On Friday our good friend Wendy turned 50. Charlie decided to have a surprise birthday party for her and we were invited. One small problem. The party was scheduled for January 31st and Charlie and Wendy (The T’s) live in Wawa 3 1/2 hours north of us. The trip means traveling along the east coast of Lake Superior which routinely experiences heavy snow squalls, white outs and extended road closures. It can be a really crappy drive which I never undertake lightly. As the planning progressed I was tasked with sourcing and delivering the fruit for a chocolate fountain and as of Thursday picking up a Wii game system, Charlies gift to Wendy. I also volunteered to make a batch of baked beans and a loaf of whole grain bread. Friday the beans were cooked and bread was baked.Also on Friday I discovered that my good friend Inga had to go to Wawa for another event and we arranged to travel together. All week it was clear with no precipitation. Saturday morning I woke up to snow – of course. A check of the road conditions online foretold less than ideal road conditions but I was committed and decided that if the highway was open we would go. I loaded the car with lots of heavy clothes and boots in case we got stopped somewhere. After stops in the Sault to buy the fruit and the Wii I collected Inga and off we went. The weather actually improved as we headed north. Highway 17 was almost bare, the snow quit and the traffic was light. About halfway to Wawa you reach the hamlet of Montreal River Harbour and climb one of the nastiest hills east of the Rockie Mountains.At the top of the hill the weather and road conditions changed abruptly. We experienced a series of squalls blowing in off the lake which caused sharply reduced visibility and the road surface became snow packed a lot more slippery. We slowed own and made it into Wawa about a half hour later than anticipated but safe and sound. I dropped Inga with her friend and then headed to the party site to deliver the goods and help with set up. Preparations were in full swing. By 2pm 30+ people were sitting chatting when Wendy walked in and was completely surprised. She had no hint what was going on. It was a fun afternoon with visiting and a few drinks and lots of snacks. 
People came and went. Wendy was having a great time. A number of gifts and cards were opened and a funny hat was produced. 
After a while it was suppertime and out came lasagna, salad, beans, home made bread and buns and afterward a huge birthday cake. Everybody ate as much as they wanted and there was lots left over. After supper we broke out the Wii and played a few games of bowling. It really is a lot of fun.About 9.30pm I decided to head up the hill to my hotel room and made arrangements to be back at the chalet in the morning to help load all of the leftover food and booze into Charlies van for the trip back to their place.
I was down in the morning to enjoy a cup of coffee and some chat with Charlie and Wendy before heading to their place. We arrived just after 9 and Charlie immediately started organizing breakfast. Jon and I were dispatched to buy some bacon and Jon’s friend Eric was sent downstairs to start a fire in the wood stove. Just before 10 the bacon was frying and the pile of pancakes was growing when Charlie started mentioning that he could smell something like plastic burning. A few more sniffs and all of a sudden Charlie was yelling at Eric to look outside at the chimney. Yup it was on fire! Eric had overachieved on the fire. Well, then things got exciting. Charlie was roaring at everyone to get out of the house and Wendy called 911. Rebecca stumbled out the door in a tee shirt, boxer shorts and her boots, still mostly asleep. Jon was ordered out of the shower and into the street. In a few minutes the fire trucks arrived with 8 volunteer firefighters in all their gear including breathing apparatus and after some discussion insisted on going up on the roof to inspect the chimney. The street was blocked off, the neighbours were out and the red lights on the fire truck were going round and round. 
By this time the forecasted snow squalls were starting to amke an appearance, the prospect of pancakes and bacon had, pardon the pun, gone up in smoke and it was time to head south. I collected Inga from down the street and Jon from the house and off we went. The weather and road conditions were very similar to what they had been on the way north and but again the traffic was light and we took our time. We arrived back in the Sault just after 2pm and after dropping my passengers I headed back to the island to see Val and tell her of all the adventures. Many thanks to the T’s for a great party and a fun-filled visit.
One day last week I happened to sit down with Val for a few minutes while Oprah was on. I am not a big fan of hers but they were talking about environmental things and of course her solution is to show everyone lots of new things to buy. Even being green is about shopping! Anyway I promised myself that I would not get into that rant. All of a sudden the person that was showing Oprah all the “cool new things” that will make you green said two words that got my attention – Sigg Bottle (http://www.mysigg.com/?gclid=CNXJxPPS74sCFRlmWAodIidkVg! Wow. Those words instantly brought back a flood of memories and made me realize that I was cool and environmentally friendly over 30 years ago.
A Sigg Bottle is made of Aluminum and is totally inert and more importantly to me is unbreakable. They were originally designed to act as a few fuel cell for Sigg 1 burner camp stoves. It seems the enviro-cool crowd has discovered them as the most enviro-friendly water bottle in the world, even better than the ubiquitous Nalgene bottle that you see hanging off packsacks everywhere. The LSTTO was telling her that not only are disposable plastic water bottles bad but even the ones that are meant to be reused can leach some nasty chemicals into the water that you drink. So the solution is simple buy a Sigg bottle.
Here is my Sigg Bottle and as you can see it is neither new nor particularly shiny. What is is well used and much loved.
