Author: catsynth

Weekend Cat Blogging and more: Away for Thanksgiving

Well, I am away in New York for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and Luna remains at the (hopefully) soon-to-be-former home in Santa Cruz. So I thought it would be appropriate to share some more photos of Luna from our favorite cat sitter Ronni West:

Perhaps this trip is a little more bittersweet because the “long weekend is longer than a weekend”. We're going to be stuck in away-from-home state for a bit longer, it seems. Hopefully not too much longer. But it is good to know that meanwhile she is getting lots of love and care.

Weekend Cat Blogging #129 is being hosted by our friends at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats. It looks like Pepi had a bit of a scare with a candle, but everyone is fine. Everyone, please be extra careful with fire safety. A candle can easily turn into something terrible for everyone.

The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos will be hosted this weekend at Mind of Mog; Carnival of the Cats is going to Wonkitties this Sunday. And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Highway 120 in Westchester County, NY

A little local “fun with highways” as I spend Thanksgiving with family in Chappaqua, just north of New York City.

We have noted Chappaqua in the past as the “home of CatSynth and Hillary Clinton.” It is a relatively small but affluent town in the middle of Westchester County. You can read more about it here, including its noted school system and famous residents.

Our main road is NY 120 which starts in the nearby community of Millwood (which is actually part of the same town), and continues southeast through the town center of Chappaqua. The main intersection is famously confusing and dangerous and years of trying to install such safety conveniences as a traffic light have met with local resistance. Apparently a traffic light would ruin the character of the town (in a way that car accidents apparently do not). 120 also crosses the Saw Mill Parkway, our nearby excuse for a highway, and the main commuter rail line that passes through town to New York City.

From there, 120 works its way southeast, through Armonk (one-time home of contributor whaleshaman of JellyPizza), the Westester County Airport (which I have never used), Purchase (home of a state university campus) and eventually the town of Rye on the Long Island Sound (home of the Playland amusement park). It's not really the most efficient way to cross Westchester, that's what our freeways including aptly named Cross Westchester Expressway are for, but that's a topic for another day…

Heroic cat alerts man to two-alarm blaze

From our local ABC affiliate:

BURLINGAME, Calif. Nov. 21, 2007 (BCN) – A man slept soundly this morning while a fire burned his home in the unincorporated Burlingame Hills area of San Mateo County, fire officials said.

Luckily, the man's cat woke him and alerted him to the blaze, Central County Fire Department Battalion Chief Ed Barton said.

The fire burned the man's home, which is a guesthouse located in front of a house located at 3037 Canyon Road, Barton said.

The two-alarm fire was burning when the man woke to put his howling cat outside, Barton said. The man went back to bed but woke again to the cat's insistent meowing.

When the man got out of bed to attend to the cat, he saw the fire and called 911 at about 5:21 a.m., Barton said.

The cat was not harmed by the blaze, and the man appears to have escaped safely as well.

What makes this story particularly significant is that I saw this fire. I happened to be staying in the Burlingame/Hillsborough hills above the canyon. I heard the sirens and saw the smoke, and then the fire, which looked to be quite large (as “guest houses” can sometimes be in this area). Many of you may have read about our nasty wildfire season here in California, so there is always a small worry of a house fire spreading up a canyon – fortunately, the weather has been pretty cold and damp lately.

Fires are terrible events. It was fortunate that both the cat and the man were safe.

Weekend Cat Blogging and more: Luna and CatSynth HQ

Now that it is clear we will be moving, we thought it would be appropriate to share some images of Luna at the soon-to-be-former CatSynth HQ:

For the time being, Luna will continue to reside here, while I find us a permanent new home. So the weekdays will be a little lonely for both of us, but we'll make it through. Luna will be getting lots of love and attention from her favorite cat sitter during the week, and we'll still be together on the weekends.

Our friends Kashim and Othello are pulling double duty this weekend. They are hosting both Weekend Cat Blogging #128 and the Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos (watch out for that snow).

The Carnival of the Cats will be at Pet's Garden Blog this Sunday. And of course the Friday Ark #165 is at the modulator.