Blowing and still green. I remember crunchy leaves underfoot as I trick-or-treated on Halloween night when I was a kid; there was always a crispy chill by the end of October. Global warming? Or just an unseasonably mild fall? Mike noticed the first frost on our greenhouse roof only last week. My big pots of impatiens are still blooming.
Is everyone busy sewing their Halloween costumes? There are two parties in town planned for Saturday, and seeing the costumes is always part of the fun. The first party is at the library from 2 to 4 pm. Parks and rec is hosting the second one from 6 to 8 pm at the Ag Hall. Both will feature hayrides, games, delicious treats, all the traditional components of the holiday.
Kathy Logue and I picked up sandwiches at 7A and headed out to Chilmark to sit in the sun on her family’s deck. Much of our conversation dealt with the upcoming election, trying to make sense of all those ballot questions. We need to be informed by Nov. 3, and we are conscientious voters.
By the time I got home, Kathy had sent the following web addresses:
myballot.tufts.edu/# and apps.bostonglobe.com/elections/massachusetts/voter-guide/ballot-questions
Also, GBH News has a series, “Unbox Your Ballot,” that comes to your inbox.
Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at the Public Safety Building. Polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm.
Our cat, Nelson, hasn’t been himself lately. That’s what I told our vet and techs when I made an appointment for him to be checked over. Because he becomes a hissing, biting demon, he has to be anesthetized for them to work on him, and that involves several preparatory steps before the dreaded morning.
First, I made an appointment with our animal communicator, Sandy Lagno, for the day before his appointment. She has worked with generations of our animals to great success, although Nelson remains one of her tougher cases. She prepared him for being fasted and kept inside the night before, explained that he would get a shot that would make him sleepy, and I would bring him home when he woke up. His appointment was for 8:15 in the morning.
All proceeded along until Abby woke up around 5 o’clock. Nelson wanted to go out when I took Abby out, so he began to complain, which he kept up nonstop till I got him into the doctor’s exam room. A tip for the future: The techs draped a big towel sprayed with Feliway over his carrier, and that made him settle right down. I was told to go home, and they would call me to pick him up late in the morning.
Nelson is 13. When he started throwing up, acting standoffish and sluggish, I worried about diabetes, maybe a tick infection, maybe something terrible that I needed to know. He isn’t diabetic. His bloodwork was all normal. He lost a little weight, but nothing concerning. He had been exposed to anaplasmosis, which is pretty common for most animals on the Island, and it’s unusually asymptomatic. He has a little arthritis.
He is home now, resting less than comfortably. He won’t eat the I/D diet he was sent home with. He has spent the afternoon yowling at the door, where his cat flap is blocked off, or tottering back and forth between the dining room door and the kitchen door. He wants to resume his normal life, surveying his kingdom for mice.
I forgot to mention his diagnosis so far: Nelson has a bad case of
feline overprotectivemotheritis.
