Journal of a Sabbatical

January 10, 2001

and if that diamond ring don't sing

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
black duck (37)
American crow (5)
herring gull (3)
American robin (5)
bufflehead (2)
great black back gull (1)
northern harrier (1)
Canada goose (22)
Salisbury Beach
common goldeneye (1)
red breasted merganser (1)
dark-eyed junco (9)
Mammals
harbor seal (1)

Today's Reading: The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater

Ooh it's cold. Roy claims it was 2 degrees below zero at his house this morning. I don't think it was quite that cold at my place but I definitely needed layers above and beyond the mere T-shirt plus flannel shirt under my jacket.

I'm finding it hard to wash the dishes while doubled over with laughter. Roy's jokes and commentary on life and history keep me in stitches. Dishes keep appearing from every corner just when we think we've got them all. And this week, all the community litter boxes need a good scrubbing. One of them has that evil black litter that turns to concrete in it. Roy asks Bob where it comes from. Bob says he doesn't know. Somebody must have donated it.

People are lined up out the door for Maine coon kittens. What is it with the Maine coons? There's a small pile of them, 4 to be exact, who came in yesterday while I was here. Some ten minutes before we open at 11:00 a couple shows up to adopt two of them. Remarkably, when Kendra tells them we don't open for another ten minutes they go wait outside.

More people arrive. Roy and I struggle to get the dishes done on time. It's chaotic trying to clean when there's people here looking for the cat of their dreams. A group of three women comes in. Emma is perched on the cat gym where Stormy often sits. One of the women asks if that's the one she's supposed to be afraid of. Nope. Somebody in the other room thinks Stormy is cute (which she is) and we warn them about her unfriendly habits.

The three women turn out to be looking for Maine coon kittens but all four have been adopted. The women are distraught that they missed by 10 minutes. I think the other people ahead of them had already been approved several days ago so the 10 minutes wouldn't have made a difference. They hand around looking at other cats. They think Stormy is cute. Somebody asks "What's the matter with Emma?" Louise replies "Nothing. She just looks like Stormy." These people want a long haired cat they say, but apparently not Emma and apparently it must be a Maine coon kitten. What is it with Maine coon kittens?

We have a ton of new cats since I last did pictures for the web site. (I was off at the Moby Dick thing last Wednesday so haven't done pictures for two weeks.)

Cleo and Zeke came in together. Cleo loves playing, being petted, and being held. She's an affectionate and friendly long-haired female. Cleo is good with children too. Zeke really enjoys his catnip. He's a 4 year old, male, long-haired lap cat. Zeke is affectionate and friendly, good with kids, and likes to play. He is startled easily but loves to be petted.

Snowflake had a litter of 8 kittens and would now like a home of her own. Snowflake is OK with kids and dogs, loves to play, and likes being petted. She's a real lap cat but she doesn't like to be held. Snowflake is about 2 years old.

Sadie likes being petted and is very affectionate and friendly. She came to us as a stray. Sadie has short hair and is about 8 months old.

Shadow is looking for a quiet home with adults. She must be an indoor cat. Shadow is 7 years old, affectionate, and friendly. She enjoys being petted.

Titania came to us as a stray. We estimate her age at about 2 years. She's a little timid but likes being petted as long as we approach her slowly. She'll need a little patience. Titania must be an indoor cat.

As I'm writing all these names and biographies in my notebook, I realize I need to look at somebody's red card in the other room. I leave my notebook and pen (which has my name on it) on the table while I go to glance at the card. I come back and one of the Maine coon adopters is using my pen to fill out forms. I wait patiently until somebody asks me if I need something. Nope, I'm just waiting for this guy to finish using my pen so I can finish writing the names and ages of the cats to go on the web site. He gives the pen back and apologizes. I finish and high tail it over to Angelina's for lunch because I am absolutely starving.

I lose my appetite two thirds of the way through my veggie sub and begin to feel very hot and achy, but I decide it's just the malaise from yesterday bothering me again and the best thing I can do is force myself to keep going. I grab a cup of coffee at Fowle's and verify that Olde Port Book Shop is closed today (sometimes he's closed Wednesdays and sometimes he's not). The coffee revives me a little so I decide to look for birds anyway.

There was more snow on the refuge than I expected. Saturday's storm had pretty much bypassed the beach but yesterday's storm actually accumulated. It made for some nice photos of snow-laden nests and winterberries but not a whole lot of bird sightings.

Just last week I was commenting to Nancy that there's a bumper crop of winterberries at Plum Island this year and yet I hadn't seen a single robin. Winterberries normally attract whole roosts of robins. A couple days after I made that observation I finally did see a few robins near the parking lot at Sandy Point, and then today I saw a few near Hellcat roosting with a bunch of starlings (of all things).

The Salisbury Beach campground had a flock of dark-eyed juncos flitting around being really lively, and I spotted a single common goldeneye and a single red breasted merganser by the boat ramp. I watched a young seal haul itself out of the river onto the marsh grass but was too far away to get a good picture. That was the only seal I saw.

Then fatigue struck me like a ton of bricks. I decided to pass up the opportunity to sort out a huge crowd of gulls in the parking lot and headed home. The only remaining stop was a brief photo op.

I actually saw this snowman on Beach Rd. a couple of days ago and swung by after the Purrfect Companions meeting last night thinking to photograph it by night. It's got a spotlight pointed at it. But, alas, the spotlight was not turned on last night and there wasn't enough ambient light for a picture. It still looks jaunty in the daytime, so I snapped a snapshot on the way home from Salisbury Beach this afternoon.

Back home I settled in to being tired, achy, hot, and cold with lemon, ginger echinacea juice, echinacea tea, and The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death.