My trip to Uvalde, Texas

So basically, after my Calico cat had her first litter of kittens I grew attached to them naturally, but I knew that I was going to have to get rid of them because I just didn’t have room for them it was just that simple. I was able to find all four kitten’s good homes by using craigslist. They say to be Leary of Craigslist because there are a lot of people who use Craigslist to get pets, but they will subject them to some kind of Abuse. I myself I have met all of the people who my kittens have gone too, and they all seemed like good people. If you are in the situation that I was in when I all of a sudden found myself with cats, then you don’t have money or time to do serious background checks on people. My advice if you’re wanting your kitten to go to a good home is set it up to where you can deliver the kitten yourself. That way you can see the neighborhood that your person of contact lives in. I wouldn’t have let them have the kitten otherwise. That was kind of derogatory statement because there are good people that live in bad neighborhoods. I get that and in no way am I saying that because someone lives in a bad neighborhood that automatically you should automatically disqualify them as a prospect for finding your kitten a new home. There are more things to watch for besides the neighborhood they live in. Those things include their body language, there appearance. I mean you don’t have to look pretty to own a pet or to take care of a pet and us as humans are going to have days where we don’t look or feel our best but, what I mean by their appearance is do they seem like good people in the way they present themselves? Such as the way they speak. Do they communicate like good citizens of the community that you live in. A good example of this is for my craigslist ad I had it set up to where people who were interested in one of my kittens could text me and There was this one person who texted me who was interested that sent red flags, and it because of how the text message was presented. Because of protection for future animals that are given away to people on craigslist as well the people who are giving these kittens away online. I am not going to say what the text message said because I would think if someone who wants a cat or a kitten just for the sole purposes of abusing that cat or kitten or subjecting that cat or kitten to danger were to read this then automatically they would know what people who are selling or giving away cats or kittens online particularly craigslist are looking for as far as red flags or cautionary signs in the people that they come in contact with who are looking at getting a kitten. But the way this particular individual who contacted me via text message inquiring about the kittens started his or her question sentence with the word is. While writing this post I was thinking well I really don’t know any sentence that starts with is. If someone talks like that it is usually a representation of who they hang out with or who their friends are and if they talk like that, I am not sure that is a good indication of how they are as a person. Now maybe they only talk like that around their friends. In addition, maybe the person that is talking like that is a good person, but they are associating with the wrong crowd. Either way if they are talking like that, I would not even answer that text message and I didn’t when I got it. I immediately saw that as a red flag.

However, it wasn’t long until after My Calico Cat had this first litter of kittens that she had another litter of kittens and this time she had 8 kittens, they were so cute and this time she had a little bit of more of a variety in the color of this litter of kittens. However, once the six-week waiting period was up I posted another ad on Craigslist and set it up to where the people who were interested could text me. So, this one text in particular I got was from someone who lived in Eagle Pass, Texas and commuted to Uvalde, Texas to attend one of the colleges there. Usually after someone contacted me via text message in regard to their interest in the kittens that I was either selling or giving away. In this case I was giving them away because I knew I really needed to get rid of them because of my living situation at the time. But after talking to them about the kittens answering all of their questions and setting up a time to meet so I could give them the kitten I would text, I’m Kyle by the way. Then they would text me telling their name. Anyway, so the prospect told me that they lived in eagle pass and commuted to Uvalde for school, and I said that I could meet them somewhere in that area after googling the distance from San Antonio to Uvalde and finding out that Uvalde is only one hour away from San Antonio. So, it was decided that we would meet in the Wal Mart parking lot there in Uvalde at 3:30pm because they get out of class at 3:00 and it would take them that amount of time to get there. So that next day around the later part of the one o’clock hour I started getting things ready for my day trip to Uvalde. I decided to bring the orange cat Meesah along for morale support. I did this because cats really don’t do well in the car, and this was going to be a road trip so having another cat there for the kitten just seemed like a good idea. Especially sense there was also a time before this particular meet up and give away of a kitten that I had to travel further, and I brought the Calico and the black and white cat along basically for that same reason morale support. With that particular meet up and give away it was a girl that I knew from college and when we met at the particular spot it was kind of a tourist attraction that we met at we walked around with the cats and then ended up going to the park there in the town were we met halfway and we were feeding the cats but the way the two adult cats were looking at the kitten it just looked like they knew that the kitten was being given away and they looked sad about it.

The drive to Uvalde was pretty I thought anyway. There are some people who will say they love that part of Texas and there are some people who will say they hate that part of Texas, but I enjoyed the drive. On the way I saw these old railroad track bridges that I thought would make good pictures for portfolios or demos for photography gigs.

