On the trail of the Mighty Coon Cat
Sunday, April 1st, 2012 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniQuick catch-up post, here.
When last we saw our intrepid protagonists, they had just turned the sixteenth novel in the Liaden Universe®, their nineteenth collaborative novel, and her twenty-second (or her twelfth-and-a-half) to Madame the Editor at Baen.
This would have been 10 p.m.-ish on Friday, March 30.
Saturday morning we slept in, then headed south in a leisurely frame of mind. We stopped in South Portland for a couple hours so Steve could research guitars at The Guitar Center, then continued on to beautiful Wallingford, Connecticut, where we checked into our reserved room, and went in search of dinner.
Now, a couple of neat things. First, as we were leaving the hotel, we noticed in the parking lot an SUV with Maine tags MUSIKL. This? Is a truck that we often see in and around the big city of Waterville, and it was nice to know that we were in the company of a neighbor, sorta.
Next, we headed to town center, in search of dinner. Our first choice, from the list provided by the hotel, had a line. A Really. Long. Line. We moved on, turning down in quick succession Sonic, Applegeeks, Chilis — and Steve said, “Here. Neptune Diner. Baking done on premises.”
And I geeked out, because we were in Wallingford to pick up Socks, a Maine Coon Cat, from Blueblaze Cattery. And the last time we picked up a Maine Coon Cat, in Oneonta, New York, we met Elektra, from Blueblaze Cattery, at?
The Neptune Diner.
We asked the owner if his establishment was connected to the other one, he said no, but was amused by the story. As I am, and Steve is, because? We’re easily amused.
Dinner was, by the way, very good. I can speak in for the mousaka, and Steve was very favorably impressed by the roast turkey with dressing and gravy. Neither one of us had room for dessert.
This morning, we met Mike from Blueblaze at the hotel, took on Socks and headed north to the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.
…and so we’re home, and about to have dinner, and a glass of wine. Tomorrow, we have errands, and need to catch up on various things we let slide while the book was being finished.
We’ll post pictures of Socks as time permits. In the meantime, I can assure his fans that he’s been doing a thorough exploration of the house, has located the cat boxes, been bopped on the head by Scrabble and cursed at by Mozart, so things are, yanno, proceeding with all due propriety.
I hope y’all had as pleasant a weekend as we did.
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 10:10 pm (UTC)But I'm surprised you're home, already. From Wallingfrod to Maine? You must've driven like blazes!
Misc
Date: 2012-04-01 11:15 pm (UTC)Mystery solved? Two diners in two different states called "The Neptune Diner" (wish I could go there tonight unfortunately can't due to 2,000 mile distance) ....serving...as I am told what it is by Google: Moussaka: a layered dish of different ingredients and then baked. Found outside its native eastern Mediterranean native land is the mainly the Greek variety recipe. The Roman ghod of the sea is Nepture same as the Greek ghod of the sea Poisidon. I think we've got two Greek American owned diners here. I have been told that the Greek American community is partial to running restaurant establishments. In fact in our tiny town of Kanab UT we had one such for a long time but here it served Mexican food as the owner felt that the locals would not accept Greek food. Funny. There may in fact be many more Neptune Diners than those two across our great land. I guess the name Poisidon Diner is considered to be too far out.
Socks is home! Another mystery arises. I notice that one doesn't go to the cattery itself but the cat is delivered to the new owners elsewhere. Thinking cause maybe the cattery, as impressive as it seems to be, is actually located in or near private home.
Mystery. Is Socks fixed? A very Fancy Cat indeed having been shown as far away as Amsterdam. Must be very good natured to have endured being carted around all over the place to shows. Anyway, being destined at one time to produce many large footed kittens, may not be fixed. But have been told that unfixed Toms fight a lot and spay a lot all over the place....not very easily coped with.
Mystery: Also I was under the impression that big footed Maine Coons are not invited to be shown. Were the rules changed at some point?
Hoping for a good adjustment for all at the Cat Farm.
Re: Misc
Date: 2012-04-02 01:39 am (UTC)Re: Misc
Date: 2012-04-02 04:25 pm (UTC)Socks is a retired stud cat. He was fixed upon retirement.
Catteries deliver, they send cats by airplane, or folks visit the cats on-site. I only know three catteries, personally; they're all in private homes, and the cats are raised "under foot." This is a Good Thing.
You can enter a cat in a show -- there's a rating system that I'm not intimate with, but basically cats have to earn points to move on to the next level of competition. So, you can enlist a polydactyl cat, or a cat whose tail is too short, or whose ears are not properly set on their head, or... and the judges will subtract points for each of those deficits. You will, therefore, not have a Grand Champion Poly Coon Cat, because they won't ever amass the needed number of points.
Re: Misc
Date: 2012-04-02 04:44 pm (UTC)Socks has several polydactyl daughters who are in maine coon breeding programs--his legacy continues.
Mozart and Scrabble
Date: 2012-04-01 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-02 11:01 am (UTC)as intro to results of their reader's poll
no subject
Date: 2012-04-02 11:04 am (UTC)Actually, Ghost Ship is #1
no subject
Date: 2012-04-02 04:25 pm (UTC)