Journal of a Sabbatical

April 5, 2000

kitten invasion

These are only a few of the cats available for adoption at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Visit Bonnie Buckley's site, Adopt Homeless Paws, for more pictures of MRFRS cats and other animals needing homes.

Today's Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
4 wild turkeys
2 great egrets
Salisbury Beach
4 kestrels

Today's Reading: Early Spring in Massachusetts: from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H. G. O. Blake

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Ramón Martinez

Besides the color of the lichens, the kestrel migration, and the buds on the trees, a sure sign of spring is the kitten invasion. Eek! It's kitten season! Battle stations! All hands on deck!

There's a pile of them in the big cage in the office. They smell poopy but they're adorable. One of the is batting around a cat toy, does a back flip, and lands on top of another kitten whose head he bats at as if it were the toy. The one being batted has taken over the toy and doesn't seem to notice he's being used as one.

Lots of adoptions since last week, including William that shy sweet tabby who's been here for awhile, Cain & Abel, Sybill, Halle, kitten 000-151 ... and a total of 37 in March. Stacy comes in counting the inmates, residents, what do you call them? Cats, I guess. Counting the cats. Thirty five. Is that including the kittens? I didn't ask.

Plenty of new faces today too. I survey the new cats as I finish my coffee with Chloe's help of course. Man, I really need the coffee.

The Green Machine a.k.a. AJ2000 had to be at the Honda Barn at 8:00 this morning so I would have enough time to get a rental car and still get here on time. Naturally, I had trouble getting to sleep last night and woke up in the wee hours making it hard to get up when the alarm finally went off. It's like I live in a different time zone or several time zones at once. Anyway, I made it to Salisbury with enough minutes to spare to get some coffee at a Dunkies drive thru (not the black hole one in Amesbury, which is under new management but maintains its strange time-sucking quality) so I can be awake and also not disappoint Chloe.

The new faces have interesting names. Katrina and Kuchina rhyme. Did they come in together? I didn't ask. It occurs to me that Kuchina must be the Hopi goddess of Italian restaurants: the Kachina of cucina. What else could she be? Cappuccino? Pristina?(Hi, Bob), I must be careful not to make myself laugh uncontrollably. That might trigger Giggle Girl.

Miss Newburyport is a returnee. She was adopted right around the time I started at MRFRS a thousand years ago. Now her people have gotten new carpet or something and discovered she was never the lap cat they thought she was (it takes them five years to notice she's not a lap cat?). Anyway, she came back last week but wouldn't let me take her picture. Today she posed for me. How long do cats remember things? Does she remember being here before?

Stockton and Zorro came in together. Is there a city in California named Zorro? What other states have cities named Stockton? Zorro burrows under his bedding and hides. Apparently their people moved to Florida. Personally I always thought moving to Florida is highly overrated. By the time I'm old enough to think moving to Florida is a good idea, global warming will have raised the temperature in Massachusetts so high there won't be any winter hence no need to move to Florida. In the unlikely event that I did move, to Florida or anywhere else, you can bet your sweet bippy I'd take Wilbur with me. If Wilbur should communicate unambiguously that he wants to move to Florida, I'll consider it.