Miles to Go Before We Eat

You know you are back in the swing of things when the texts start flying.

They came from Cindy, fast and furious.  How close is Link to being big enough to neuter?  (He's on the schedule for next Wednesday.)  When did your babies have their last shots?  (August 25, and i'll do another one today, getting the doses when i go in to clean the shelter.)

Then there was the typical, Can you take more babies?  (What a silly question!)

This time it was a doozy.  Acme Company.  A name i have always loved, ever since Wile E. Coyote started getting stuff from that company to aid in his pursuit of the Road Runner.  (Although i don't ever remember him ordering kittens.)   They got a shipment of copper tubing in from Texas on Wednesday.  It comes in the kind of boxes that have a coil of tubing in a square box with a square hole in the middle.

Thursday, while unloading the pallet, the workers heard cries coming from the middle of the boxes.  Down in there, warm and snug and hungry as could be, were four kittens.

Mama apparently thought it a great place to have babies; she could not have been more wrong.

So these little ones. about 4-5 days old, hadn't eaten since Texas the day before.  When i got there, i could hear them yelling in the warehouse from all the way up front in the main shop.  It was a good thing i came prepared with a bottle, they went crazy eating.  The warehouse workers, bless their hearts, gathered around and grinned as the babies ate and got settled into a carrier for the ride home.

Now they are snug in their carrier over a heating pad (they were a bit on the cold side, even in the non-air-conditioned warehouse), with a bottle ready for them every 2 hours.

It looks like we have 2 tortoiseshell females, a tabby female, and a dark, marbled tabby male.


Today is:

Ask A Stupid Question Day -- teachers wanted to get students asking more questions, so they did, even if the questions were stupid; now, it's a holiday!

Baltimore Book Festival -- Baltimore, MD, US (the mid-Atlantic’s premier celebration of literary arts; through Sunday)

Celtic Classic Highland Games & Festival -- Bethlehem, PA, US (US's largest highland games and Celtic Festival; through Sunday)

Chili Cook-Off and Fall Festival of the Arts -- Washington, MO, US (chili Friday night, juried art festival through the weekend, beer, specialty foods, music and fun; through Sunday)

Czech Statehood Day -- Czech Republic

Drink Beer Day

Fabulous 1890's Weekend -- Mansfield, PA, US (celebration of the first ever night football game in Mansfield in 1892; through tomorrow)

Feast of Hapi and Creation of the Nile -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Frances Willard Day -- Minnesota

Hug a Vegetarian Day -- i'm open!

Literally, A Haunted House -- Culbertson Mansion, New Albany, IN, US (each weekend through Hallowe'en; a haunted house in a literal haunted house with a history of some very weird stuff)

Love Note Day -- take pen and paper and send that special someone a love note today

Manit Day -- Marshall Islands (Culture Day)

Menkhet Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Michaelmas Eve -- Celtic celebration, bake your bannock bread tonight for eating on St. Michael and All Angel's Day tomorrow; tonight, build a bonfire and dine on roast lamb, and make sure the menfolk protect the horses, for anyone is allowed to "borrow" one for the celebration tomorrow

Mount Pleasant Glass and Ethnic Festival -- Mount Pleasant, PA, US (a "front porch neighborhood" festival; through Sunday)

National Day of Awareness and Unity against Child Pornography -- Philippines

National Good Neighbor Day -- US (begun when Mrs. Becky Mattson from Lakeside, Montana, campaigned for this National Day in the 1970's; go greet the neighbors, and be a good neighbor yourself!)

National Strawberry Cream Pie Day

National Youth Day -- Turks and Caicos Islands

Neptune Festival -- Virginia Beach, Virginia (a Boardwalk Weekend; through Sunday)

New York Film Festival -- NY, NY, US (50th Annual, through Oct. 15)

North American Sand Sculpting Championship -- Virginia Beach, Virginia, US

Runic Half Month Gyfu begins (gift)

St. Wenceslaus' Day (Patron of brewers; Bohemia; Czech Republic; Moravia; Prague, Czech Republic)

Taca Fall Craft Fair -- Nashville, TN, US (the state's premier outdoor showcaswe for American fine crafts; through Sunday)

Tales of Kelp-Koli's Second Visit -- Fairy Calendar (through the 30th)

Teacher's Day -- Taiwan (on the traditional Western date of Confucius' birthday, of course)

Warrens Cranberry Festival -- Warrens, WI, US (tour a cranberry bog, enjoy the festival and food; through Sunday)

World Rabies Day



Birthdays Today:

Hilary Duff, 1987
Naomi Watts, 1968
Mira Sorvino, 1967
Janeane Garofalo, 1964
Koko Taylor, 1935
Brigitte Bardot, 1934
Arnold Stang, 1925
Marcello Mastroianni, 1924
Al Capp, 1909
Ed Sullivan, 1901
Confucius, BC551


Today in History:

Pompey the Great, member of the Triumvirate, is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy of Egypt upon landing in that country, BC48
King/Saint Wenceslas murdered by his brother, 935
William the Conqueror invades England, 1066
Sinking of the Spanish fleet during a hurricane off the coast of Florida, 1528
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo becomes the first European to reach San Diego Bay, 1542
Publication of "Pilgrim's Progress", 1678
Divorce is legalized in Maryland, 1701
American and French forces begin the siege of Yorktown, 1781
Napoleon Bonaparte, age 16, graduates from the Military Academy of Paris -- 42nd in a class of 51, 1785
Donati's comet becomes the first to be photographed, 1858
Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, 1867
Sir Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mould growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin, 1928
Indonesia joins the United Nations, 1950
Mali and Senegal join the United Nations, 1960
SpaceX launches the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit, 2008