Category: Life with Coon Cats

The number of supervisors at the Cat Farm has varied over the years since its establishment in Maine.  We’ve had as many as six, and as few as two.  Recently, we’ve made do with three active supervisors, with the fourth slot held open.

Today — well, actually, yesterday, we filled the fourth slot and are now at Full Capacity.

Pray for us.

Some of you may know that the various animal shelters in Central Maine have been experiencing a surfeit of cats.  They’ve valiantly been trying to find homes for everyone, and have been offering a number of “deals.”

For instance, right now, at the Waterville Humane Society, there’s a special on kittens:  Adopt one kitten for $100 and you may have your choice of a second kitten for free.

The shelter has also been waiving the adoption fee for all cats over one year of age.  You must be a member of the shelter for the waiver to be in force, but considering it costs all of $15 to become a member, the price couldn’t be better.

We here at Cat Farm have long supported animal shelters.  Despite a late-developing taste for Maine Coons, most of our cats over the years have been shelter cats.

So, anyway, yesterday as we were out and about, we thought we’d stop by the shelter out on Webb Road to see if anybody Needed Us.

Our last few visits to the animal shelter hadn’t turned up anybody in need.  Which was fine; the fourth position stayed open.

Yesterday, however, we had an embarrassment of riches:  No less than five worthy felines put themselves forward.  We spoke to Whiskers, a grey-and-cream gentleman with an easy-going way about him; Gorilla, who very much wanted to sit on my lap and purr; LuluAnne (or possibly LuluBelle), a high-white with grey long-hair lady who was a little shy at first, but once she’d been coaxed out from behind her pillow was very vivacious and affectionate; Telly, a silky-furred black with astonishing amber eyes, who wanted to be mine, all mine!; and Icarus, an older orange gentleman, who displayed the graceful manners of a bygone age.

We also spoke in passing to Brinks, a lively orange-striped fellow; Baby, a perfectly charming calico; and Ziggy, who ran up to greet us, and who would have qualified as Candidate Number Six, save he has a partner from whom he will not be parted, and we only had one slot available.

It was tough call.  In the end, we decided to offer the position to Whiskers (this is, you understand, his surname by which he was known to Shelter Admin; we expect to discover his call-name by-and-by).  He accepted, and we brought him home today.

Here’s Whiskers, in Steve’s office window:

The reaction of the three Senior Supervisors has not been Unqualified Delight, but we expect them to come ’round in a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m going to be out and about today, so a few quick notes before I go electron-free.

I’m enjoying the conversation about Daav, his motivations and his character.  Please feel free to continue the discussion.

It’s perfectly OK not to “agree with” everything a character does, and/or every decision heorshe makes.  I don’t always agree with everything my friends decide to do, and ghod knows I’ve made some fairly stupid decisions in my own life.  Human beings are fallible; they act on the best information they have at the time in the way that seems best to them.  That’s what we do.  And decisions, after all, drive story.

I want to thank those generous people who have  supported me in the Clarion West Write-a-Thon.  Together, we raised $512 toward the organization’s operating costs.  The Write-a-Thon is over for this year, but Clarion West does accept donations year-round.  Donations to Clarion West are tax deductible.  More information about the Write-a-Thon and Clarion West here, and here.  My personal participating author page is here.

And!  Below, the latest batch of cat pictures, taken this morning, in the kitchen of the Cat Farm.

I know Scrabble’s fans have been jonesing for a peek at the lady.  Here she is, half in the light.  Which is pretty much Scrabble in a nutshell:

Here, Mozart is critiquing Trooper’s breakfast technique:

aaaand, the back view:

So!  Saturday afternoon we had a thunderstorm, a really gully-washing thunder-cracker — a weather-changer, too, thank goddess.  Knocked the temps down 12 degrees F, and cleaned out all the gunk.  Yesterday was in the mid-70sF/20sC and beautifully dry, and today,  we have more of the same.  So, yay! liveable weather.

Sadly, we did lose power during the storm — lost it, in fact, in two stages. The first snap-off/snap-back took out my mouse, so I had to shut my computer down by pushing the button on the front of the case.  And, when the storm was over?  You know where this is going, right?  Right.  Exactly nothing happened when I pushed the ‘on’ button, and nothing continued to happen during a series of restorative techniques ably applied by Steve.

This morning we took ol’ Jack into the shop, and have just now received a call from Stephanie-the-tech, who tells me, yep, it was the power supply gone south, all right, and the DVD player is toast (which it has been; I just didn’t want to unplug and schlepp (actually, Steve does the schlepping) an old and Very! Heavy! box down to the shop just for a DVD player when we had a USB player that I could plug in.), and did I want her to go ahead and do the replacements for an estimated two bills, parts and labor?

I did, and said so, at which point she confessed that her hesitation had to do with the age of the harddrive, which she makes to be on the order of  five years.  How time flies.  I guess there’s a new harddrive/data transfer in my future, sigh.

But, not today.  Today, we will have the new power supply and DVD player.  Then, after I make thorough back-ups, I’ll take it down again for the new harddrive.  Or perhaps I’ll think upon making Number Ten Ox the desktop, and live out of one, easy-to-transport, but hard to fix machine. This digital age we live in sure does make all the decisions nice and easy.

In the meanwhile, I did find Ox the laptop, which had become Lost To Me.  Turns out I’d set it (in its case) beside the couch and when Someone (looks at Trooper) initiated an indoor relay race from the top of the cat tree, over the couch and back again, knocking all the couch cushions and pillows to the floor in a glorious catsplosion, the sofa cover had also become disturbed and was half-covering the computer case and I did not recognize it for what it was, because heat rots my brain.  And, also, Coon cats assisting the search tend to like to take the lead.

So, that’s all the news that was and is — oh, wait.  I cleaned the bathroom yesterday.  The things we find time for when the computer doesn’t work…

 

I see that I’m going to have to be Veeeerrrrrryyyyy Careful getting out of my chair…

Yes, that is Trooper with his head against my chair roller.  Earlier today, I looked down and he was in essentially the same position, but his front leg was under the roller bar.  If I’d Just Gotten Up (as I often Just Do), I’d’ve broken his leg.

In other news, progress has been made on the list I published this morning, to wit:

1.  A podcast interview (with Steve), rescheduled from yesterday RESCHEDULED TO TOMORROW
2.  Cleaning up All The Stuff Trooper threw down from those High Places that he has made his own, and deciding where in ghod’s name to put it
3.  Doing the laundry STARTED
4. Waiting for the electrician to manifest, sometime after noon
5. Paying the bills and balancing the checkbook
6.  I’m also considering vacuuming the house — but that might make for too heady a celebration I OPT OUT — and opt in for a nap, instead.  Holy freaking cow, it’s hot…