It's The Holiday Season - Where's My Soapbox?

Pine Ridge Reservation is located in South Dakota and is home to the Oglala Sioux tribe. The current population is approximately 40,000 people. The life expectancy on the reservation is the lowest in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti. Infant mortality on the Rez is 300% higher than the national average. The teen suicide rate is 150% higher than the national average. The unemployment rate is usually around 80%. The average life expectancy for males is 48, for females it is 52. Every winter, Tribal elders die from hypothermia because they cannot afford to heat their substandard homes.

Adolph Bull Bear is a 78 year old full blood Lakota living on the Rez. He lives with his disabled son and his two grandchildren in a house in Kyle, S.D.. He is an Army veteran and was once a Tribal police officer. He is also my friend. Each month I send him a box of items to make his life a bit better.

When I ask him each month what he'd like he doesn't ask for things like Godiva chocolates or expensive cologne. Instead he asks for toilet paper. Laundry detergent. Would I be able to send him some salt and pepper? How about a pair of socks?

This weekend was a cold one in Kyle and Adolph is almost out of propane. The Tribe helps out with supplying propane but they've just finished having an election and nothing is settled, least of all who's going to get heating fuel. Adolph phoned me in a panic this weekend since he's only got another 7 days or so before he has no heat. Was there any way possible that I could buy him some propane. I reassured him over and over again that it would be no problem to make that happen and that he didn't have to worry. I'm still not sure he believed me, after all, white people often say one thing and do another.

An Army veteran. A proud Native American. Begging for toilet paper and warmth. It's a sad state of affairs.

Faker

Kitty has been named "Bubbles". No, I didn't name him that, I prefer people names for animals. The boyfriend named him after the individual shown below. He's a character in a Canadian show called Trailer Park Boys.

I think we can see the resemblance. Anyway, Bubbles is not really blind. Faker. He's simply near sighted. Which still allows him to pounce on anything within about two feet. And Bubbles loves to pounce, oh yes he does.

Being of the male gender, Bubbles enjoys his Legos. He's also developed quite a bond with the boyfriend's nine year old son, who also likes Legos.

And is this a ball of yarn Bubbles has found? Why I think it is! Yarn is FUN. Actually I'm pretty sure that when you're a kitten everything is fun. Especially playing the sympathy card with unsuspecting people on the Internet. Then they'll come and take you home where they'll start asking themselves an hour later, "Why the hell did I get this kitten?"

Hats?

Did someone say hats? Yeah, we've got your hats right here ...

Rib-A-Roni Hat

Noggin Hat

Double Double Crochet Hat

Simple Hat

Starburst Hat

I think I'll go cast on for another.

You Would Too!

If you saw this little guy on the Internet and read that he was only 2 months old and stuck in a crowded shelter, you might be sad for a moment and then go back to what you were doing. But what if you read that he was 2 months old, extremely stressed and BLIND? Yeah, you'd go pick him up too. I know you would. Welcome "Bubbles."