Cat Counselor? Didnt see that coming

This time of year is a busy one for local shelters...especially with the over abundance of cats. Last week the shelter adopted out 14 cats while 11 more came in (strays or surrenders). During the adoption frenzy I jumped in to help the cat counseling team match cats with adopters. The next thing I knew, it was decided that I would be trained as a 'cat counselor'. Today was my first day of training, and let me tell you...its not as easy as it sounds.

My trainer Karen is incredibly patient and is just about the nicest person I have ever met. Each prospective adopter fills out a Meet Your Match survey and, depending on their answers, are matched with a cat whose behavior has been tested. The color/description the cat is assigned to (purple, green or orange) depends on the outcome of the behavior test. And thus, a feline-ality is born. But then there are other considerations. Such as the people having kids (and ages), other pets, if they want an indoor or outdoor cat...etc

Since my vet tech days many moons ago I never thought I would ever work with cats so closely. Don't get me wrong, I love cats! I have one. Isaac is 15 and, unfortunately, his kidneys are not well. A sign of old age. But I think I am going to enjoy the kitties as a nice change of pace from the dogs I train and the volunteers I coordinate. There is no 'cat wrangling' here, just matching nice people with nice cats. The picture is of my pal Julie who is too sensitive for the adoption floor and lives in our office. She is looking for a home with no other cats and a person who will forgive her idiosyncrasies and accept her for who she is.

Its so hot....

...that the new casters are telling 'its so hot' jokes...so I wont try to be clever and out do whats been done (over and over). David Letterman once called Maine 'deep south up north'. That just about sums up how hot it is. But should we really complain? Unless you are laying asphalt for a living or putting shingles on a roof ...I think we should just shut it and enjoy our extremely short summer. Heat and all. Just like in a 3 day 'Nor Easter..this heat should just make everyone slow down a bit. Check on your elderly neighbors, visit a Beals Ice Cream stand watch a movie, read a book and enjoy the fact that you can do it wearing shorts.


Winter will be here soon enough and we will all be complaining about why we live in a place where the thermometer dangles around the freezing mark for 3 months. So instead of bellyaching about the heat, embrace Maines inner 'down south'. Sit on your porch in a big floppy sun hat, eat key lime pie and sip a tall glass of sweet tea.

The Reset Button

My husband and I just got back from spending 2 glorious days on Damarscottia lake in Newcastle Maine. My good friend let us use her family cottage on 40 acres of woods with a 1 mile driveway and a private cove. At first, I was a little torn about going as this past weekend was 1 of the 2 big dog shows of the year in Maine. However, after watching the dogs swim, romp and enjoy giant raw knuckle bones that I reserve for such an occasion ( at home, Gimli tends to bury bones in the yard and then worries about them for days), I knew we made the right decision. We read... a lot, napped in the sun and picked newly ripened blueberries. At night we lit a small bonfire, watched bats flutter and listened to the haunting sounds of loons. The cottage is somewhat rustic with no electricity or running water,so we grilled every night and ate by candlelight. Here is a picture of me and Finn, one of my dog friends, sitting lakeside.