I thought I had found a kitten at CASAS, the Provincetown shelter where I’m on the advisory board. While we were there, we picked out one. I noticed that another kitten in the same litter seemed lethargic and had a red sore nose. Well, their vet closed the shelter as respiratory disease was running through it. It’s still closed. No kitten. I tried MSPCA in Centerville where we found Xena. No female kittens. I have been negotiating with a shelter in Acushnut. When I first contacted them, I assumed Achusnet was on the Cape. Years ago we walked in an Acushnet sanctuary here [I remembered the name as it has always sounded to me like a sneeze]. It turned out the town of Acushnet is near New Bedford, at least 2 hours away. I was still willing to go there. However, they don’t keep the animals at the shelter but in foster homes. We were trying to find a mutually acceptable time to meet some of their kittens. That makes for a bit of a nuisance to see the kittens but means they would never have the problem CASAS is undergoing, where disease sweeps through a shelter. Then last night I had a call from my friend Joan [that’s where Willow comes from]. A very young kitten had been found in the woods. Obviously she had not been there long as she was still well fed and had no fleas. She was not feral but very friendly and affectionate. Someone had dumped her there. The person who found her is searching the woods to see if other kittens in the litter were similarly dumped and had so far survived being eaten. She will have her shots, etc. and we’ll pick her up on August 7^th Sunday on our way back from Omega. She is very young and will need much mothering. That’s fine with me. Woody thinks sometimes I anthropomorphize the cats as when I tell him Xena is mentoring Willow. Well, last night at 4:30 when I got up to pee, there are the two of them in the bathtub with a mouse. Xena is sitting like a proud mother watching Willow with the mouse. Occasionally she would butt in, controlling the mouse. Mingus of course is there sitting on the toilet seat watching them but taking no part. Like his cousin Sugar Ray was, he’s a pacifist. We have a huge abundance from the gardens. Today we must freeze probably 4 lbs. of beans. Then I need to puree some of the pattypans and freeze a quart of it. We were going to dig the garlic today but we had a thunderstorm last night, so we’ll have to wait till tomorrow when it has dried out. We have many pattypans, zucchini, cucumbers, finocchio, eggplants and as I mentioned, beans. I ate my first tomato for lunch yesterday, a very sweet paste tomato. The main crop tomato I had been watching ripen, the infernal chipmunk had at it. Woody put some coyote urine down around the tomato plants then. I hope we can pick some cherry tomatoes today. Last night was Greek night. I made baba genoush and big zucchinis stuffed with lamb, onions, garlic, tomato sauce we canned last year and feta cheese. I made enough to reheat tonight after a long day’s work. I won’t feel much like cooking and besides, it is infernally hot and humid. I had the ablation on my right side Thursday. The procedure is an outpatient one. The procedure itself was very painful, far more than I had been told, but it did not hurt as much afterward as I had been led to expect. I’ll have the right side done in midAugust. They say it takes 8 weeks for the full effects to manifest. I am hopeful, of course. I have been reading Bernard Cornwell’s trilogy, his take on the Arthur legends. I started the third book 2 evenings ago. I got Woody hooked on the first book. He says it’s as engaging of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, George R.R. Martin’s books on which Game of thrones is loosely based. We’re big fans of those books.