Feral cats and swine flu

I saw Carmen again this morning in the full light of day. She showed up about 9 am and was twitching her doubled up tail around in agitation, cruising around by Mrs. Moustache and Bruiser just like Puss-in-Boots. I think she was really looking for food or a way to get back into the guesthouse from the outside windows. Sour Pickle and I were watching her through the window, then she saw us and froze and just stared and stared. We just stared and stared back. Finally I leaned over to open the window so Winnie could go inside the casement to talk to her through the screen and she ran away again.

I have been putting cat food outside our door at night and someone is eating it, I think it is she. New Cook tells me that when we were away in Loreto she encountered Carmen one morning crouched outside the patio door by our bedroom, crying and crying. She told the cat we had gone away for a few days. (Likely she understood because Spanish is her native tongue). In any event I guess she has decided to forgive me enough to come and eat occasionally and maybe even mingle with the other outside cats.

Favorite maid didn’t come today, she was at home in bed with a fever. She and Oldest Maid are sisters and live in the same house, and Oldest Maid did come, I hope the rest of us don’t catch anything. I sort of feel like I might be catching a cold, scratchy eyes, a few sneezes, a throat that’s a little off. Of course my mind goes immediately to the new H1N1 virus. It seems there is a virus of some kind going around here in Santa Rosalia, but no one seems to know whether that’s it or not. When you land or leave the airport in Loreto they scan you for fever with a thing that’s almost like a cop’s handheld radar that a nurse who is standing about 4 feet away points at you. Two other little public health nurses sitting at a table in white uniforms and wearing masks and latex gloves gather the little form the you fill out about whether you feel ill and where you are going. They write your temperature down on the piece of paper, then hand it back to you. When you leave the airport it is collected by another healthcare worker. What with all the news about the H1N1 it seems inevitable that it will come our way.