Journal of a Sabbatical

February 7, 2001

heaven and hell

Adopt these cats at the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Bird Sightings:
Joppa Flats
bufflehead (6)
Canada goose(24)
herring gull (10)
snow goose (30)
Plum Island
American crow (2)
herring gull (71)
American black duck (8)
Canada goose (3)
common eider (54)
great black back gull (3)
American robin (1)
northern harrier (2)

Today's Reading: The Island of Penguins by Cherry Kearton, Winter: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake, A Cultural History of Tibet by D. Snellgrove and H. Richardson.

Whoohoo! Stormy got adopted! Someone drew a huge smiley face next to her name on the board. Let's hope her new home does not have Maytag appliances or never has to call for Maytag repair :-)

Princess Catnip found a home too - with a woman who's hard of hearing! How perfect. Princess' running commentary on everything will probably not keep this lady awake at night.

That adorable Wyatt and sweet Max who I knew wouldn't be here long also have homes. As does Chloe 2000 or whatever number Chloe she is (the little one with the white feet). I proposed retiring the names Chloe and Buddy if we can't come up with a better numbering scheme.

The Wednesday AM crew is known for lively and wide ranging discussions but I think we set a new record today. Bob and Roy were discussing a brownie recipe that Bob had just tried from the magazine Tin Can Sailor (which they both get). I gather it was good but a smaller batch than expected. From there they got onto favorite dishes from their shipboard days. Bob admitted to liking chipped beef on toast (S.O.S) for breakfast. Apparently the magazine published a recipe for that too. The guys were so earnest comparing their experiences cooking these recipes. Ex-Navy guys must be a breed apart.

I told them about my visit to the Whittier birthplace on Sunday. This led to a deep theological discussion of heaven and hell, mostly hell. Turns out the caretakers of the Whittier house go to Roy's church (Betty and Scott Pike, Roy supplied their names) and Sunday's sermon was on heaven and hell. This is normally the sort of conversation I get into with the Unitarian crowd at the Andover Starbucks (which by the way I have been going to since it was Ford's Coffee Shop and then The Coffee Connection, as have the Locke Street Unitarians). So according to my cat shelter coworkers hell is not an actual place with fire and brimstone and all that. They blame that idea on Dante. Bob says the scriptural references to hell are really references to death. I chimed in with my one factoid from a long ago scripture analysis course that the "fires of Gehenna" refers to a dump outside Jerusalem that used to catch fire a lot. It's hard to capture in writing how much fun this discussion was in among the dirty litter boxes and meowing cats.

Heaven and hell and brownie recipes for sailors. And I thought it was strange when once long ago I asked another volunteer to pass me a broom and she asked "Have you read The Little Prince?" Gotta get me a copy of that Navy brownie recipe, yes I do.

Sandy tried to help me write up my notes on the new cats by standing on my notebook and rubbing against my hand. When Roy joined me to keep Polly in her cage while I took her picture Sandy forsook all interest in the big yellow bucket and watched me and Roy with riveted attention. Sandy has always found Roy fascinating. He'll watch him dry dishes for hours.

So while we were all off in the other room, Savannah took up her post on top of the bucket. When I went to put the list of adoptees back in the plastic box on top of the fridge I guess I passed too close for her comfort because she reached out and swiped at me with claws. Fortunately, she got me on the leg and her claws didn't get far through my jeans. I was more startled than hurt. She's really a nice cat but for some reason she gets territorial sometimes.

With the help of Sandy and Savannah, not to mention the humans involved, I documented the new cats except for Kringle who might have ringworm. I don't do ringworm anymore. I really hated having ringworm. Anyway below are the new cats except for Kringle.

Buffy is a short-haired female approximately 6 to 8 months old. She's affectionate and friendly and enjoys being petted. She is a little shy about being picked up but once you pick her up she enjoys being held.

Helen came to us as a stray. She's a long-haired adult female. We don't know how old she is. Helen is a real lap cat. She's affectionate and friendly, enjoys being petted, and is OK with dogs. She is also good with children. Helen must be an indoor cat.

Polly is a two year old short-haired female who came to us as a stray. She's really sweet. Polly likes being petted as long as you go slowly. She's affectionate and friendly.