Date: Fri 24-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

mountain-storm-manners

Full Text:

TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

Trees and limbs were strewn across Newtown's roads and lawns during Tuesday's

mid-afternoon storm, but Sandy Hook School's Joanne DiDonato had more than

that covering her yard. "I called my daughter to tell her to bring in the

laundry from the line, but she said, `too late, mom.'"

When the storm started, Edie Tschorn raced from her office to put the top up

on her convertible parked in the lot behind Edmond Town Hall. Just as she was

struggling with it, she heard an enormous crack and saw a huge tree fall

across part of the entrance of the Hook & Ladder Firehouse. Edie decided to

move her car to a safer area. It had already been damaged once this year when

her barn collapsed onto it and she wasn't going to take any chances this time.

Peggy Gross also realized that her car window was open a crack - because the

temperature was so hot - but, as quick as she was, she wasn't fast enough. The

car was full of sand and grit blown in by the wind, she complained.

I heard winds reached 80 mphs in the state during that storm. Even my claws

wouldn't have been able to keep me hanging on a limb, so I ran for some place

dry and well lit. I found several of my friends throughout town had power

outages caused by the storm, but those residents in the Taunton Lake Road area

of town seemed to be hit hardest. Many had no power until five o'clock

Wednesday morning.

Bill Meyer found the storm was good for something: it blew all the golfers off

the Newtown Country Club Course. While everyone else was running around town

checking for damage to their trees, houses, and cars, Bill was teeing up on

the first hole of the Country Club for a round of clear-sailing golf.

It's a good thing the storm didn't hit last Saturday when a line of residents

holding their cats and dogs swung around the backside of town hall, trailing

out of the gymnasium where the clinic was held and toward the Newtown Hook and

Ladder Firehouse. It was a sight to see!

Big dogs, small dogs, aggressive dogs, timid dogs.

The plentiful pooches at the town's annual rabies clinic at Edmond Town Hall

last Saturday thoughtfully brought their owners along to watch them be

inoculated with rabies vaccine.

Besides the canines, there were cats, cats, cats. In fact more cats than dogs

received the rabies vaccine. My favorite animals are cats, as you well know.

Fantastic Felines, I call them.

All told, 248 animals received their shots --- 141 cats and 107 dogs.

Meow, meow! Woof, woof!

Owners and their pets waited patiently to sign up for the shots at the clinic

which has become one of the largest rabies vaccine programs in Connecticut.

Happy Birthday to my buddy Bill Watts. He celebrated with his wife, Evelyn,

and all the other members of the Congregational Church Women's Fellowship at

their annual dinner meeting last Wednesday. He didn't win any of the door

prizes (Evelyn did) but the waitress at the Fireside Inn surprised him with a

big piece of chocolate cake with one candle. (I think he was a bit

disappointed to find it wasn't a trick candle - the kind that you can't blow

out.) Someone mentioned it was a "big" birthday, but, now that Ginger

Philbrick has taught me something about social graces,... well, I knew it

would be impolite to ask how big .

Yes, Ginger has ruined a lot of fun for me. I can't cat nap at the dinner

table with a clear conscience anymore. I'm constantly dabbing a napkin at my

whiskers as I try not to slurp my milk. And I can't tell any furball jokes in

mixed company (cats and dogs). Ah well, I'm still a fan. Anyone, like Ginger,

who can get kids to sit still for five seconds has my vote of confidence. I

think Ginger would agree that it would be impolite not to...

Read me again.