U-Pick Kitties

You have to understand that it was still way too early for me. I never grew up with pets, and Kathy adopting Otis when I was out of town on a gig in 1999 turned out to be a godsend. Taz coming home from the Humane Society two years later completed our little family.

A crappy two months, beginning in March, 2011, and ending a couple of weeks ago, in May of the same year, left Kathy with a void in her heart. We lost both of our old ladies within two months, and this big McJoint was not the same without kitties.

After Tazo was put down, I went, a few days later, to our local vet to drop off surplus food and treats that could be used in-house or dispersed to local shelters. When I popped in, the two techs on duty looked at each other and broached the subject that had apparently been the topic of conversation awhile: A fit-in-your palm calico (Taz’s breed) had survived a fall off of a roof, and everybody immediately thought of me and Kath.

OK, she was super-sweet, but sometimes coveted furniture and window treatment$ shakily affixed to walls preclude a kitten. Not to mention that I am now getting mailings from AARP, so raising a kitten while on the cusp of senior-citizendom just isn’t viable.

So, Kath comes home last week with printouts from kitty Web sites. Uh-oh. One thing leads to another, and less than a week after being childless, we are following Kath’s printed directions to Tony LaRussa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) in nearby Walnut Creek, CA (BTW: it’s a couple of blocks from where Otis used to get her cancer treatments). The “Tony LaRussa” name may ring a bell: He was a major league baseball player for the Oakland Athletics back in the day; he’s currently an MLB manager. Years ago, while Tony was playing, a feral kitty ran out onto the field during a game, and it took a cadre of staff to corral the lion while the innings were delayed. Tony took the kitty home. His ARF is a “no-kill” shelter, accepting animals from various regional facilities that may not follow that mandate. Kath had already printed out info on a pair of sisters that had come in from Martinez Animal Control, and that had been at ARF for three months, with the expectation of being adopted together.

Yep. No further questions, Your Honor.

I don’t know what it is about cat names, but Kathy and I do not want to mess with them at adoption. We had two females with monikers “Otis” and “Taz.” So now, we are the official parents of a couple of 4-year-old sister sibs named ‘Fritter” and “Baklava.”

And they’re already driving me nuts. They’re a lot more actively curious than were Otis and Taz, and their love of high places such as book shelves and window sills could put that “Man on Wire” dude to shame. Baklava and Fritter have basically claimed the second storey as their home, but we’re trying to transition them to feeding and using the litter pans downstairs. We’ll see how it goes. They’re a couple of sweet girls, but man, they can be a couple of handfuls (handsful?). Here’s to new beginnings.

Speaking of beginnings, this week heralded the official start of U-Pick cherry season. We blogged a bit about it last year; it’s the time of year when thousands of fruit aficionados from all over the state swarm Brentwood and Knightsen orchards, grab a bucket, and pick (and snack) their way down the rows of trees and other plantings heavy with produce.

Memorial Day weekend tends to see the biggest crowds, but as we did last year, Kathy and I hit the fields a week earlier. Yesterday afternoon, to be exact. We got a later start this year, arriving at Nunn Better farm to load up on sweet red cherries. We were shocked to see the crowd of cars already parked, and entire families beating us to the bounty. We needn’t have worried: There were plenty of ripe cherries on the trees for everyone, and I don’t think it took us 25 minutes to fill a bucket. Seven pounds of delicious fruit, $2.50 per pound, cash only. Time for stop number two.

We motored down the road to Papini Farms in search of apricots. We were offered our bucket, and then directed to the rows in the orchard that were designated for picking. We hand-harvested a few pounds of the golden burnished stone fruit, before strolling the cherry rows. The Rainiers looked a little immature yesterday, but Kath and I made a mental note to check in at Papini later in the season.

Our final farm stop was at Chan’s Fruit Stand, where the strawberry fields were packed with U-Pickers. The rows weren’t as muddy as they were last year, but the plants looked pretty picked-over, evidence that this mob probably had had more success filling their boxes than we did. Still, we managed to harvest a reasonable haul, before retiring to a wine bar in downtown Brentwood to reward our agricultural efforts with a well-deserved glass.

In the space of one week, Kathy and I have adopted two new kitty members of our family and experienced firsthand a bit of our area’s ag heritage. Whether felines or fruit, it’s definitely U-Pick season in CoCo County.