Road Trip

The view from the motel room window in southern California

We took a thousand mile journey. From the foothills to the coast, from the coast to southern California and then back, in four days. We went for my niece's wedding, and a wonderful family reunion. Some cousins who I hadn't seen in more than 30 years came from New Jersey. My wonderful older brother, his beautiful partner, and his sweet son flew out from Virginia. I hadn't seen them since 2008. Add all that to a beautiful wedding site with blooming jacaranda and purple blossoms floating in the gentle southern California breezes, and it was quite a lovely love fest.

After all the festivities, we left Sunday morning for the long drive north back to the family beach house in Capitola. We hit a traffic jam that was literally the worst we had ever been in (and it wasn't even in southern California!). We crawled along at three miles an hour for more than an hour. It was absolutely insane, with no end in sight. We kept thinking that there had to be some kind of really bad accident that would create such a mind-numbing slowdown. Fortunately, we were able to pull off the highway and take a different route to the coast. We stopped for gas, and while Roger was filling the tank, I ran into the convenience store to ask what was going on. The cashier said, "Oh that's the traffic from the Red Barn Sunday flea market." WHAT? She said, "It happens every Sunday. There's only about five miles more of it." I couldn't believe that a flea market could cause such a traffic jam. I'm not even sure how that's possible, or why it's permitted to persist in such a thoroughly rotten way. I googled "flea market highway 101 traffic" and found that a lot of people have been complaining for years about this. I plan to write a letter. Seriously dangerous situation there.

The earth's shadow and Monterey Bay

But the upside was that we still arrived at the beach house with enough time to make a nice dinner and watch the light change as the sun went down. That's when we saw this wonderful atmospheric optic. It's the earth's shadow. The beach house is on a cliff that faces east. So, even though we are on the west coast, looking at Monterey Bay, we look eastward. The earth shadow is on the eastern horizon at sunset. During this unusually clear and fogless sunset, we caught this absolutely beautiful moment.
 
On our first day home, the sky gave us a day of halos. We waved and shouted, "hello halo," and were so glad to be back.

Don't we live on a spectacular planet?

Denouement

I could post a video of all three kittens entering the trap together Monday afternoon, and then the string being pulled quickly, banging the trap door closed. The camera was set to record for 20 seconds, so it ended right as the door shut. The next video began soon after with the kittens literally bouncing off the cage walls.

DONE.

They calmed down as soon Roger put a towel over the trap. Quiet. We put them in the car and took them to the shelter. It was their first alien abduction. I'm sure it won't be their last.

THE END.

What We've Been Up To

We stare at this screen waiting for kittens to show up.

Not much going on here at Chez Bums. We're still in kitten trappin' mode at the moment. Trapped the momma cat last Wednesday and brought her to Sammie's Friends, a very nice shelter that has the animals' well being central to their good intentions.

We've gotten these feral kittens accustomed to eating out of a food bowl and have gone one step further and put the bowl in the unset trap. As of this writing Sunday afternoon, one kitten found her way in to eat, and then out of the trap. We're waiting for the other two to join her. Roger reworked the trapping mechanism because we were not sure their little weight would set it off. And, if it could set it off, we didn't want to trap one without trapping all three.  So, Roger rigged the trap with a string that he will pull when all three kittens are in the trap at the same time. Yes, we have absurdly high hopes about this. We set up the motion detector camera under the deck to watch the live action. When all of them are in there… bang goes the trap door. The plan requires us to be watching their activities pretty regularly.

So, it came at a very inopportune time last week for our very old, hardly ever used PC laptop that was still running Windows XP to die. It was the one machine we had that would run the motion detector camera and record. So, we went out and bought a new Gateway PC that runs Windows 8. Oy, what a crazy OS that is. But what's worse is that the new OS isn't compatible with the camera. The camera's compatibility only goes to Windows 7. So, we borrowed our neighbor's laptop (so kind of them to let us use their PC on Friday afternoon). That way we could at least determine that all three kittens were alive and eating. YES. This kitten trappin' business is complicated stuff.

On Saturday Roger put on his GENIUS HAT and spent the day turning the new computer into a Virtual Box that runs Windows XP. It wasn't easy, and he did spend the whole HOT (102 degrees) day working on it. But when he was done, that new computer lets us use the camera, so we can watch the kittens in preparation for pulling that trapdoor string. Our goal: Trap Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

Like I said, not much going  on here at Chez Bums.

The Sad Kitten Follow-Up NOW WITH HAPPIER UPDATE!

