It is perhaps serendipitous that I’m drawn to these furry transients, as I seem to have attracted a rather startling collection over the years. From the baby fruit bat I rescued from my church in junior high school to the several full-grown 100+ lb. pit bulls that I rescued with my husband in Tallahassee, I’ve had quite an assortment of species and temperaments over the years.

After a pretty intense, ab-killing workout at Cross Training San Marco yesterday, I walked out to the back parking lot, opened my car door and sat down. At 8:30 in the morning, it’s already too warm for comfort, so I left the car door open as I situated all of my workout gear.

As I was turning away from my passenger seat to close the car door, a little ball of fur came leaping into my car, settling down on my lap where it began to purr. After I got over the initial shock, my heart melted into a puddle on my floor mat. Cradling the thin little bundle of cute, I shut the door and drove the little guy to the sanctuary of B|G HQ.

Anna & Sushi Getting to Know Each Other

When I walked in the door with the little tyke, he got a warm reception from everyone and happily basked in their affection. With help from Brandon, I got the kitten fed and Brandon and I tossed potential names back and forth. As both of us are lovers of all things “kawaii,” we ended up settling on “Sushi.”

After a trip to the First Coast No More Homeless Pets Clinic, Sushi got a clean bill of health and was ready to come back to Saint Augustine with me and meet the rest of my fur-children: Pixel, TicTac, Aries and Jackie. After an evening of getting acquainted with the rest of the Peterson pack, I’m happy to report that Sushi is settling in well and seems to be at ease in his new home.

The torture chamber.

Three days each week, Ross at Cross Training San Marco puts Brunet-García staffers through an intense 30-minute group workout. We can “pick our own poison” and hit the gym at either 7:30AM or at 5:30PM. Burpees, free weights, pull-ups, sit-ups, jump rope, lunges, whipping the fire hose . . . you name it, Ross makes us do it. Repeatedly and without breaks. But, with my creaky knees, the simple squat is the exercise that always destroys me. By the time we finish our session, we’ve racked up anywhere between 60 and 100 squats, depending on how cleverly Ross works them into the rotation.

Friday morning is one of my two weekday mornings off from the gym. Ever the sadist, Ross insists that I tackle some extra cardio on my off-days, so this morning I decided to kill two birds, as they say. Why not get 30-45 minutes worth of cardiovascular exercise while performing my “Block by Block” clean-up, along our section of Hendricks Avenue?

At 7:45, dressed in workout clothes and running shoes, I emerged from the Brunet-García office, armed with my red knit work gloves and biodegradable trash bag. With a quick glance down Hendricks towards LaSalle, I was off. The sidewalk litter, which always piles up as the week wears on, didn’t look too bad this humid Friday morning. “Great,” I thought, “this should be an easy 20-minute circuit, then I’m back to a nice café con leche at my air-conditioned desk.”

Ross, when I see you again on Tuesday, I won’t complain. I did far more than 100 deep squats this morning. Again and again, I squatted and scrambled to pluck cigarette butts from the steamy sidewalk, grass borders and landscaped tree planters. The trees and planters are supposed to be one of our neighborhood’s gifts from the Better Jacksonville Plan, but have become Jack Rabbits’ ash and butt receptacles, pre- and post-concert.

Here’s my sweat-infused plea: Hendricks business neighbors – particularly the management of Jack Rabbits – please join Region’s Bank, High Tide Burrito, Paul Figura Photography, Tropical Smoothie, Tidbits, St. Johns Riverkeeper, Stan’s, Jimmy Johns and Brunet-García to keep the sidewalk in front of your business clean. Litter begets litter. Cigarette butt litter causes blight, doesn’t disappear, and travels through storm water systems to destroy our waterways and wildlife.

Ash receptacles like the ones that have been installed in Hemming Plaza and Riverside cost a mere $125 per unit. The City of Jacksonville will install them if businesses buy them, but business owners are responsible for emptying them on a regular basis. I am looking into one for the vicinity of 1510 Hendricks Avenue. Mr. Jack Rabbits, won’t you do the same?

On a positive note, just the same as litter begets litter, clean-up begets clean-up. A sun-leathered gentleman about 50, was waiting to catch the JTA bus at the corner of Hendricks and LaSalle bound for Beach Boulevard. He curiously watched as I scratched around the tree planter in front of Awards Unlimited. Next thing I knew, he bent over to pick up two styrofoam cups and a smashed cigarette carton. Coming towards me with a friendly smile and “good morning,” he reached over to add the trash to my bulging bag. I thanked him, and as he turned to leave, he spotted a wadded-up paper towel and cardboard cup, both stuffed into the tree limbs above me.

We shrugged in disbelief. Litter nestled between the branches of a pristine, white crape myrtle! Really? Wake up Jacksonville! Each plastic cup, each beer bottle, each candy wrapper, each cigarette butt you carelessly shed to lighten your load is steadily building our neighborhood trash heap, or washing down the storm drains to destroy our river.

But maybe I shouldn’t complain. Ross will be proud that I sandwiched in a smokin’ Friday morning workout. Some 100+ squats and a gallon of sweat later, the 1500 block of Hendricks Avenue is butt-free! At least until the weekend crowd cues up in front of Jack Rabbits later today…