shabbat shalom 26.01.11

FROM: Linda Whittaker

Thursday, January 26, 2012 9:30 AM

Hi everyone,

Continuing adventures of the blind tomcat. You may remember that while I was in Ein Gedi, my blind tom Chuchu bust an abscess caused by a blocked salivary gland, from which he is now healed. Yesterday I called him in at night (he comes when called) and this time he didn't come. So I went looking and found poor Chuchu stuck up a tall pine tree a few houses down. A normal cat would eventually work his way back down the tree but since Chuchu is blind, he had no idea what to do, or how to move. I tried a ladder (me in my pyjamas) but it was too short.

I went to my neighbor who has a longer ladder, but he was in the shower. His wife said she would tell him but suggested Chuchu could figure his way down anyway. I decided to go to bed, but couldn't sleep. About midnight, I padded out again to see if Chuchu was still up the tree, but he was on the ground and ran to me. Spent the night curled up next to me and was still under the blankets when I went to work. I met my neighbor outside by the cars and he told me that after his shower he had gone out and gotten the cat down on his own. Chuchu was indeed stuck and would have been up that tree until he fell off or someone rescued him. I owe my neighbor a big basked of fruit on this upcoming Tu B'Shvat, that's for sure!

Life is never boring when you have animals. It rained and rained all this week and I was mopping the floors after little pawprints every day. The dog run became a swamp again ; had to lay down gravel. That in itself was a challenge. Normally my gardener does this but he won't be doing such work for a while. Rami caught a thief in his house when he came back from work last week, beat the crap out of the thief, and fractured his own right arm in the process. His brain is 20 but his bones are 65, and this time the bones paid for it. So he got the factory to load the sacks of gravel in his car and I unloaded them at my end. Now my own back hurts.....but the dog run is clean and dry again.

Beyond that, not much to report. It has been a very quiet week, which I tried as much as possible to put into writing a grant proposal and a final report on the 4-year EBONE project. I'm plodding along, will get it done in time, but it really is slogging. I got the hard copy of our little book two days ago, which looks nice. (The Dutch do a great job with printing ; not a surprise since they've been publishing books almost since Gutenberg.)

Well, winter is past the midpoint, the days are getting longer, and February will mark the first hints of spring. I've had enough winter, thanks. So far, no snow but the rain has sure been depressing, as desperately as we need it. One part of me approves the long soaking rains ; the other part is trying to get laundry to dry. Not to mention my aching bones....Compared to those of you in most of North America, I cannot complain but I'm Mediterranean now and I want to see the sun!

shabbat shalom,
Linda
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