Free Cat Adoptions; A Matter of Skin Color

I was totally unprepared for what happened yesterday afternoon.  My friend, Bea, and I had a late morning brunch at Turley's Kitchen, an all-local and all-natural restaurant a few blocks from our apartment.  Since I had a book reserved at the public library, and Bea wanted to pick up a few DVDs. we wandered over to the library, enjoying the sunshine, fresh air, and cooler temperatures.  We visited the library, and I picked up two books, while Bea got a season of a TV show on DVD.  We were wearing shorts and T-shirts and athletic shoes; I'm 57 and Bea is 61.  Across the street from the library is a grocery store named Alfalfa's - I'd been inside once before, but was not impressed.  They have a lot of fresh fruit and veggies, and tons of natural oils, powders, and additives.  A shopping bag that costs $1.49 in other grocery stores is sold for $12.99 at Alfalfa's.  After taking five steps inside the grocery store, we picked up a "tail" - an employee of the store, who followed every step we took around and about the inside of the store.  We noticed him immediately, because he was wearing a bright red vest, and he was very blatant about "keeping his eyes on" us.  We turned around at one point in time, and almost knocked him over, he was following us so close.  We had stopped at the store to see if a mutual friend was working; she wasn't, so we left.  The man in the red vest followed us to the door, and then turned away when we waved at him.  Bea was the only person of color in that store.  She and I are both certain that her color of skin is the reason that we were followed. Neither of us will ever step inside another Alfalfa's again.  It was just so jaw-droppingly blatant .....
  Through the rest of this month, up until closing tie on Saturday, 31 August, the Humane Society of Boulder Valley is again offering any and all felines who are 6 months of age (or over) for free adoptions.  There are currently 78 cats looking for a "for ever" home, which means that 7 kitties found homes yesterday.  The cats have all been checked by a veterinarian, have all the needed current shots and vaccinations, are spayed or neutered, and have micro-chips.  If you have the time, money, space, and love to provide a cat a new, loving home, please do.  If you can afford to donate money to the HSBV to help care for any homeless dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, ferrets, etc., please do that, also.  (The donations are a tax write-off!)  Homeless animals need love and comfort, too.
   If you are interested in the mud slides and flooding that swept 20 cars off the road near Manitou Springs earlier this week, I recommend you view: http://www.9news.com/news/article/349414/71/Body-recovered-from-mudslide-near-Manitou-Springs
   I hope the rest of your weekend is wonderful!