| Louie's little half-sister Destiny is having trouble learning to read. Like, kind of a lot of trouble, and her parents aren't helping at all. I haven't had any formal child development or education classes, but it seems pretty obvious to me that if she's having trouble sounding out and spelling things, the WRONG thing to do is to just give her the answers and not give her a chance to figure it out. Morales (her dad) is so stupid I'm surprised he can read at all, so I don't expect him to be of much help, but then her mom is so angry and impatient that she just gives her the answers so she's done faster. So Destiny is entirely reliant on her teacher and her school to help her. There's a tutoring program for kids like her that need more help, but after a few weeks they gave in to her whining about being there the extra time and now she doesn't go. It makes me so angry, because she's the KID, she isn't the one calling the shots! MAKE HER GO.
Anyway, so whenever I see Destiny working on her homework I step in now and help her. I make her sound things out and repeat them, I show her little tricks, keep her engaged as much as I can so she's paying attention and absorbing things. It kind of makes me think maybe I'd like to get into a more elementary english instead. Because the better the foundation, the easier it is to build up. I really love helping her, it makes me feel more useful than I've felt in awhile, like I'm actually contributing to society. The only reservations I have are that I also love advanced literature, and really delving into it and finding all the little metaphors and easter eggs and "Where's Waldo?" moments that authors put in there. It's so exciting, so thrilling. It's just the tits.
Decisions, decisions.
In other news I hate Morales and his stupid everything. I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the white cat--Nala, but I hate that name, it's so stupid--that I've posted on Facebook (because you all probably watch my Facebook like HAWKS). I adore her, she's nervous and very timid, but unshakably sweet and affectionate once you've earned her trust. She needs protecting, she's nervous enough that too much stress could kill her in the long run--heart problems or stomach problems, or something like Lilly. She also has a problem with using her litterbox--she tends to go in corners, in the kitchen. Louie's mom just wants to yell and hit her into obeying like she does her retarded ass dogs, and Morales does whatever she tells him. So apparently she said to throw her in a cage the next time she does it, so that's what he tried to do. He had the kids chase her around the house for half an hour. They caught her but she managed to get away and hid behind the TV/entertainment center, and at that point Louie woke up and got them to stop, after which I woke up. We made them all leave and managed to eventually lure her out with food, but she was so scared of everyone, even me and Louie, who she trusts, and even two days later she's still so scared.
I told them all awhile ago that there's a reason why she's not using her box like she should, and unlike with a dog it's not because she's stupid, there's a reason. My thoughts were that it was her much larger and more aggressive brother edging her out--but we looked it up and it's also probably because it's in the bathroom downstairs, where the dogs are. The stress from having to pass them intimidates her to the point that she doesn't want to go down there. It's also fairly heavily trafficked and undesirable in that regard. It's also where they insist on keeping the food bowls, and who wants to poop where they eat? It's public, surrounded by larger, louder animals, and in the food area--all HUGE reasons why she won't go there. But nobody but me and Louie cares, they see a problem and they hit it til it stops. MY solution is to keep her in our room as much as possible. She has a water and food dish here, and now a litterbox that is JUST hers, in a quiet, secluded area on the complete opposite side of the room as her food bowl.
She flinches and runs from Morales and the kids who were running around chasing her. She huddles against me and Louie when she's in here, or else hiding under the futon, and if we move too suddenly she jumps and runs and hides. My poor girl. What I hate the most though is that I can't do anything else. I want to take her away completely, but she's not really my cat, she's Louie's mom's, or at least the family's. I sincerely hope though that when we get out of here we can take her and brother with us. |
