Journal of a Sabbatical

September 6, 2000

miss newburyport is turning into midgee

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Bird Sightings:
Salisbury
great blue heron (2)
Plum Island
snowy egret (3)
mute swan (4)
American black duck (16)
great blue heron (1)
northern mockingbird (5)
tree swallow (6)
herring gull (1)
Canada goose (12) - flyover
great black backed gull (2)
northern harrier (1)
cedar waxwing (1)
American goldfinch (1)
greater yellowlegs (1)

Today's Reading: Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg

Today's Starting Pitcher: Rolando Arrojo

So Roy is standing by the sink looking confused when I arrive. Who did the dishes already? Wasn't me. Wasn't Roy. The Mullins whirlwind strikes again. Plenty of litter boxes to wash though. Gives me more time to finish my coffee and gives Sandy more time to head-butt Roy. He calls Sandy Ginger Snap. Fits his personality. Ginger Snap is being really friendly this morning. He lets me pet him and he even begs for more.

Miss Newburyport is asleep on top of the dryer. We haven't had a serious dryer cat since Midgee. Wonder if the old curmudgeon is cold? Anyway she's much mellower in her new spot. There's one tense moment when Kendra wants to turn on the dryer for a new load and Miss Newburyport is blocking the knob. Roy tries to sweet talk her away from it then threatens to get a towel. The mere mention of a towel causes Miss Newburyport to lose interest in protecting the dryer knob.

The new plan for recruiting more volunteers is to dupe them into believing they'll spend most of their time cuddling the kitties instead of cleaning. That's a joke. Anyway, the recruitment drive now features volunteers in all pictures of new cats for the web site and the newspaper and what all. Y'know, where was Roy when I was looking for "old hands" to pose for the Purrfect Companions brochure?

We've got to get a separate building for the towels!

Wisdom gained from a age and a half of washing litter boxes? If you take the labels off them before you ever wash them the glue does not stay on there capturing cat hair, dirt, bacteria, yucky stuff... But once you've immersed those darn labels in water, it's a chore to get the glue off. Roy takes them home and heats them up with a hair dryer and then scrapes the glue off. Who knew when I quit my soulless job that I would learn this much about those sticky labels on plastic litter boxes?

It's another fantastically cool, blue, dry day. Two great blue herons make a low pass over the parking lot as I'm getting ready to leave the cats and go look for birds. For once I'm not starving, so I don't stop for lunch. I grab a large dark roast (black) and a spinach and feta croissant at Fowle's and take them with me to eat on the refuge while I bird. I stop at the North Pool overlook and watch a great blue heron there as I consume my minimalist lunch. Three great blues in one day. Cool.

It's pretty quiet bird-wise today. The fall wildflowers and the berries are starting to replace the "dog day" wildflowers. Rose hips and bayberries and beach plums are ripening. With the cooler weather, it really feels like fall already.

I take a short walk on the beach looking for shorebirds, but don't find any. The ocean looks gem-like. Bird tracks in the sand among the beach peas remain undisturbed. I'm amazed that some of the beach peas are still in bloom.

It'll be weird missing so much of fall here while I'm in China. I've got a bird book, so I'll be able to figure out what birds I'm seeing and I'll be with botanists, so that'll help with learning the weeds. OK, so they're dendrologists, but they do have to know other plants besides trees so they can do those vegetation profiles and plant community studies and stuff like that there.