The Oregonians arrive

Just before sunset last night, Sue and Mo from Oregon arrived for a quick visit.  Of course Jeremy, the cat, and Abbey, the dog, accompanied them.  As they were setting up, Jeremy came out of their rig and wandered over toward my front yard to investigate.  I told Sue, I wasn’t too sure that was a good idea since ‘wild child’ Emma has never encountered a cat, and she was outside on her tie out.  As we walked over to check on them, I was surprised to see that Emma was just casually giving Jeremy a sniff.  That’s when Emma decided she wanted to play, and rose up and pounced on Jeremy.  Jeremy was not pleased with this action.  Can you remember the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ in 1975 between Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier? 

Well, that’s what ensued.  Did I mention that Jeremy is 17 years old?  He was puffed up about three times his size, and holding his own as growls and cat screams filled the air!  What a tussle.  I was afraid that at his advanced age Jeremy might have a heart attack or something.  We dashed in to separate them, and that’s when Abbey joined in to protect Jeremy.  Oh my goodness!  Not a very auspicious start to our meeting.

Luckily, no animals were hurt in this getting to know each other encounter, and today Sue told me that she thought that little melee had invigorated Jeremy. 

Things calmed down after that, and we were able to enjoy a nice glass of wine on my patio.  Sue had invited me to supper in their rig, and what a treat that was.  The food is always extra tasty to me when someone else does the cooking. 

This morning, we all headed out early for a quick tour of the refuge before they needed to get on their way to Louisiana.  Sue was hoping we could see some of those big flocks of snow geese that I’ve shown pictures of.  I aim to please on tours, but first we had to admire all the dowitchers working the wetlands.  We were able to encounter several large flocks of snow geese, but I’ll leave it to Sue to show those pics.  We probably saw well over 10,000 snow geese this morning.

Can you guess that it was a little more than just breezy this morning?  This little snowy egret was lucky to keep its feathers on! 

We stretched our legs along the boardwalk hike on Shoveler pond, but had to really hang onto our hats.  If we didn’t, they would have taken off and been lost in the marsh.  I think Abbey wanted to take a little swim, but Mo kept her on the straight and narrow.

By reading Sue’s blog, I knew that she really wanted to see some roseate spoonbills on their winter trip.  Emma and I had gone out yesterday to scope out where we might find them, and sure enough they were still in the same place today.  Score!  We found a flock of about 45 right toward the end of our time together.  I was pleased, and I think Sue was too.

It was great meeting and spending some time with these fun cyber friends.  Safe travels, Sue and Mo, as you make your way to Florida.

                                                                             THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy