Being a freelancer means diversity…and lots of it. Diversity of tasks, diversity of information, diversity of clients. Today’s day began with answering emails, snagging my article topics for the month for Love to Know, editing an article for Suite 101, and pitching several editors on my credentials to write for their magazines and newspapers. Next, I updated my own consulting website. I had one very satisfied client this week who raved about my work, but because she wants to keep her company anonymous, she isn’t comfortable letting me post her name. No matter – she was happy and that’s all that counts.
Pierre was a bad, bad kitty today. He’s into that gangly, awkward teenage cat stage. Adolescent kitty! He knocked over my water glass on my desk, spilling icewater all over the computer and electrical outlets. Next, he bit the edge of John’s brand new, leather bound book – one of the books he collects. He tested his Houdini-like skills by wiggling into the pantry, then proceeded to vomit all over the pantry floor. Luckily he had been busy shredding a plastic grocery bag, and managed to get most of it onto the bag, so it was a quick cleanup. Shadow meanwhile was her usual sweet self. She accompanied me out to the garden where I picked fresh tomatoes, basil and cucumbers for a lunch salad, and came willingly when I called her back in.
This morning Shadow woke us up at 5:30 with her fierce watch dog bark. I raced downstairs to see a dog-like creature about a hundred feet from the kitchen. He raced into the woods when Shadow continued barking. It was too dark to really see what it was, but I found what looks like coyote scat in the driveway the past two mornings, and it looked a lot like the coyotes we saw in Montana. Philip identified tracks and scat last year as coyote, but we haven’t seen nor heard from them all winter long. Perhaps this one came back for some reason?
This week I also spotted a young black snake in the driveway, and Shadow and I had a chipmunk run right under her paws on the driveway. I often wonder how much wildlife is teeming in these woods – we see so much on the driveway alone!
