Cat Tails

Good evening my friends

I admit I am very late with a post today. I had planned one entry but the more I thought about it the more I just found it too sad. It was about my niece-in-laws dog that just died. But like I said, the subject is too sad. I love having pets but how I hate saying the final goodbye.

So while I tried to find another subject on such short notice, Rocky kept climbing all over me, head butting me and in general making a nuisance of himself. Once he finally plopped (and I mean that literally) down and I began to pet him he went into his really lovable mode.

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When he’s like that he wiggles and tries to squeeze as close to me as possible. His little paws open and close like he’s kneading the air and he drools! Yup, since he was a little , tiny kitten he’s drooled whenever he was really happy and content.

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At first I was concerned something was wrong with his teeth or mouth and dragged him off to the Vet. After careful examination I was told “He loves you. You should feel honored.”

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Over the years he’s gotten bigger but he’s never stopped drooling. Just now it isn’t cute little drops, it’s buckets of drool. He shakes his head and the drool flies. It isn’t all the time, only when he gets really , really relaxed.

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So tell me, have any of you had a cat that drools? Now you know you are loved.

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A Day at the Zoo

I think the saying is “a walk in the park” but for me and my friend and her family it was a “day at the zoo”. Nancy has been working 3 jobs all summer so squeezing in our annual summer jaunt was turning into a challenge. We were down to the wire when a Tuesday opened up in all our schedules at the same time! YAY!  I picked up Nancy and her two children, Alex and Dawn, and we made a bee line to the Franklin park Zoo.

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I love zoos and it had been a couple of years since I’d been to this one. Nancy said the kids hadn’t ever been to this one. Located in the Dorchester section of Boston, Franklin Park Zoo is truly an urban zoo. You can even get to it by subway.

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A  really unusual feature is FREE PARKING! In Boston that’s more rare than the animals on exhibit!

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We had a beautiful day for our visit. The weather was sunny and warm but there was a breeze.

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There was a new playground since my last visit and we spent a good deal of time there.

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We spent the whole day! The Zoo was closing up shop as we made our way out the front gates.

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We’d covered everything from the petting zoo to the Bird World.

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We saw the gorillas and the tigers and lions.

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My favorite is the Budgie Aviary and I think the kids liked that too. They didn’t want to leave.

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We also enjoyed the Butterfly enclosure.

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Alex was reluctant at first but pretty soon the turtles had his attention.

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The giraffe was a treat as it was right at the fence stretching it’s long neck to eat right over the heads of the crowd.

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I had to stop by the prairie dog enclosure. The sentry even smiled for the camera.

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Leaving the ostrich behind we made our way to the car after a great day!

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A Seal Of Approval

Great White Sharks are prowling the shores of Cape Cod once again as the seal population continues to explode. If there was any doubt that the great predators are here to stay it was dispelled when the discovery channel aired Shark Week and the Great Whites of Cape Cod were prominently featured.

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I would still like to see a Great White Shark but I would hate to have to go to South Africa to see “air jaws” when we have our own crop of “Jaws” right here at home. At first they were just hanging out in Chatham eating the  seals of Monemoy Island but now it appears that they are spreading northward toward Orleans and Truro.

So on a sunny day last week I headed to Chatham to see for myself. My last visit to the seals on Monemoy was back in 2010.

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A lot of changes can happen in 3 years. The first change was that the little shuttle isn’t running. I’m still researching ways to get to the island but in the meantime I called the Beachcomber Seal Tours and made a reservation for an afternoon trip.

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The tour didn’t leave from the Fish Pier this time. They said that parking had become impossible there so they had us go to their marine showroom and then shuttled us to the boat in a green trolley.

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We had a full boat for the afternoon trip. The boats stay in the harbor so are pretty small, certainly nothing like the whale watching boats. As we loaded a seal popped it’s head up right by the dock.

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Even though we could say we’d seen a seal, that wasn’t part of the tour. We actually had a bit of a ride to get to the harbor near the seals. As we approached North Beach we saw the first of the seals.

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The tide can swing up to 9 ft. here between high and low tide. The tide was still low so the sand bars were just below the surface and the seals were sitting in the water on these submerged sand bars.

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Oh what a racket they were making.

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They weren’t concerned about the boat in their midst at all. We moved on past Lighthouse beach to another seal colony.

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Eventually we reached the fish pier  where we passed Chatham’s pirate ship before turning for home.

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The whole tour was maybe 1.5 hours. There weren’t any Great Whites but we sure did see seals.

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Rocky being Rocky

(Someone was upset because he is not getting enough exposure in these pages. So this post is to satisfy demands of furry creatures and restore peace and tranquility)

In case you were wondering what’s been going on with our Editor – in- Chief, well, I think he’s retired.

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He seems to find more satisfaction in a basket of clothes fresh from the dryer. Oh yes, they must still be warm…And sports fans will remember  “Manny being Manny”… I think we have a case of Rocky being Rocky. 🙂bhc 002 copy