Now that I’m done documenting every aspect of our BVI trip, I can report on some fun stuff…

As if we don’t have enough cats, while picking blackberries on Saturday afternoon, I spotted a barn kitten starting to cross busy Francis Road in Mount Vernon. I was nearly back to our house, my container brimming with blackberries that I picked along Swan Road, when my eyes met the eyes of the black and white kitten. She was catty-corner to our house, which is on the corner of Swan and Francis.

I put down the container and dashed across the street, hoping a speeding car won’t get to her first. Scoping her up, I raced back to our house, picked up my blackberries, and then calmly walked into the garage where Rich was working on something or other. Without turning, he asked if I’d gotten any blackberries.

I put the container on his work bench and commented that I had, but one blackberry was rather peculiar and squirmy.

He spun around and sputtered, “Oh my God,” snatched the kitten from my hands, and turned to walk into the house.

“Not so fast,” I yelled. “That ain’t your blackberry! Its mine. Your blackberries are on the workbench!”

Even though Rich was delighted with the kitten, he felt it probably belonged to someone. I pointed out that she was across the street from a large field and barn. Most likely, she was born in the barn. And more importantly, I was concerned that if I returned her to the field, she’d once again try to cross the road and become road pizza.

Plus, circling overhead were hawks and an occasional bald eagle, which could easily swoop her up for a tasty dinner. An eagle can pluck a duck out of the water. A 2-3 pound kitten would be easy prey.

While eating lunch (leftover Mexican food from the night before) we continued debating about what to do about the kitten. After lunch, Rich continued working in the garage for an hour or so then came inside to take a nap… with the kitten on his chest.

When he awoke, there was no more debating. The kitten was bundled up and driven back to our house in Kirkland!

We named her Suki, which means beloved in Japanese. She’s super mellow and gets along with the other cats… and 95% of the time, she’s either with Rich or myself. In fact, Rich set up a chair by his computer so she can help him type and answer the phone during the day. She appears, however, to be more interested in being fed than Linux device drivers.  

In other news, I’ve become fixated with my tomato plants, which continue to have GREEN instead of RED tomatoes. I can count on one hand, the number of tomatoes that have turned RED this year. We have three huge plants in Kirkland and a half a dozen plants in our raised beds in Mount Vernon.

It’s been a horrible year for most produce. Our only successes have been peas, pea pods, lettuce, a few heads of broccoli (which tasted terrible), tarragon, a few string beans, and one large and several small zucchinis. Grumble.