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15 December 2009

Cat Report / the Geminids Meteor Shower / Radiant

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Victorian-era postcard advertising
Handy Box Shoe Blacking.


We can't let the cats out at night,
the neighbors told us, because of owls, coyotes and fisher cats (a weasel family member, real nasty).


Currently living here:

* Benedict Spinoza Cat

* Priscilla (real nasty)

and the most recent arrival

* Stuart Wallace Darnley

... who is a marmalade (orange and white) polydactyl tabby. The Pilgrims brought polydactyl cats from England and Scotland to Massachusetts because they thought they were good luck cats.

Bennie, 4, and Stewie, 2, became instant Bestest Friends, they hunt and wrestle together all day. Bennie had been a bit lonely and unhappy since his Bestest Friend Elmer Elevator the Maine Coon died.

A human couple split up, and neither one took Stewie, so he ended up in the Daikin Animal Shelter in Leverett. He looked like a lot of happiness and fun to us, and is gorgeously colored and patterned, so we adopted him, and that seems to be just fine with Stewie. The Daikin has suspended its fees for cat adoptions, but you're encouraged to make a donation if you can. But essentially, cats are free at the Daikin this season if you have a loving home for them.

Oh, I'm sorry I don't have any photos of the cats, we've misplaced the download cable that connects the camera with the computer. Watch This Space.

Priscilla -- she's becoming quite old -- is ailing, and although she's happy to be anywhere with us humans, I don't think she liked the move to the new house in the Deep Woods. But she purrs whenever we pet her, so she's on the verge of happiness all the time. She doesn't like Benny and Stewie and lets them know it if either of them gets within a cat's length of her.

When Benny and Stewie got here in late autumn and started hunting, the place was overrun with chipmunks. Chipmunks aren't very bright, and the cats went right to work. I haven't seen a chipmunk in two weeks. They brought some of their kill into the house, it was always plump and meaty. We try to praise them when they bring us their kill because this is their way of contributing to the family.

If you saw the Geminids Meteor Shower from anywhere on the surface of Planet Earth, please Leave A Comment, describe what you saw. Did you face the Radiant, or turn your back to it? Or both?

The Radiant is the point in the night sky from which it seems all the meteors are coming. If you face the Radiant, all the meteors seem to be shooting directly at you.

But you see the shooting stars no matter what direction you face, so if you turn your back on the Radiant, you watch the meteors flame past you over your head.

I read that in Sky & Telescope last night.

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