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Journal of a Sabbatical |
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February 23, 2000 |
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notes from the sink |
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You can find out more about these cats, and fill out an adoption form online at: Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society Today's Bird Sightings: several hundred gulls of all kinds in one huge cloud
Today's Reading: Winter: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O Blake
Copyright © 2000, Janet I. Egan |
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Somebody has applied to adopt Whiskers! I asked Bob if
the people owned a laundromat, but he didn't know. I hope
they at least have a nice laundry room. We usually send a
cat's favorite toy home with him or her, but I don't think
we can send the entire laundry room with Whiskers. A lot of
the long term residents have found homes lately. Cynthia and
her son pray for all the kitties every night
Speaking of this prayer thing. I heard an interview on NPR this afternoon with a woman who found her husband through prayer. She wrote her prayer on a piece of paper and stuck it in the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. When she got back from her trip she found a message from the man she was to marry on her answering machine. I gotta check out the NPR web site to see if I can hear a replay of this interview. I gathered that wasn't the main point of the story - she was promoting a book or something, but that was the point that stuck with me. That's a pretty specific request. That doesn't leave too much room for the will of the higher power (or brain chemical) itself. Anyway, it was a weird coincidence to hear that after talking about praying for the cats. Cats. Lunch. Coffee. Birds. Beautiful day for birds. The hundreds or maybe thousands of gulls wheeling over the river were too far away for me to sort out with binoculars. A short walk through ankle deep mud that almost sucked my right shoe off brought me close enough to the river to sort out the ducks though. My bufflehead count is probably low. They were diving and popping up all over the place. All the wigeons I could see from my vantage point were American wigeons, though there have been tales of a Eurasian wigeon at Joppa Flats. Mallards and gadwalls were obvious. A huge and loud flock of Canada geese flew over and joined the hundreds already on the river, making a very splashy landing. They kept splashing around after they'd landed too - must be getting to that special time for courtship displays. Any goldeneyes that may have been around were too far away to identify or to see them doing that amazing neck stretch courtship display. 'Tis the season for watching goldeneyes do the neck thing, so I'll probably look for them along other parts of the river now that the ice is melting. That rough-legged hawk is still around on the refuge, in flight this time instead of perched on a pole. Saw so many people pulled over looking at it that I stopped to see if maybe they had spotted a snowy owl. They hadn't. Many many many people were around today specifically looking for the snowy. I had this perverse thought of going out into the marsh and sculpting a snowy owl out of snow: a snow snowy. I verbalized this to some people who were staring out at the salt pannes looking in vain for the snowy, and did manage to get a laugh. One guy thought I should make it twice life size so it would be really conspicuous. One woman was searching really hard at every likely spot so I suggested she try Nelson Island and I gave her directions. As I was driving on, thinking maybe I would try Nelson Island, it suddenly dawned on me that it was high tide. Unless I'm wearing waders I'm not getting to Nelson Island at high tide. Not to mention how much more mud that would involve. The snowy owl seekers had all been to Salisbury already without finding any weird gulls or anything so I decided to skip that today. Besides, if all the gulls are flying over the Merrimack, they're not sitting in the parking lot at Salisbury Beach. They're way easier to identify when sitting in the parking lot. I briefly considered shopping for a new scope, but immediately became paralyzed with not knowing what I want and what's good and what I should pay and ... Back home, the mail had arrived bringing yet more good stuff. The Spring volume of Thoreau's journals, which I had ordered from bibliofind.com arrived. Just in time. In the H.G.O. Blake editorial universe, today is the last day of winter so I was about to run out of journal entries to read. Now I'm all set to start spring tomorrow. Apparently H.G.O. Blake and the Red Sox have a similar calendar, because the Sox had their first full squad workout today thus making it spring in Red Sox Nation. |
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What's
with the traffic on Rt. 110 in Amesbury? The traffic was
completely stopped so I decided taking a chance on the black
hole of the Amesbury Dunkin' Donuts wasn't going to make me
any later. I got some coffee to share with Chloe and then
took a detour out of the Dunkies parking lot as 110 was
still not moving. Another mystery of Rt. 110 right up there
with why time passes in the outside world at a faster rate
while you are waiting for your coffee ... actually, later on
the way home I discovered a crew working on a water main
deep under the road - with a cop to direct traffic around
them. That'll slow you down every time.
and since they have been doing that the adoption rate has
increased and more long-timers got placed. I wish I'd known
they have so much influence with the higher power. Hmm, does
this blow my theory that god is a brain chemical? Well,
maybe not. Scientists have studied the power of prayer and
have found out that yeast prayed for is more resistant to
yeast diseases than yeast not prayed for. However, they have
not managed to connect this phenomenon to a higher power.
Anyway, if it works for yeast, who's to say it doesn't work
for cats?
I
remembered to bring Chloe some coffee this morning, and
managed to get from my car into the shelter without spilling
it. Chloe was high on catnip but did get interested in the
coffee after awhile. I have no idea why Chloe likes me, or
for that matter why any cat likes any particular person.
Some cats snuggle up to anybody at all, and some are picky.
Whiskers tolerates Bob and Roy far better than she does me.
And Sassy just loves Giggle Girl but hisses at Bob and Roy.
She's not that fond of me either. It's just one of those
things I guess. There's someone for everyone.
There's
a cute new cat, Holly, who purrs all the time.
Unfortunately, I think the reason she purrs all the time is
because she's in pain. Holly has a broken hip. Bonnie showed
us the x-rays. It's pretty messed up. She needs surgery to
put it right. [Anybody interested in helping us pay for
Holly's surgery can contact the Merrimack River Feline
Rescue Society at 
Actually
we seem to have a bunch of cute new cats. We've had so many
adoptions lately we actually briefly had some room to take
in new cats. Someday we will have a bigger place. And it
will have bigger sinks. At least two of them. One of the
community litter boxes is the same size as the sink. That
makes it difficult to wash it. And for some reason that was
the one that seemed to have been most heavily used since its
last washing. It had layers of accumulated pee, hence didn't
smell good either, but we got it fresh and clean in no time.
In fact, Roy and I worked so efficiently that we had all the
dishes and litter boxes washed, dried, and put away in an
hour and a half. That must be a new record.
Today's
the day Cubbie has her surgery for her bowel problem. I
really hope this helps her. Should've thought to ask Cynthia
and her son to add a special prayer for Cubbie tonight.