Journal of a Sabbatical

January 24, 2001

burning question marks

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Bird Sightings:
Joppa Flats
snow goose
Canada goose
mallard
herring gull
gulls too far away to identify (approximately 1.5 zillion)
Plum Island
short-eared owl (2)
rough-legged hawk (2)
American black duck (47)
song sparrow (1)
common goldeneye (3)
red-breasted merganser (3)
Canada goose (31)
American crow (6)
herring gull (5)
mallard (2)
American robin (5)
Mammals:
raccoon (2)

Today's Reading: John Greenleaf Whittier: Life and Letters by Samuel T. Pickard, Whittier-Land by Samuel T. Pickard

The old salts (Bob & Roy) were worried that I was dead this morning. They'd heard about a huge accident on I-495. For the record, I am not the woman who caused a massive accident while eating breakfast in her car at the Rt. 125 entrance to I-495. I did drink coffee in the car. From Perfecto's if you must know. However, that was about an hour later and I was not actually drinking the coffee while merging onto I-495. My Dad and my drivers' ed. teacher taught me better than that.

So once they discovered I was alive and only a couple of minutes late, Roy regaled us with Unitarian jokes. You know, like the Unitarian terrorists that burn a question mark on your lawn. Do you know why Unitarian choirs sound so bad? Everybody is reading ahead two verses to see if they agree with it before they sing it. The thought of giant burning question marks amused me all day.

Miss Newburyport is still feeling poorly and I feel sorry for her. She may be a curmudgeon but she's a curmudgeon who likes me. That counts for something.

Sandy is in a very good mood. There are donuts. He's figured out how to open the donut box. If my hands hadn't been elbow deep in soapy bleach water I would have had the cutest picture of him reaching his paw carefully under the cardboard flap and gently pulling the top of the box toward him.

Lots of new cats this week, lots of 'em black. Adoptees since last week are Elly, Sage, Samantha, Meeko, Immy, Iggy, Erika, Echo, Snowflake. I'm so glad Elly has found a home. She was so shy and scared of us when she first came and it took her a long time to learn to trust humans.

I continue to feel challenged writing the little biographies for the web site (and/or the newspaper). Some cats, like Kyle, I have almost no information on. Kyle is a 6 month old male with short hair. He was given up. Not a riveting biography. Others require new creative ways of saying they're former ferals and human-shy but will come around. There must be a trick to this that I just haven't learned. But I keep trying. And I haven't yet coordinated with the real photographer (as opposed to me, the blind monkey) so we don't duplicate our efforts. I hope the web guy doesn't run screaming out of the building when he's inundated with cat photos. Anyhow, without further ado, meet the new cats...

Madeline is a short-haired female stray about 1 1/2 years old. She enjoys being patted and is affectionate and friendly. She does need to be approached slowly at first, but once she gets to know you she's a real love bug! Madeline must be an indoor cat.  

Magic is a one year old short-haired male who was given up. He's affectionate and friendly and likes being petted. Magic loves to play and enjoys exploring the office here at the shelter. Magic must be an indoor cat.

Max is a short-haired male who came to us as a stray. He's a Manx: tailless. Max likes attention and talks a lot in a distinctive "voice", a little lower than the usual meow.

Neeko is a 3 year old long-haired female who came to us as a stray. Neeko likes being petted but doesn't like to be held. She's timid and needs to be approached slowly, but is very affectionate and friendly once you get past her timidity. Neeko must be an indoor cat and would prefer a quiet home with adults.

Priscilla is a short-haired female about a year old. She is timid and needs to be approached slowly. She needs patience.

Speedy is a short-haired male who is 4 months old. He's timid so will need to be approached slowly. Speedy doesn't like to be held. He must be an indoor cat.

Spud is a real lap cat. We estimate his age at 2 to 3 years. Spud came to us as a stray. Affectionate and friendly, he enjoys being petted. Spud is OK with dogs.

No, we haven't opened a snow goose shelter. These geese have been hanging out in the Merrimack River in the general vicinity of Joppa Flats all winter. I thought they looked picturesque today among the ice floes. Actually the best ice floe image, which was too far away for the Mavica to capture, was a group of about 12 Canada geese standing crammed cheek by jowl on a slab of ice floating down the river. Were they going on a joy ride? Anyway, the thing about the snow geese is that they appear to be wintering here. Usually they pass through in the fall to wherever snow geese go. This year they're staying.

It's a glorious two short-eared owl day. In fact I stopped the car on the Plum Island Turnpike because a short-eared owl flew right in front of my car and landed on a post so close to the road that I could look into its eyes without binoculars. Talk about a spectacular view! The other short-eared owl was on the refuge hunting over the marsh by the clam flats. That one crossed the road in front of me too. So did a couple of raccoons for that matter. They then watched me intently from the bushes. They were kind of small and were probably in more danger from the rough-legged hawk that flew over our heads than from me.

The other spectacular sight of the day was male goldeneye and red-breasted mergansers frantically displaying for indifferent females. The goldeneye amaze me the way they can touch the back of their heads to their backs and point their bills straight up. It impressed me but apparently didn't do much for the female goldeneye. Maybe it's still a bit early for them to be responding.

On the way home I stopped at the Haverhill Public Library, which has a huge Whittier collection and lots of Whittier memorabilia in their Friends' Store. For $5 I got a copy of Whittier-Land by Samuel T. Pickard. It's a guidebook to the places important in Whittier's poetry - a guide for pilgrims essentially. The Haverhill trails committee also puts out a little map of the key sites, which I bought for 50 cents. So I am now equipped for a tour of Whittier Land. My big splurge was a mug with Whittier's face on one side and the Haverhill house on the other with some lines from Snowbound. Maybe I'll drink coffee out of it while visiting the historic sites. For sure I'll drink coffee out of it at breakfast tomorrow.