Journal of a Sabbatical

April 18, 2001

laps for cats not laptops

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

National Poetry Month Poet of the Day:
Paul Marion

Today's Reading: Claws and Effect by Rita Mae Brown

Today's Starting Pitcher:
i forget

Whoa, snow! Again? What happened to spring? Roy's comment: "Either I'm going blind or it's snowing. It must be snowing." Fortunately it's not supposed to last. I can tell by the daffodils and the heavy weight of the snow that it's spring. So it's brush off the car, drive carefully, pick up coffee on the way, and get the brain in gear for washing dishes and litter boxes not to mention making another attempt at fetching mail with the dusty laptop. The cats can tell it's spring too, despite the snow.

Savannah, Re-Re, and Kiara are in a three-way stand off with ears back and tails extended in the middle of the room. Little hisses emanate from all directions as if the tension is contagious. Chris is trying to move a frightened cat to another cage but with all this hissy fit stuff going on, she want's no part of it. Sid's got a full house at his place and they are watching the standoff on full alert. Sandy watches it all from the big yellow bucket but declines to participate. He's above it all. Miss Newburyport sleeps with one eye open on top of the dryer. She's got a nice comfy knitted afghan making the dryer a softer place to sleep. Finally Kiara slinks away from Savannah and Re-Re and the standoff fizzles out, but everybody in the place is still a little hissy (except Miss Newburyport).

Bandit has finally gone to live with Chris. Tigger, a real sweetie has been adopted, as has that cute Chelsea who came in last week. There are a bunch of new ones to take their places as always. Kaiyou is a fluffy orange male former feral, brother of Gilbert. They both hissed at me when I took their pictures. Rosie came in with them as well. She hisses too. Then there's Katrina and Mercedes, and a litter of three adorable kittens (two gray & white, one all gray). The kittens are all already taken. That little all gray one is so cute I decide he has to visit Brigham Manor with me before he goes to his new home (on Plum Island).

The all gray one is named Curly - the other two are Moe and Larry - and the residents at Brigham found that hilariously funny since his hair very short and not the least bit curly. Curly was great, a real champion therapy pet. He snuggled up to bedridden people, climbed on laps of people in wheelchairs, licked folks' fingers and purred, played with their hair, and put up with being handled without so much as a peep. Gail brought along her own cat, a Himalayan named Emily. Emily is a big long-haired floppy lap cat. The perfect contrast to the frisky affectionate Curly.

No matter how often I do this, I am amazed at the way people respond to the cats. One woman was curled up on her bed sucking her thumb. When I put Curly down on her bed, he snuggled right up next to her arm and she took her thumb out of her mouth, gave him a big smile and reached over to pet him. She had this look of pure joy on her face as Curly rubbed his nose against her palm. A man I remember from previous visits was staring at the ceiling in his room. As soon as I came in, he reached out to Curly and motioned for me to put him on the bed. Again a big smile. Over and over again people light up when they touch a cat. The folks who can talk all tell me how soft he is and how good it feels to stroke him.

Up on the second floor, one of the nurses aides told me I had to bring Curly to this one woman who just loves cats even more than Mrs. L. It would be hard to love cats more than Mrs. L. but the nurses aide was right. The woman had relatives visiting from California (they had to comment on this morning's snow :-) ). They were all gathered in one of the small sitting rooms. Her face lit up when she spotted Curly. I put him in her lap and he cuddled with her engagingly. The out of town relatives were so impressed they gave me a donation for MRFRS. Curly dropped off to sleep in the woman's arms. The relatives took pictures from all angles. Gail and Emily caught up with me and everybody went nuts over Emily too. More pictures. Emily sprawled out on the woman's lap and I took Curly to visit a few more room-bound people.

Finally, at the very last room I visited on the second floor Curly started to squeak, his distress noise, and stiffen his tail. Time to go. He's had enough visiting for today. We'd been there over an hour.

Which would you rather have on your lap? A cat or a laptop? For the folks at Brigham, the answer is definitely a cat.