Furry and feathered friends

An oblivious cat.

How was your day?

How was your day!

Sunrise back at the cabin

We made it home but not unscathed. I was scathed. Our black cat, Loki put up a big fight because he just didn’t want to leave Seguin. While we began taking our stuff outside, I saw a black lump under one of the beds and thought, “no problem, we’ll load up and then I’ll collect him from his hiding place”. Well actually the first thought I had was, “we better box Loki before we do anything because he always gives us a hard time”. This tops them all.

He fooled me. He bunched up a t-shirt and left it under the bed to look like he was sleeping there and then hid in a crawl space behind the basement. The basement is bad enough but this place has a 2 foot high hole in the wall to get into it and then is a crawl space full of 150 years of debris. I tried luring him out with tuna, while a film crew unloaded their gear for a film they were shooting on the island. When it was time to go and we still didn’t have Loki, I had to go in. I donned foul weather gear to protect my arms and head from all the fiberglass and dove in. I had Ethan’s friend Christian, as back-up and he saw Loki dive out when I dove in and ran across to the other side of the basement and dove into the identical, gross crawl space there. In I went again, I got him out but he got away and then got trapped in a window, behind a dresser and under a couch before he was finally captured due to the heroic efforts of all.

So there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. This morning brought a beautiful sunrise and fog is now settling in the valley. Why do we keep leaving?

Sunrise over Otis

Home team colors

Clear skies

It’s getting colder and windy weather is here to stay. I am glad our last few days here will be sunny and hope for calm seas when we leave.

The cats enjoyed the chance to get outside and took several hikes with me. I am feeling a little bit of a traitor because as much as I love Seguin, I am getting excited about going home, seeing family and our next caretaking gig on Deal Island, Tasmania. My three month shopping list is in progress; can’t forget anything.

Adaptable cats

Shirley and Loki are so easy.  They cruised on a sailboat for 2 months last year and now they are back at their favorite lighthouse.  I forgot their cat door (it’s not much use in the Adirondacks, where they may be eaten by coyotes, fishers and martens) but was able to fashion one from plywood.  We’ve gone minimalist on the approach and it hasn’t slowed them down one bit.

Loki was traumatized by locals blowing up fireworks on Friday but since then, the professionals have been shooting them off in the distance.  Last night we watched them at Manchester and tonight we expect to see them at Beverly, Marblehead and Boston.  We have ringside seats and the noise is much less.

My camera died yesterday and I will have to trust the Geek Squad to replace it with a new one.  I managed to upload some photos before it’s last breath.  Of course the sunset was magnificent the other night and I couldn’t take any photos.  My firework shots never really worked anyway so I’ll just get to enjoy them tonight.

Tim’s got the rowing machine back on the island, I’ve been running the trails and life is good.

Skylight view

Cats on a Cat

Well it’s finally happened. Both cats have joined us on Water Lily. We aren’t sailing but are moored in Salem, MA waiting to go out to the lighthouse. Shirley has explored the boat and we can see her walking around the salon. Loki is social but hides when he hears anything. He also can’t figure out the steps. I think they are called ship stairs. Each tread has a cut out over the one below it that alternates so they only take up the square footage of one step. He can’t make the turn and just jumps down to the floor with a thud.