monday night ended up being just a bit more than we bargained for.

i have mentioned repeatedly about how this neighborhood has a real parenting crises on its hands. parents don't watch the kids, kids are out till late hours on school nights, and so on. fourth of july is truly frightening as unsupervised children run all over the place with weapons . . . er, fireworks. the kids a re bullies, drug sellers, and the girls get pregnant before they're 15. it's an example of what i don't want my kids to be, so my children are expressly forbidden to befriend the kids around here. it doesn't make them popular, but it does keep them out of trouble. and when we have a problem with some kid trying to beat up or harass one of mine, we call the cops. i think the parents have gotten to the point where they tell their children to leave mine alone. too many things going on behind closed doors that can get them in trouble with the cops too.

so, monday. saxy and i are watching tv (well, he was watching, i was seriously trying to take a nap) and we hear kittens crying. at first we kinda ignored it. there are more strays around here than kids and kittens are a likely byproduct of that problem. but then my oldest yells something about getting out of our yard. i go in the back and some older child (probably a teenager) is yanking a little one out of our yard. i didn't really get a good look at either of them, their backs were turned. well, the little one's back was turned. the older one was hanging halfway over our our fence.

seeing as the kid was being removed, i returned to the living room, but the kitten sounds are really starting to bother me. so i go back in and ask kitten to take a look at what's going on. she goes out back and talks to the pile of kids, mostly boys, who are in the driveway behind the apartment. there are NO ADULTS anywhere to be seen. no surprise there, i suppose. they don't seem to watch their kids even when they are running around at 10 pm at night. anyway, the next thing i hear is, "awwwwww." so i go to find out what's up.

turns out the little kid was retrieving a too young to be weaned from her mother kitten that she threw over the fence into our yard. the kitten was dead, its neck broken.

now, i have a very soft heart for animals and seeing that kitten, dead, its eyes staring up at the sky . . . well, i'm ready to cry even now. she was a very pretty tortoiseshell and way too little to be away from mom. turns out these boys found the kittens under a house, dragged them out and placed them in a litter box that had a small towel rather than sand, and were trying to give the babies away. apparently, their younger sister took the tortoiseshell and threw her at our dog and no one tried to stop her. the kitten wasn't wet, so i know gypsy didn't get her.

i'm so upset that saxy tries to get a hold of the animal control. no response, so he started to call 911, but realized it wasn't an emergency and disconnected. with 911, you hit that last 1 and that's it, you're connected. so they called back and saxy explains the situation. they get a hold of animal control. in less than 15 minutes we have both a cop and the animal control out here. it took a few to relocate the kids as they had moved off, but we managed to direct the two men to the right kids. animal control took possession of the kittens, including the dead one.

but then something interesting happens. the kids re-explain to the cop that the little girl threw the kitten and killed it. the officer asks where the kid lives and they kindly pointed it out. he goes to the door and knocks and apparently a 10 year old answers. are the parents home? no. are the parents outside? no. did anyone see the parents leave? yes. are there any children older than the 10 year old in the house? no, but there's a 6 and a 3 year old! i don't know about other states, but in california the youngest a kid can be to watch other kids is 14.

i honestly don't know what happened with the family. i know the cop was hanging around for at least another hour.

and it has been very quiet since.