REAL ESTATE AUCTION
Investment Property
6505 WISTERIA DRIVE, CHARLOTTE, NC
(Just off South Blvd.)
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 9 • 12:00 NOON
Auction location Ramada Inn, Woodlawn Road, Charlotte, NC
Property is 2 acres
(per tax records)
Zoned A500
Contains residential
structure which needs
repairs of 3,090 total sq. ft.,
4 bedrooms,
1.5 baths, built in 1941
Property has tax value of $645,200, will be sold for
the best and highest bid over $200,000.
Please call for showing: Gail Marshall
704-362-3288 (office) or 704-491-5127 (cell)
TERMS:
Property is sold “as is-where is.” $20,000 down payment
(non-reftmdable) by certified funds, closing within 30 days.
10% buyer’s premium.
REAL ESTATE AUCTION
3121 AUBURN AVENUE, CHARLOTTE, NC
SUNDAY, AUG. 6 • 2:00 PM
Beautiful, completely renovated
1,298 sq. it. brick traditional style home,
built in 1952 with all the charm of the
wonderful homes in Sedgefield.
Master bath with garden tub and stained glass
window, kitchen completely renovated,
hardwood floors throughout, fenced back yard,
deck, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths,
10’ X 12’ storage building.
This home has been masterfully renovated
and is a must see!
OPEN HOUSE: SUNDAY, JULY 30,2:
TERMS: Property is sold “as is-wherc is.” $10,000 down payment (non-refiindable)
on sale day by certified funds, closing within 30 days. 10% buyer’s premium. ■
Auctions by Marshall, Inc.
1222 Jules Ct., Charlmte, NC 28226
704-362-3288 • ncll 7364
www.auctionsbymarshall.com
4 JULY 29.2006 •Q-NOTES
OPINION
Editor’s Note
by David Moore
People and their pets
In the office where Q-Notes is published
resides perhaps one of the sweetest and most
playful cats I’ve ever encountered.
ffe came into our life via Associate Editor
David Stout and Stout’s Great Aunt Veer, who
lives in Lexington, N.C.
As the story goes the little grey kitten was
one of a rather sizable litter that belonged to a
cat that lived at a neighbor’s house. The neigh
bor had several dogs and apparently the mother
cat wasn’t comfortiile with the kittens in that
environment — so she moved them to some
place less complicated (Great Aunt Veer’s).
“There were five, all cute, but when he
walked out of the box I knew he was the one,”
says Stout, “ffe had some kind of charisma
about him. Aunt Veer laughed and said ‘ffe’s a
little troublemaker, always getting into some
thing. Figures you’d pick him.’”
Stout encountered the kitten on a few
occasions before the staff eventually came to
the decision that it was time for a mascot.
ffe also picked out the kitten’s name —
Oscar Wildecat — after the cartoon character
in the “Queer Duck” series.
ffe was absolutely tiny when I first laid eyes
on him — but in the year he’s lived with us,
he’s come to be very large, thick and muscular.
His shiny, multi-colored grey coat
has retained the softness it had ^
when he was still a kitten.
In the morning he’ll greet
you by following you around,
rubbing against your legs and
talking in soft little meows.
Then he’ll jump to lightening
speed and dash around the
office like a cat possessed,
oftentimes coming to rest
atop a stack of papers that
immediately slide out from
underneath him, spilling him back
on to the floor.
His favorite pastimes include drinking
anybody’s water but his own, stealing pepper
mint candy from the bowl in reception area
and throwing it around the room, rubbing his
face profusely against hairy chins, tipping over
garbage cans, trying to climb artificial office
shrubbery and plopping himself down
squarely in the center of the conference table
during staff meetings. Right this moment he’s
sitting across from me on the sofa in my office
staring directly at me and probably wondering
what kind of trouble he can get into next. On
deadline weekends when I’m in the office
alone, he’s a great friend to have around.
Our little animal friends have such short
life spans. It can be very painful, too, when
you lose one. My partner’s little old Maltese
named Chip — I’ve written about him a few
times here — passed away a couple of months
ago. He was sick and old, but he struggled so
hard to hang on. He finally got to the point
where he couldn’t even lift his head up off the
couch and we had to stand him up so he could
eat or do whatever was necessary.
My partner couldn’t handle it — so I final
ly volunteered to take him to the vet to have
him “put to sleep” as they used to say (as
opposed to “put down,” which somehow seems
a bit more callous to me). I stayed with him
until the very end, when he
just slumped over next to my body, as though
he had fallen asleep.
I thought I woidd be okay with it because
he came into my life along with my partner
and I always thought of him as “my boyfriend’s
dog.” But in the end, 1 felt quite differently.
I’ve never been particularly weepy — it
takes a lot to get me that way — but as I was
driving away from the vet’s office I was over
come with such grief that I couldn’t stop cry
ing. I had to pull over to the side of the road to
try and get control of my emotions. “Why can’t
I stop crying?” I screamed to myself, as I
looked at the empty seat beside me where the
little dog had sat, breathing heavily, less than
thirty minutes before.
Wien it suddenly struck me that I must’ve
looked like a scene out of some bad sitcom I
was finally able to get a grip — but I still miss
the muttering little old fellow. Even if he was a
bit grumpy at times — he was always happily
wagging his tail when 1 came through the
door at the end of the day.
A few weeks would pass before we adopted
another dog — she’s a small rescue mix
puppy we named Betty. Probably Jack Russell
Terrier, Cocker Spaniel and Italian Greyhound
with some Chihuahua thrown in
for good measure.
She’s extremely affection-
i. ate, very polite and when she
‘ goes outside she’s energetic
beyond belief. Even though
it’s like looking at King Kong
playing with Naomi Watts,
she gets along famously with
our neighbor’s Labrador. He
runs to fetch a ball and she
runs circles around and
^ under him as he moves, fre
quently nipping at his heels and
ankles and ears and face. He seems to love
every minute of it.
Our cat seems to like the dog, too. She doesn’t
automatically hiss at her like she did the Maltese.
But he had a tendency to be a bit aggressive at
times. With Betty it’s all fim and games. She’ll
dance around in front of the cat, jumping for
wards and then back and trying oh-so-hard to
convince her to play. It’s nothing short of slap
stick when Betty tries to sneak up behind Midge
for a quick butt sniff. That’s where Midge draws
the line — she’ll turn around and growl (one of
those deep guttural “mmrrooww’ sounds) and
hop off as quickly as her three legs will carry her,
hissing as she goes. Betty will jump backwards
and dash off in the opposite direction before tak
ing a flying leap onto the couch. Then she’ll
immediately assume what w’e ve come to call the
Jackal pose. She stretches out her legs directly in
front of her body perfectly straight and side-by-
side and perks up her massive pointy dumbo
sized ears from the relaxed floppy position to full
attention. She usually sits that way for a few min
utes looking rather accomplished about her
recent achievement with the cat.
Take a look at our special ‘ People and their
Pets” section this issue. 1 think you II enjoy
reading about the many different kinds of ani
mals queers in the Carolinas like to have as
their pets. I