Originally Posted by sparklecat

I knew someone once. Really sweet, caring guy - a pastor, though not at my church. Someone I cared about very much, with a nice wife and daughter too. Anyhow, we became friends, and after about a year or so he started telling me more about his life. I already knew at the time that he had certain mental problems and had been in and out of the hospital for them a few times. He told me that he beat his wife, and though he said he never touched his daughter... well, I don't know. I believed him, but wouldn't have been surprised to find out otherwise. Obviously this revelation threw me for a bit of a loop and made me question my evaluation of his character, my trust in him, etc. But he was still the same guy I cared about and wanted the best for; what's more, I knew a fair amount about his past. I knew that his father had beaten him, that he'd been raped as a teenager, etc. As I mentioned, I knew about his mental problems, and I while I couldn't excuse his actions, I could understand them a bit better than the average observer would, or would even want to.


Point of all this being, no one deserves eternal torture. I don't think anyone deserves any punishment, for that matter. We get mad, and we get emotional and protective of people we care about and innocents who get hurt along the way, but there's probably someone who cares or cared about those monsters too. Who want nothing more than to see them happy and healed. We can't see everyone's pasts, and the perpetrators of these kinds of acts are generally rather damaged themselves, and just in need of help as their victims. More, in some ways, since people are much less likely to care about them - as mentioned earlier, nobody wants to speak for the mothers who stand by while their children are hurt.

Originally Posted by Glass*Soul

I have consulted him. He gave me tranquilizers for her. She liked the effect bit still snapped right out of her happy stupor if I tried to groom her.

She went through phases when I brought Snuffs home. At first I had to keep Snuffs outdoors untill all his ticks fell off. Electra was oblivious until she noticed that there were food bowls on the porch AND in the kitchen. She ran in and out of the door, studying the situation, her sides puffing like bellows. I'd had a second cat for a while when she was a kitten, so she knew what it meant. There was no hiding what was going on after that. For the next few days, everytime she came inside, she hid under the couch, which is what she normally did when storms were coming. Then she went through a phase where she sat on the porch and softly mourned until my heart broke. Finally she looked at me one day with hatred in her eyes and growled deep in her throat. It's been like that ever since.

On Christmas, I gave her a catnip mouse, which she used to love. Instead of playing with it (all of the play has gone out of her) she laid her head on it and mourned and cried. It was too sad to bear.

Originally Posted by MichieC

There is nothing physically wrong with her?

She almost sounds like she lost her poor little mind.

Poor thing.

You need a cat behavorist!

Originally Posted by Glass*Soul

I do!

As a kitten she almost starved to death. When I got her she was about 6 weeks old and felt like she was made of toothpicks and feathers. No weight to her. The first time I fed her, she choked on the food and massaged her own throat with her tiny paw to make it go down. She had diarrhea for weeks. I lived in the house of poop!

It's possible her mother was feral. She was definitely traumatized at an early age. The starvation may have caused some sort of brain damage, though not at all in the sense of her not being clever. :huh:

For the next nine months, if she was in the same room with me, she was biting me. No exceptions. Non stop. If she was not in the same room with me she was crying and clawing the door.

Slowly, slowly, slowly she settled into a decent companion. She's almost 5 now.

Then I rescued Snuffs...the Tribble cat.

Originally Posted by MichieC

Nobody said that.

My hubby has guns but he rarely discusses them.
Or brings them out for show & tell.

Especially on a Christian internet site?!?

I found the posting of pics of some of those guns very strange.

But that's me.

I'm not into bragging about weapons & collecting them like I was collecting cookie recipes.

I just found it creepy.

And I do think some people tend to equate their guns or whatever with their um...whatever.

Originally Posted by praying

I generally find statements like that to mean, those who believe like me, it's right up there with "Bible believing Christians yada yada yada...."

Originally Posted by Brietta

Quick explanation, I've now been up almost 48 hours and my eyes are going on strike.
Sleep well