Of Earthquakes, Both Literal and Figurative

This morning I discovered that a good-sized earthquake works just fine for waking one up six minutes before the alarm goes off. This one was strong enough to shake my bed and the rest of the furniture in the room (I could hear the wardrobe wobbling back and forth). Didn't knock anything off shelves so must not have been too severe :) 7:46 a.m. - just read the details online. The quake was magnitude 5.7, centered 29.6 km east of the coast city of Ilan, and we felt it here in Taipei County at a magnitude of 3.

A different kind of earthquake hit me when I read my mail. My friends will recall that about a year before I moved to Taiwan, my cat, who I'd had for nine years, was murdered by the vicious old man who lived across the street. He started trapping the neighborhood cats and taking them 25 miles away to an animal shelter, where they were killed. There was a huge public outcry, but there was no legal action we could take, because the law said this man had the right to trap cats that went into his yard. And, since he was baiting the trap with tuna fish, a lot of cats were going into his yard! I wrote about that here: http://fortune-cookie-500.com/Cat_Trapper.html

Well, he's at it again. I got an e-mail from a woman who works at the local animal shelter (not the one 25 miles away from the town), and she said old Joe Canzoneri is at it again. And this time he's not taking the cats to a shelter - he's taking them out into the woods and dumping them! She said she's hoping that since it IS illegal to dump an animal that the law will finally do something. So far he's gotten at least two pets (I called my ex this morning to find out more about it), and I'm sure he'll be after more.

I will be wishing the worst of curses on this two-legged predator's head until the day he's cold in his grave, and I hope that day is not too far away.