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May 6, 1998
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Star has been liberated from the sick room and is being very affectionate. I almost can't wash the dishes with Star head butting me and demanding attention. Jaguar is curled up into a tight white furry ball barely recognizable as a cat, sound asleep. The keep-ins out first policy from last week didn't work so now we let the established cats out first and then when we put them back in their cages at the end of the shift, we let the keep-ins out one by one. One more day and we'll be able to use the socialization room again. The ringworm cats have gone to a foster home so they can get the attention and care they need without the danger of spreading the ringworm to other cats. Dawna disinfected the room last night with chlorhexadine and it'll be ready to use again tomorrow. And Roberta has stopped scratching every time we say ringworm. Roberta trips over a cat and breaks a dish. This cracks us up. Betty, who pitched a fit about my throwing away the broken dishes is in the office, which makes this doubly hilarious. We discuss it in conspiratorial whispers. I point out that Betty will think I broke it anyway so Roberta is off the hook. These plastic dishes cost a dime apiece and break easily. Roberta sneaks it into the trash, hidden so Betty won't see it. I remember to give Roberta the jar of bones I've been collecting for her on the beach (no endangered species or illegal birds or whatever - just detritus from the wrack line). She's thrilled and tries to identify them right away. She still hasn't contacted the guy who is writing a field guide to bones (I gave a clipping about him from the Newburyport Daily News), but she's all fired up now. Jaguar bestirs himself from his cozy sleep to make the rounds of the whole place. He walks slowly and deliberately all the way around the perimeter of the main room, sniffing under every cage, sniffing the food room door, sniffing the rabies room door and the sick room door, jumping up on the window sill to smell the rain outside, checking out the laundry room, and finally joining me at the sink. All the while, Fritz is juggling one of those small gray catnip mice - the kind that look so real that mouse-phobic people scream when they see them. Suddenly Fritz's mouse lands inside one of those teepee shaped scratching post/hideout things. He dives in head first and starts pushing the scratching post across the floor as he plays with the mouse. It looks like Fritz has a blue teepee shaped head! Finally he rolls over and backs out, sending the teepee one way and the mouse the other. He doesn't know which one to chase so he climbs up the cat gym and chases his tail. Eileen brings me a message that I am supposed to page Martha to schedule our trip to the nursing home with cats that like to play with elders. I dial the pager number and get a message that says "The area code for that number is 508". So I dial it again as a 508 number, and get the message "The area code for that number is 978". I try a couple more times. The system can't make up its mind. I never get ahold of Martha's pager. It's not that urgent anyway, the thing at Brigham Manor isn't until June. The phone call can wait til tonight when I can call her at home and not fool around with the pager. What is it with Bell Atlantic these days? We're going to have yet another area code split next year, and the 508/978 split still doesn't work right. The new one ought to be even more thrilling. |
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