October 29, 2005

Kris didn’t last long without a cat. I told her I really didn’t want one and she told me she was thinking about it. I didn’t really care if she wanted a cat, but I wasn’t going to get one for me. Apparently as part of thinking about whether or not she wanted a cat, Kris was visiting the website for the local shelter. If we believed in Karma, we would say that is the explanation for what happened.

Abby was our second tortoise shell cat who we got after Spike died of mouth cancer at a relatively young age (young cats with cancer is starting to be a pattern for us). We are not the type of people who would ever adopt a kitten. We like the idea of giving a home to a needy animal and apparently we have become rather used to tortoise shell cats. That is how we ended up with Abby. We had been going around to shelters and found this adult tortoise shell who looked like she didn’t have much hope of finding a home. In my opinion, tortoise shell cats are a little on the ugly side.

Well, right after we had Abby put down, Kris found a 4 year old tortoise shell cat at the local shelter. I don’t know how likely it is for a four year old to get adopted, but it is certainly lower than the chances for a kitten. It was an appealing story to us. I don’t think Kris was really looking to get a cat quickly, but this one certainly fit our mold. The Karmic kicker, the part where I knew I was doomed, was her name.

In the mid to late 90’s, we had watched a documentary about pumas in the Andes. The narrator had spent a great deal of time in Patagonia observing the life on one particular puma that he named Penny. It was a well done documentary and we noticed the similarities between the behavior of a wild cat and our house pet, Abby. We began calling her Penny the Puma for awhile after that, especially when she would demonstrate her wild side. We even referred to her food as guanacos, the wild version of llamas. We obviously had to give that up when we ended up with a couple of real llamas running around our property.

So the local animal shelter had this adult tortoise shell named Penny and we had to go meet her. She wasn’t exactly what we expected. We were used to our small, timid Abby. Penny is large and in charge. She seemed fearless. Her coloring is lighter than Abby, although remarkably similar to Spike. Adding to the dramatic contrast, of course, was the fact that Abby had lost so much weight and Penny is a bit overweight. OK, she is fat. She weighs three times as much as Abby did and it just felt weird holding this enormous cat. In reality, she isn’t that big, only weighing 15 pounds, but it is a dramatic contrast to what we had become used to.

The card on her cage indicated that the reason she was turned in was that the previous owner no longer wanted her. Most people lie and blame it on allergies, but these people were at least honest. It added to the appeal of her story. It was all too much. It would be easy to say it was meant to be, the timing, the name, the color of the cat. It doesn’t matter how it all came to happen, we adopted another cat. Of course we will keep her original name, but we still will refer to her occasionally as Spikey III or perhaps Abby II.

Penny is adapting slowly. She is a big athletic cat. The first night she destroyed a toy mouse. She fiercely attacks anything interesting. She likes to rough house. Her play behavior has seemed like a quick adaptation to her new surroundings. She slept with us for her first two nights which also seemed like a good sign. She hasn’t eaten anything yet, except for a small amount of milk which she quickly threw up all over the place. She has her moments of skittishness, especially when there are sounds that she doesn’t recognize. I am sure it will take some time for her to realize that this is now her home and we are now her people.

We got out for a quick hike to Taku Lake during the week. Kris realized that she had a problem doing math. It turns out that a 7.5 hour day with a half hour for lunch means she needs to work 8 to 4. She had been working 8 to 4:30. Good thing the union didn’t find out. So anyway, Kris gets home from work fairly early which even with the shortening days, means there is time to take a walk after work. We had taken a walk to the lake last week, but we were surprised to find this time that the lake was over half covered with ice. The weather has been cool with temperatures usually topping out in the 30’s. What snuck up on me was the fact that the night time temperatures, especially with a few clear nights, has dropped into the teens. Our first snowfall is overdue, but the lakes are icing over. Even Campbell Creek is showing ice in some of the slower moving areas. I think it is going to be a little strange not seeing everything melting about once a week like it does in Ohio.

I am working on an application for another job with the state. This one is for a manager position in the Environmental Conservation Department overseeing personnel related to water quality issues. It is a good fit combining chemistry, regulation, and management, areas in which I have spent a great deal of time in my career. The down side is that I have little experience with water quality regulations and my experience is from the regulated standpoint, not the regulator. That is an issue for them to decide, but I can see why I might not get such a position. They have extended the application deadline which might be an indicator that they are having trouble finding the perfect candidate.

It might also be related to the political scandal in the department. Our governor has been working on a deal to put in a natural gas pipeline to allow marketing of the natural gas that is abundantly present in the North Slope oil fields. Apparently, there are some technicalities in the deal that the governor is putting together that has created some questionable demands on the Department of Environmental Conservation. The commissioner sent an email questioning the governor’s direction and somehow it had leaked out to the press. It is no surprise that the commissioner was fired. The official story is that they agreed it would be best if he left the position, but I recognize the code. We think that the framers of the constitution provided us with the freedom of speech, but they only protected us from government action against individuals. Other powers that be, like our employers, have no such checks and balances. You are not free to criticize the actions of your boss. I know this all too well firsthand. We can be punished severely for speaking our minds. The only protection we really have is that our government won’t punish us. In a show of impressive conviction and support, six top managers in the department also resigned their positions. So that means there are 7 jobs available in the department which means that they might lower their standards and hire someone like me for a lower level management position.

I also now have the information for being a ski instructor at Alyeska. There will be an instructor seminar in early December so I have some time to make a decision or just use that as a fallback position. I think I am reasonably comfortable with that approach. The instructor seminar conflicts with an avalanche seminar that we signed up for, but I have some time to sort that out.