Journal of a Sabbatical

January 31, 2001

donuts, yellow buckets, and black ice

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island:
mute swan (2)
northern harrier (1)
American black duck (91)
American crow (4)
Canada goose (139)
herring gull (12)
American tree sparrow (4)
rock dove (1)
mourning dove (1)
starling (uncountable numbers in huge black clouds)
Salisbury Beach:
a zillion gulls too far away to identify

Today's Reading: The Future of Success by Robert Reich

The passion for donuts is spreading. Is it Sandy's influence or are donuts being made with catnip in them nowadays? Savannah and Princess Catnip have both suddenly gotten very interested in donuts. Of course they're both thieves of other cats' dry food too so maybe it's just the idea of stealing the donut crumbs from Sandy that attracts them.

The competition for domination of the big yellow bucket is getting fierce, but that may have something to do with the donut crumbs too. Sandy left the bucket to take up his post on the new dryer for awhile and Princess Catnip moved right in to his former spot on the big yellow bucket. She sniffed around for donut crumbs, ate what she found, and settled in like this was going to be her spot forever. She hissed at Sandy when he came back and he walked away. He didn't even challenge her. I guess this was no fun for her, so she wandered off to steal food from other cats' cages and when Sandy noticed she was gone, he was right back up there. Just after I took the above picture, shy Molly walked up to the bucket and took a swing at Sandy's dangling paw. A brief standoff ensued and then Molly backed down. I would never in a million years have imagined Molly challenging Sandy at all. It must be spring in the air or the lure of the donut crumbs.

Emma finally found a home. I don't know what took so long, she's such a gorgeous cat. And nothing at all like Stormy.

New cats continue to arrive.

Georgie is a short haired male about 4 years old. He came to us as a stray. Georgie is an affectionate and friendly cat who enjoys being petted and loves to play. He's good with children, OK with dogs, and likes other cats. Georgie must be an indoor cat.

Oliver is a short haired male former feral. He's a little shy but is starting to show interest in people. I tried to photograph Oliver last week but he just kept hunkering down further and further into the cat bed until only the tips of his ears were visible. That and he hissed at me furiously. Today he not only didn't hiss, he acted interested in checking me out.

Opal is a 4 month old short haired female. She's black with some white. Opal was given up to us. She's a little shy. I couldn't get Opal's picture last week either. She hides well.

Wyatt is a medium haired young male. He was given up. We're not sure of his age. Wyatt is a real lap cat who enjoys being petted. He loves to play and is affectionate and friendly. Wyatt would like to be place in a home with another cat. This picture caught him grooming himself after enjoying his wet food. He gets the award for longest pink tongue.

The guys made me laugh but I don't remember any of the jokes.

The morning's rain had stopped at lunch time but by the time I got my veggie sub at Angelina's, got my coffee at Fowle's, and got my car stuck on the ice at the boat ramp it started to rain again. Yes, I am an idiot. I wanted to drink my coffee while checking the river for gulls. Despite the fact that I could see there was ice on the ramp and I knew it had rained, I pulled right onto the steeply sloping ramp. I sipped coffee and watched gulls for awhile and went to back out. I slid sideways. I tried rocking back and forth but got nowhere. The ice was as slick as glass. Slicker. Two old birder dudes were watching me with some amusement until they realized I was really stuck. They had a bucket of sand and generously spread some under my wheels and watched the traffic on Water Street for an opportune moment to back straight into the street. I thanked them profusely.

The rain was kind of mild so I figured I could still look for birds on the refuge. The interesting birds all seemed to be well hidden. After I got all the way to the southern end the rain really picked up. Even if the birds weren't well hidden I couldn't have seen them from the car. Sigh. Rain didn't seem to intimidate the starlings though. Huge black clouds of starlings whirled about all over the place.

I went home, wrote cat biographies, tried to find out if chirping and pale celery is a known Windows-98 problem, washed up, changed and drove back to Newburyport in even heaver rain for the board meeting. The rain let up just as I parked the car so I managed not to get soaked. However, the temperature began to drop. When I came out of the meeting, the entire street and parking lot was covered with black ice. Crossing the street was a daredevil stunt of epic proportions. Knowing that if a car happened to come by going a little fast it was not going to be able to stop sure can make you more nervous when you already feel as if you are going to fall in the middle of the street and slide down the hill into the river on your ass. Fortunately, I did not fall and slide down the hill into the river on my ass, but the drive home was pretty tricky. The highway was sanded but the ramps were icy and Rt. 125 had apparently not been sanded. But here I am home in one piece with no dents in either the car or my ass.