to not only take great pictures, but maybe write an article or two about the San Miguel Mission! So that’ll be upcoming…

On another note, I’m about to go watch “It’s Me Or the Dog”, on Animal Planet channel. This is the American version of the show that stars Victoria Stilwell, who has been training dogs for well over 10 yrs. She is amazing. I have seen her do things with dogs I think people couldn’t imagine could be done! When we get a dog, she will definitely have been a great help for me.

So in ending here, I leave you with some more pictures of Berzerker Quaxo Milo, my beloved 3yr old male cat! Enjoy and God bless!

Man it’s taken me a while to get this new blog started. But better late than never!

I wanted this blog to be a combo of two of my strong interests–the Catholic Church/Faith, and all-things-Animal! So here you have it…

It has become now crucial that we (husband, myself, cat) get ourselves out of Amarillo. TX, where we currently live, because we confirmed it via test today that I’m pregnant with our first child!! YAAAY! And we want our child to grow up in the Church.

I mean, for real. In the Traditional, Ancient, Faithful Catholic Church. And though there are over 50 parishes in Amarillo, they are none of them traditional–most barely look like church buildings, let alone resemble a Catholic Church. The Novus Ordo Masses are infected with near-Protestantism, and even without the influence, they seem to have taken everything that developed badly after Vatican 2 “to the nines”, as it were, in a downward spiral—heading the Church towards modernism, and Universalism.

Now, as someone who was a pretty dedicated Protestant for about 25yrs, and who knows all the upbeat worship songs sung even in the Catholic parishes here…and as someone who knows all the Protestant hymns, you may wonder how I can be so anti. But the truth is, I left my Protestant backround because it was empty, and I sought the Church–as Christ had established it; centered around sacrifice and worship of the Almighty, around truth and tradition. Not a church wherein there are 500 denominations and everyone thinks everyone is wrong, but it’s ok.

I had first looked deeply into the Eastern Orthodoxy, as I had a best friend who was strongly pursuing it. I would’ve become Orthodox, too. The ancient faith, so close to Christ, so far from scattered, always-changing-Protestantism—appealed to me, to my heart. But I had some issues with the dissention in the Orthodox Church, and their lack of leadership, etc..

Then I met my husband (on a theology forum, actually!), and he began the task of setting me straight, heh. God used him in a huge way–not just to melt my heart, but soul. I got to speak with a wonderful Monsignor, who helped me understand the few vital issues I was having, and I realized where I belonged (this is all the short version).

I was sadly rushed through a sort of crash-course RCIA class, and so am still a new convert, with quesitons. I often struggle with the Church, due to the infectious modernism, and the hypocricy that seems to lace it–especially here in America…But I am learning, and so very blessed to be under God’s roof and His true Church.

So annnnyway. My hubby is a strong Latin Mass supporter, and while I am a hard-core American (i.e., meaning I have a hard time thinking everything shouldn’t be in American English!!), I realize that if nothing else, the Traditional High Mass is where reverance and serentiy and true worship is.

Amarillo, TX has nothing of this kind. Not to say the Priests are not good people, or the parishoners aren’t kind–we have met some great people, and a local Priest is a wonderful Confessor! But we want to raise our new family where the tradition is that of the Church, of Christ–not of ever-changing society for the sake of “everyone’s safe and comfortable!”

So we’re looking to move our up-coming (should be around June ‘09!) family towards Colorado Springs, within the next month, to join a small parish there, with the traditional High Mass—instead of struggling to find a reason to be in the Novus Ordo every week (What ARE those green banners hanging above the alter?!).

 On an Animal Note…

Being pregnant keeps me from my newest desire–the little orange kitten (1 of 4 in a litter) that my neighbor’s cat had almost 6 weeks ago. Husband insists we can’t afford a new kitten, even though he loves orange cats, and really wants a cat that will like him, and grow up knowing him… MY BABY, Berzerker Quaxo Milo, enjoys hubby when he must, and tolerates him quite a bit–   

But he is MY KITTEN, and knew me nearly 3yrs before he even met husband, so he isn’t quite husband’s cat! Plus, Berzerker has quite an odd personality, and is aptly named.

Uh..that picture is huge…eh hem. At least it looks so in this editor. Hmm..

Anyway, so the little orange kitten, nearly old enough to leave its mother now, will have to go onto the list of “pets I wanted to get” because with a move looming ahead, and a new baby on the way, it’ll be enough to deal with. Although I think Berzerker could use the company (he gets bored)–I guess it might not be such a good idea right now either, till I can focus on the cat/s and watch them. My un-fixed male is pretty dominant, and would probably eat the little kitten when I wasn’t looking…