Orange

Here is another orange fellow from the shelter. Our shelter keeps cats in small groups or in single condos. They have very strong health policies and it is an education for me to see how much work and thought they put into maintaining health. Volunteers and staff come in at 7AM and clean every cat area. The cat room does not smell in the least, so that tells you something.

I am on my short stop over at home while we pack up and head to Portland with Brendan and Silas, then down to the Cape to be with my family for a couple of days. I had an exhausting and wonderful weekend at the writer's workshop. I got to have a one on one session with an editor and a well known children's book writer, be in a small critique group and read my work out loud to the group of 23 women. The amazing thing is the author and editor hung out with us for the entire time and we got to know them as people. Plus, each one did a presentation.

The editors presentation was great. She explained why her company no longer accepts manuscripts unsolicited. They had an open door policy and in one year got ten thousand manuscripts. They read every one and not a single one was acceptable. The company decided to spend its energy going to writer's conferences and meeting people who were serious writers.

The great thing for me is I asked if I could send her my book after I had done the rewrites she suggested (from just reading the first ten pages). She said yes so now I have to really go over it and be sure it is the best I can make it.

And yes, the kittens are still planned for sometime in April. And won't that be wonderful? We will be driving to Paradise Gardens in NY State to pick them up. I looked on Petfinder a few days ago and there was one left from this beautiful family. He is probably taken by now. The mother has been adopted too, with a kitten I believe. Her name is Maya and she is gorgeous.

Caturday is supposed to start running as a newspaper column but I haven't seen it start yet in the paper. I am going to use it to showcase cats who need a good home.

It will be a busy spring. And there's that catnip to plant and Finnegan's Garden to take care of.