Reuse, Recycle, Recan has chzbrgr
Jan. 16th, 2010 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogAs Emily (among others) in this family will tell you, I am not a shopper. I'll do the shopping, if it involves getting in, getting it (whatever "it" is) and getting out, but going shopping, as a form of entertainment, is a torture for me right up there in the hot-bamboo-under-fingernails category. The last place I planned to be today was Da Mawl, and yet that's where we just got back from: the frames of Em's glasses broke yesterday, she hadn't had them or her prescription updated in years, and unlike my parents, who basically let me Mister Magoo my way through high school and college before finally getting an eye test before law school, I resolved to git'r'done right away. Having some modest vision benefits on our current health insurance plan didn't hurt, and Lensgrafters was the approved provider of choice.
Yet this is not about the eyewear, but about what we saw on the way to it.
Eastern Hills Mall is a quirky place on the border of two of the wealthiest enclaves in this area- Clarence and East Amherst- and yet it has been on the verge of becoming a dead mall (it does have a listing as having nearly averted being one) because, for bizarre suburban culture reasons, rich people prefer to go to the far bluer collar wilds of Cheektowaga to do their shopping at the Galleria Mall there. Eastern Hills hangs on with its combination of the four major local anchor stores, some unique-to-it oddities like Dave & Busters, and, since last year, a DMV branch location. Still, it attracts some unusual tenants: the Scientologists have a "take a stress test!" kiosk (I was almost accosted for one and would've asked the guy if there was a couch I could jump up and down on before taking it), there's an indoor sports park, and, since the end of November, a branch location of the SPCA.
Not our local one, though, but the one from rural Wyoming County, a good 40 miles from here, which I've done some legal work for in the past few years. It prides itself on being a no-kill shelter, and this mall location is just another way for them to find homes for the hundreds of cats who get placed in their amazingly kind and impeccable care.
We passed it on our way in from the parking lot, and since I had to wait a bit while Emily had her eye exam, I zooped over and met some of the guys. It was an odd memory lane going through that particular part of the mall, down by the onetime General Cinema I II III (the oldstyle lettering with the roman numerals is still on the outer wall) that is now a three-screen locally owned art house. Directly across from the theater exit was the storefront that once housed the video arcade. Yes, kids, we once had to leave our homes and use quarters (or worse, change dollar bills into tokens) to play video games in public. There was an etiquette and a culture all to those places, and I dropped more than a couple of Georges before or after movies over there playing Missile Command or Battlezone in that place. It's now a Quickie Mart of sorts, but the metallic walls around the frame of the inside still evoke its ::koff:: futuristic ambience.
As for the SPCA quarters themselves, if I'm not mistaken, there used to be a pet store in there. Not a Petthis or Petthat chain, but one of the small and sleazy ones with OMGCuuuuutePuppies in the windows that came from OMGWTFNotsocute puppy mills. Most of these mall locations have been shut down over the years, and there's a poetic justice in a no-kill shelter taking over that spot.
Naturally, we gravitated to the ones who reminded us of our own aminals.
Our oldest cat has virtually identical eyes and ears to this one, his body markings and (especially) tail are very much the same, and they both exude that complete air of delicacy and perfect posing that Tazzer has had down for years (so much so, we refer to him as our metrosexual cat).
Now this one's color is a little off from Zoey, but the shape and proportion of head-bod-tail were awesomely the same. Just a bit larger. Squared, perhaps. Cubed, even. I said, "This is your kitten. This is your kitten on steroids. Any questions?" If that bigness isn't obvious from this picture (that's a room-size feeding trough next to the kitty), it should be from this next one:
That's a moderate-sized cat basically hiding under The Incredible Bulk's tail.
There are plenty more there, and hundreds more out at the main shelter in Attica. Here's their link. Or just go. The love will come to you very quickly.
Yet this is not about the eyewear, but about what we saw on the way to it.
Eastern Hills Mall is a quirky place on the border of two of the wealthiest enclaves in this area- Clarence and East Amherst- and yet it has been on the verge of becoming a dead mall (it does have a listing as having nearly averted being one) because, for bizarre suburban culture reasons, rich people prefer to go to the far bluer collar wilds of Cheektowaga to do their shopping at the Galleria Mall there. Eastern Hills hangs on with its combination of the four major local anchor stores, some unique-to-it oddities like Dave & Busters, and, since last year, a DMV branch location. Still, it attracts some unusual tenants: the Scientologists have a "take a stress test!" kiosk (I was almost accosted for one and would've asked the guy if there was a couch I could jump up and down on before taking it), there's an indoor sports park, and, since the end of November, a branch location of the SPCA.
Not our local one, though, but the one from rural Wyoming County, a good 40 miles from here, which I've done some legal work for in the past few years. It prides itself on being a no-kill shelter, and this mall location is just another way for them to find homes for the hundreds of cats who get placed in their amazingly kind and impeccable care.
We passed it on our way in from the parking lot, and since I had to wait a bit while Emily had her eye exam, I zooped over and met some of the guys. It was an odd memory lane going through that particular part of the mall, down by the onetime General Cinema I II III (the oldstyle lettering with the roman numerals is still on the outer wall) that is now a three-screen locally owned art house. Directly across from the theater exit was the storefront that once housed the video arcade. Yes, kids, we once had to leave our homes and use quarters (or worse, change dollar bills into tokens) to play video games in public. There was an etiquette and a culture all to those places, and I dropped more than a couple of Georges before or after movies over there playing Missile Command or Battlezone in that place. It's now a Quickie Mart of sorts, but the metallic walls around the frame of the inside still evoke its ::koff:: futuristic ambience.
As for the SPCA quarters themselves, if I'm not mistaken, there used to be a pet store in there. Not a Petthis or Petthat chain, but one of the small and sleazy ones with OMGCuuuuutePuppies in the windows that came from OMGWTFNotsocute puppy mills. Most of these mall locations have been shut down over the years, and there's a poetic justice in a no-kill shelter taking over that spot.
Naturally, we gravitated to the ones who reminded us of our own aminals.
Our oldest cat has virtually identical eyes and ears to this one, his body markings and (especially) tail are very much the same, and they both exude that complete air of delicacy and perfect posing that Tazzer has had down for years (so much so, we refer to him as our metrosexual cat).
Now this one's color is a little off from Zoey, but the shape and proportion of head-bod-tail were awesomely the same. Just a bit larger. Squared, perhaps. Cubed, even. I said, "This is your kitten. This is your kitten on steroids. Any questions?" If that bigness isn't obvious from this picture (that's a room-size feeding trough next to the kitty), it should be from this next one:
That's a moderate-sized cat basically hiding under The Incredible Bulk's tail.
There are plenty more there, and hundreds more out at the main shelter in Attica. Here's their link. Or just go. The love will come to you very quickly.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-16 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 12:01 am (UTC)Reminds me of my HS best friend's most awesome cat Dustbuster. total floofy black cat, who was a total love.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 12:40 am (UTC)The big boy's cage tag said something like "doesn't like other cats, doesn't like dogs, doesn't like children." He looked like he could eat any of the above for lunch, actually.