Heres the story. In the mid seventies I was posted in a small remote town at the bottom of James Bay and my work, being a Conservation Officer, took me along the entire coastline of James and Hudson Bay from Quebec to Manitoba. If you look at a map of this part of Ontario you will quickly note that outside of a few small villages there are no roads in this huge area. Travel was then and still is almost exclusively by aircraft, or snowmobile in the winter. And my job required me to travel a lot. I was much younger than and used to enjoy a drink or two in the evening even when not at home. Carrying your own booze was the only option but a bottle was not the best carrier for two reasons. My luggage consisted of a packsack and a sleeping bag normally. This meant that bottles were subject to breakage and you did not want have that happen. The second reason was the we frequently overnighted in one of the native communities along the coast and all of them were located on dry reserves (for very good reasons) and you did not want to get caught on the reserve with a bottle either by a thirsty local or by the local cops. Enter the Sigg Bottle. I’m not sure who told me about them but as soon as I saw it I remember thinking that this was the answer to my prayers. I ordered one from some catalogue it has served me faithfully ever since. For several years it went everywhere with me, to meetings, on patrol, to training courses and along the way it picked up a few scars. It doesn’t travel as much as it used to but it still goes moose hunting with me every fall. As you can see from the photo it has a few war wounds but is still perfectly serviceable. In fact when I got it down to take the picture above I discovered that is half full of scotch and I have no idea how long it has been in there but it is still good! It has also carried rye and rum and occasionally gin but the fixin’s for a good drink of gin were not always handy along the coast.
So that is my story of the Sigg bottle. When I get around to emptying it I may start to use it as a water bottle. We’ll have to see.
We have had a cat in our house almost continuously for over 30 years, some of them much more memorable than others. On Wednesday our longest surviving old cat took her last ride. Spooky was approaching 18 years old which is ancient for a domestic cat. We found her as a stray while living in Hearst and she has been with us for 16 or so years. She came by her name honestly. The night we brought her home she hid in the back of the dryer for hours before we could get her out. She shared the house then with Tommy, a huge orange ball of fur and they tolerated each other, most of the time. After Tommy met his fate under the wheels of a car she had the place to herself for a few years and managed to make the transition to St. Joseph Island with only minor damage to her psyche. Then Mulder entered her life. Mulder had more personality than almost any other cat on the planet. Nobody ever told Mulder that he was a cat so he never acted like one, more like a big goofy dog. He may have been born brain deprived but we were never able to prove it. Spooky tolerated Mulder and Mulder loved to torment Spooky. But they were a team. Throughout her time on the island Spooky was a pretty good mouser both inside and outside. Lots of days in the summer she would head purposefully down the driveway as if heading off to work and then reappear a little while later with a dead mouse in her mouth which she would deposit on the deck. She rarely tried to get one inside. Then Mulder met his fate one night thanks to a hungry Bobcat who saw him more as supper than a cousin.
That event and advancing age caused her to become much more obsessive in her habits. She could only be picked up by certain people sitting in certain places or petted while parked on a particular perch. She was arthritic, hard of hearing, probably suffered from failing eye site and her aim around the litter box was more shotgun than rifle. She regularly hissed at her own reflection in any surface she walked past and was incredibly fearful of almost everything and everyone. She was eating less and less and over the past 2 or 3 months obviously losing weight.
We had her to the vet a few weeks ago and the prognosis was that Spooky was on her way out and the tests showed that she would probably die of kidney failure, as do most cats who live that long and that death by kidney failure will be protracted and painful if left to run its course. We had already decided that when the time came we would have her euthanized rather than let her die a natural and painful death. Decision time was approaching said the vet but not here yet.
We are getting ready for an almost three week absence and had several discussions about leaving Spooky, as we have on numerous other occasions . There is a young person who we hire to come in and feed her and clean her litter box once a day. This time we were really concerned about leaving her alone for that long; what if she got ill and was in real pain, what if Alexandra found her dead or dying. We didn’t want any of that to happen. One day I came home and Val told me that she had made up her mind that before leaving it was time for Spooky to go. We both agreed that this was the humane thing to do. We told ourselves and each other that every day for a week and every day for a week we did not call the vet to make the appointment. Last Monday Val called and made the appointment. It was a tough call, literally as well as figuratively. Tuesday we ignored the subject, but it hung over both of us.
Wednesday morning we both had a cuddle with her and both agreed that we felt rotten. Of course Spooky wasn’t aware of any of this and just carried on being herself. After lunch time just seemed to drag as we waited to leave. I finally went and got her cage and brought it in. She hated the cage and it always took two of us to get her into it.
The drive to the vet clinic was made looking out through tear misted eyes with Spooky in the back making sad noises of displeasure at being in the cage. When we arrived things moved very quickly. The vet asked us if we wanted to be with her and Val said yes and I wasn’t going to make her go through that on her own. Spooky was calm and both of us were blubbering. To say that the procedure is quick would be a monumental understatement. She was dead almost before the hypodermic was out of her vein and she never made a sound. The vet checked her with a stethoscope and confirmed what we could see. Now we were both a bigger mess. After a few minutes we put her back in her cage for the ride home, no argument this time and headed back to the island. It was a very quiet ride home.
When we got here I went and got a shovel for the shed and we buried her beside Mulder. We covered the grave with some rocks so nothing will dig her up. Back in the house we took out her litter box and cleaned up her food and water dishes. It was a quiet supper.
We miss her, a lot and the house seems a little emptier the last few days. . We know intellectually that we did the right thing and as the vet pointed out as we left we had done Spooky the last act of kindness by sparing her the inevitable suffering. But we still miss her and will continue to do so for some time I’m sure. We haven’t decided at this point when or even if we will get another one. We’ll have to see.
Bye Spooky.