When I got to the outskirts of Uvalde, I saw the huge picture or mural of Matthew McConaughey. For those of you that don’t know Matthew McConaughey is originally from Uvalde, Texas. I saw some little crosses too that I assumed were memorials for some of the kids that died from that school shooting at Robb Elementary School.

It had been a while sense I had been to Uvalde, and it wasn’t time for me to meet my person of contact for the kitten yet, so I decided to drive through town. I saw an H E B grocery store that I had been to before and I was thinking ok that is the HEB that we stopped at back in 2003 When my cousin Landry graduated from college. I had forgotten that she had done the same thing that my point of contact for the kitten was currently doing commuting to Uvalde from another town the only difference was my cousin Landry was commuting from Del Rio. I remembered stopping there after the graduation with the family and we were getting alcohol and steaks and stuff to make Jalapeno poppers for the party that we were going to have at Landry’s parents’ house in Del Rio. Anyway, I got to the other side of town and turned around to head back to the Wal Mart. I mentioned above that I usually tell my points of contact I am Kyle by the way. Well for this point of contact I didn’t get a response after I told him or her what my name was. When I got there, I still had fifteen minutes till I was to meet my point of contact. so, I sent a text saying; I am at the Wal Mart in Uvalde I am in a Red Jeep Renegade. I am wearing a green short sleeved shirt and a light blue cap with a Nike check. I am in the outer part of the parking lot. When 3:30 hit I texted my point of contact again saying; are you here? I never got a response. I waited fifteen minutes and then I sent another text message saying. It has been fifteen minutes, so I am going to go ahead and leave if you want to reschedule this meetup let me know. So basically, not only did I not get the name of my point of contact, but my point of contact didn’t bother to show up. So, giving my point of contact time to respond I decided to ride around Uvalde and found my driving by Robb Elementary School. I was shocked at how close it was to the local Wal Mart. I don’t know what made me want to drive by Robb Elementary School but driving by the abandoned school that know has a high fenced up barrier all the way around the school grounds including the playground and big barrier going around the actual school itself that goes up halfway and only shows the tops the big windows that open out. and then on the sidewalk that runs beside a residence across the street from the school are a bunch of cross memorials for the children and the teachers that died from that shooting that occurred there.

I was sad, and I was thinking wow this actually happened. I don’t know why I was thinking wow this actually happened it was only all over the news that day and days following that tragic day. I wanted to take a picture of the memorials, but I was thinking why so I can feel sad about that all the time from that on my phone. I also thought that would also be disrespectful to the families of the faculty and children that died that day. I was telling myself you are not a reporter Kyle you don’t need to be doing that. I drove around a little more because there was this museum in town that I wanted to see but as driving through town I saw the signs that said Uvalde Strong. I also saw a bunch of crosses at the town square that I assumed were memorials for the children and the faculty that died on the day of that tragic shooting at Robb Elementary school.

That gave me a little bit of peace of mind. The town acknowledges that this happened, but they are pulling together to heal as a community. But I say this because they acknowledged that happened, but it is kind of hard to forget something that made national news. But I think I say it like that because a lot of times when something bad happens people tell you to get over it or forget it ever happened, or you need to get over it. Yeah, that’s easy for them to say until something tragic happens to them. People like to try to offer people who are going through something advice but the people giving the advice don’t know what the person they are trying to give advice are going through and it’s not even that, they have never been through what the person or people they are trying to give advice are going through and they don’t even have the credentials as a counselor. In situations as tragic as the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, the people who like to give advice that is probably usually just annoying or unwanted need to leave that to professionals.

The Uvalde, Texas Tragedy hit a little too close to home for me and my family because we knew and still know some people that live there. However, they do not have elementary school age children. It hit a little too close to home for me and my family because when me and my brother were elementary age children there were several times that we almost moved to Uvalde because of my dad’s job. I mean that was a long time ago, but my point is basically something that a principle in a school in the southern part of the state of Arkansas said at the time that the Jonesboro, Arkansas school shooting happened. “You would expect this in someplace like New York but not here.” That is exactly how I felt about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. As I was leaving the town of Uvalde headed back to San Antonio and realizing that I had made the trip to Uvalde for nothing I was feeling a bit sad because I was thinking it is sad that this town is going to be known for this awful thing that has happened here for a long time. Then I got to thinking well maybe not. I mean from the looks of things it looked like people have moved on. things went on work has gone on. But has it gone on for the people that lost their kids or their loved ones due to that tragic event.

So, once I was back in San Antonio, I stopped by a friend’s apartment, and he had a black kitten too, but he just loved Meesah. He just couldn’t get over how much of a calm good cat Meesah was. He is so chill he said. He’s cute he went on to say. I was telling him how I went to Uvalde to deliver the black kitten and the person that wanted him never showed up. Well, a week later I found a home for the black kitten, and it sounds like that kitten has been doing very well.