Yu-Ling

Sammy was Morningstar's cat for 17 years. Bob knew him for only 11 years. He accompanied us on all of our adventures; living on a sailboat, then an island, and finally here to the wilderness of northern British Columbia. When he died in August of 2007 it was a great sadness for both of us. Now almost 4 months later and after a lot of grieving, we began to feel the need to fill the empty place he had left. The cabin in winter can be a lonely place at times, and Sammy was always there with his big golden eyes and crook in his tail, to supervise the bedtime rituals, perform his duties as morning alarm clock, and fill our lives with his cuddly affection. So after shopping in Terrace on Saturday, we decided to stop at the Terrace Animal Shelter just to see what was there. We weren't expecting too much… this was just a start. But what we found was an eight-month old kitten that immediately seemed right. “Kitten” is a little misleading regardless of his eight months… he is a BIG cat with a loud purr, long hair and a huge sweeping tail. (Searching on the internet, we came across a description of the Maine Coon Cat, which seems to fit our guy.) He is quiet, gentle and seems to be very bright and alert. His eyes are blue, but show golden or red depending on the light. After a little playtime at the shelter to see how we got along, we signed the adoption papers and headed home. On getting him back to the cabin, he searched the whole place thoroughly then settled down in one or the other of our laps. We had his stamp of approval. Morningstar named him Yu-Ling after an ancient Chinese poet who chose solitude over fame. None of Yu-Ling’s poems are recorded and he is known only because another poet (Wu Wei) mentions him.

On his first full day at the cabin Yu-Ling spent most of his time sitting with Morningstar as she worked at her computer. His alertness and quick moves to investigate new sounds suggests that he will be a good mouser. Sammy was a great companion, but he was not a good mouser. In fact, he was afraid of mice – though to be fair, Sammy had never seen a mouse before moving to the cabin. When we moved in, we found that deer mice had already assumed ownership. We were too soft hearted to use killer mousetraps and opted for the catch and release method… unfortunately they all ran back to the cabin. We didn't know then what we know now - adult deer mice displaced one mile from where they were trapped are generally able to return to their home nests within a day. We were just releasing them across the road. After a week listening to the sound of skittering feet in the night, and the sight of deer mice peeking out from under the stove and cupboards, we were forced to change our modus operandi. Yes, there was Sammy – but he was not interested in catching mice, only in waking us up so we could deal with the ones that were eating his cat food! Hence the VICTOR wooden mousetraps. They were being sold by the boxfuls at the local general store, so we knew we were not alone in dealing with those cute but pesky critters. We tried not to look too carefully at the large lustrous black eyes, dainty nose, and long whiskers when we gathered the sprung traps in the morning, before putting the dead bodies in the field for the ravens and crows.

Okay Yu-Ling… it’s your turn.

... Bob and Morningstar
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