Journal of a Sabbatical

May 24, 2000

clumping litter in the rain

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Reading: Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges

Today's Starting Pitcher:
somebody or other no doubt - Eganworld is a soccer kingdom

Julius

Julius is a talker. He also prefers not to be pestered by small children. It says that right on his cage card. Hey, I prefer not to be pestered by small children too! But I don't talk as much as Julius. And I'm not orange. He definitely has "orange cat personality" - a fiery little guy. He was mesmerized by the lens cap dangling on its little string.

Purr Purr

I've photographed Purr Purr before but I couldn't resist this shot. I actually missed the best Purr Purr shot while the camera was still out in the car and I was elbow deep in dirty dish water. He was posing with one paw resting on the purple ball. I think he's finally getting used to being here.

Whiskers is back. No, not because she found her adopter's laundry room unacceptable. Apparently the person who adopted her developed cat allergies. Gee how could she tell with the pollen counts off the charts like this? Anyway, poor Whiskers has resumed her hermitage in the laundry room. When Roy comes back from surgery recovery he'll have to have another heart to heart with her to explain that there really is still life outside the laundry room.

Somebody's applied to adopt Chloe. There's a hold tag on her cage. Hooray! Not an Internet romance this time. I think the adopter actually met her live and in person and Chloe manifested her nice alternate personality - the one she uses with me. I spent a lot of time petting her today and wishing her well in her new home. She even purred for me this time. Other humans were amazed.

Nick

Nick was asleep until I opened the cage door to take his picture. He wanted to rub up against the camera, not pose for it. He's a nice guy too.

My cleaning rhythm is all off today. It's taking me longer to get stuff done. And I took a break in the middle so Giggle Girl could use the sink for the dishes and litter boxes from the rabies room. For some reason, it took her half an hour - and we don't have that many cats in quarantine. When her guidance counselor showed up to fetch her, she left stuff in the sink undone... I don't think she quite grasps quarantine procedures. Too bad I'm not vaccinated for rabies. Yeah, someday I'll get the shots. Someday. Meanwhile, here's all this stuff that has to be dealt with right away before any humans or cats come in contact with it just in case. Fortunately, Chris is rabies-proof. Anyway, this really got me behind schedule as I hadn't done any litter boxes when she took over the sink.

Willy

Things seemed less in control, or more out of control, than usual. Or maybe it's the rain and the pollen count. The pollen count isn't supposed to be high in the rain, but something is triggering massive allergies - not just me, several people all sneezing. I heard the sun was going to come out this afternoon, but I refuse to believe it 'til I see it. There's nothing like a cat to get one out of such a dark-cloud induced funk, and Willy was not gonna let me be in a funk. Willy wags his tail like a dog. Willy climbs all over me and hugs me - one paw on each side of my neck. He head-butts my face. He licks my ear. I can't stop laughing. He is soooooo affectionate. I have no idea what his story is. How does a sweet cat like Willy end up at a shelter?

Willy and Me

It was a little hard to write down the names of the cats I photographed today with Willy on my chest or on the desk or wherever I tried to be.

It seemed like a month elapsed from the time I left my house this morning and drove in an unusual amount of traffic to the shelter and the time I left the shelter. I was hungry and thirsty and needing coffee. It was still raining. Bits of spilled clumping litter in the parking lot were turning into bulbous gelatinous globs. It looked like the parking lot had developed a really gross fungal infection.

So much for clearing at noon. It was already 1:00 PM.

I started to feel time pressure about getting lunch, dropping off some stuff at the printer, and still getting home in time to shower and change before heading out to provide high quality child care. There was no reason for me to feel this pressure. There was plenty of time. I talked myself into slowing down and enjoying the afternoon.

I was in luck. Fowle's had the potato and leek soup today (they are often out of it just when I want it). There's nothing like soup in a bread bowl to take the gloom out of the nth rainy day in a row. Miraculously, time slowed down again and I realized I had enough time for a short browse at Olde Port Book Shop. Domino greeted me sleepily meowing at me while still curled up in her favorite chair. She didn't have any particular selections in mind for me today, but I picked up a book entitled The Birds of Brewery Creek, which I'd browsed a few times before. What got me to buy it is that the creek in question is in a fairly urban area in Canada- not a pristine wilderness. As Nancy put it when I described the book: "that sounds a lot like the cove!" Exactly. I thought it might be inspiring to read something about a compromised site like the cove. Like I might get it together to actually do something with all the notes I've collected on the cove over the years.

Somehow, even with a leisurely shower and a fair amount of traffic, I still arrived well before Lizzy got back from soccer.

We watched Dawson's Creek. I had never watched it before, neither had Andrea. We couldn't figure out what was going on half the time. I mean these characters all have a history with each other kind of like a soap opera. Andrea and I kept asking each other questions about it and Lizzy kept shushing us so she could pay attention. Gee, and I remember when they actually used to like Blue's Clues! They grow up way too fast.

Oh, yeah, Andrea's team won: 2-1 and it was a very good game. Soccer mania continues to rule.