Late Tuesday afternoon I took this photo of the kittens and their mom. They were resting out under the big pine behind the woodshed. I told Roger that I was concerned that they were really vulnerable out there. They had definitely outgrown the little space where they had spent the past four weeks. While they did run under there any time they felt threatened, they were happily inclined to explore a little bit of the space around them in their adorable kitty way. We had first seen them on Sunday, and we never saw the kittens again after this pic on Tuesday. We did find the momma cat hiding under our deck in the backyard Wednesday morning. She has spent almost all of her time there since. No kittens. It is coyote season, which reminds us of what happened here last Memorial Day weekend 2012.

We still plan to trap mom and take her to a "no-kill" shelter. This is not the outcome we had expected at all, but it really is typical of the hard life of domestic and feral critters whose lives overlap the wild.

UPDATE:
We set up the motion sensor camera under the deck, just to really make sure momma cat was alone. Roger crawled under there Thursday afternoon and did not see any kittens. But we wanted one last verification. And yes indeed, there are two kittens under there with momma. Not sure where they were hiding or if she just brought them under there, but they are there. Momma just had her first meal in the unset trap. Plan is to set it on Monday. Wish us luck. We'll keep you posted. Then it'll be kitten trappin' time. And we will be so glad when this saga is over.
 

The Road To Hell

You know what they say it is paved with... good intentions. But really it's paved with kittens.

Oh yeah, I've got enough good intentions to pave the entire planet. It starts out with an idea that you know is wrong-headed and will ultimately cause trouble, but you do it anyway because there's a very hungry feral cat eating pizza crumbs off the picnic table. We had seen the cat prowling around for a few days. It was hanging out under the bird feeder. It was chasing lizards in the wood pile. It was eating stale bread in the compost pile. It was achingly skinny. So Roger says, why don't you give it Bonsai's leftover wet food since you toss it out everyday. So, the paving begins.

It always starts out innocently, like meager leftovers put in a plastic dish on top of the compost pile. But it became increasingly obvious that this was not enough food. So, we started buying big cans of Friskies, and the feral one got a full can everyday, which it completely inhales in less than five minutes. That goes on for a couple of months, and then one day three coyotes show up and the feral cat (who we started calling "Blackie") disappears. We didn't see it for two days. Roger set up the motion sensor video camera in the compost pile and records a fox and a skunk eating the food put out for the cat, but no Blackie. So, we assumed that Blackie was killed by the coyotes. I felt bad, but I also felt that s/he had been given a few really good months of reliable food, and that was some solace.

Then, Blackie shows up really hungry. I mean, REALLY HUNGRY. S/he is running to the compost pile four times a day. S/he wants FOOD. We accommodate by adding an additional half can of Friskies, plus Bonsai's leftovers, plus kibble. That seems to satisfy. The increased appetite is puzzling until Roger notices one day about a month ago, Blackie is in our yard with what appears to be a small white kitten in HER mouth. Roger's presence deters her from her plan, and she leaves with the kitten.

A month goes by, and we watch her running from the compost pile to the woodshed several times a day. There's not much room under that woodshed, and yet she squeezes under it all day long. We know there must be at least one white kitten there. We also know it's only a matter of time before we get to see it. And then it happens. Not just one, or two, but three kittens almost weaned and completely FERAL come bounding out from under the woodshed. Oh yes, we are witnesses to the result of our very best intentions.

There will be trapping and transporting in everyone's future. Blackie will be spayed, and hopefully a safe place for her will be found. The kittens will be socialized and fostered.

Could someone please warn us the next time we have a really good idea? Or we could start a blogging meme called: Mistakes We Have Made.

Half My Lifetime Ago

I woke in the night a little while ago thinking of some old photographs taken half my lifetime ago. Mostly I remembered the cloud photograph, but the other two were taken the same day. It was 1982, I was 30 years old, going to the university and working for the City of Boulder, while my husband was the production videographer for the local CBS affiliate in Denver. It must have been a sunny weekend day (because we were always busy with work and school during the week) and we had gone out exploring west of the city, on the road to Nederland.

There was something about these photos that reminded me that I have essentially always been who I am. I see me pointing, and I know it must be toward something beautiful. Or, I'm standing in the blazing sunlight at the water's edge, wanting only to build a little cabin and live there forever. I've always been that dreamer.

And then, my first husband (the professional photographer) must have handed me the camera so I could photograph the clouds, after I had said excitedly, "Hey that looks like a goose, take a photo of it, honey." But that wasn't his artistic niche, so I clicked the pic. I've always been that person, the sky watcher, lover of atmospheric optics. This is probably the first photograph of clouds I've ever taken.

Last Monday, May 13th I celebrated my 61st birthday with my twin brother, sister-in-law, and Roger. When I look at these old photographs I see the ageless part that informs me and spans the years like a message inscribed in my genes. I really like remembering this continuity.