THE MISADVENTURES of OLIVER TWIST / Introduction
If you have lived in Garrett County, MD you know I’m speaking truthfully when I say it’s a taste of Alaska down south. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating… but only marginally. It is not uncommon for us to have significant snow accumulations and temperatures dropping below 0° Fahrenheit during the winter months. My name is, Shelly, and following my arrival as The Salem Equestrian Center’s Stable Manager and Head Horsemanship Instructor in 2008, the reality of this fact struck with the force of five feet of snow. As the snow falls again in Garrent County today I am reminded of my first winter here.
Fortunately I had and office with a heater, an abundance of paper and organizational work, and a cranky old barn cat to keep me company that first winter. Jasper was a fat elderly feline who enjoyed being king of the stable and patrolled his territory with particular vehemence. Although Jasper never loved people, he eventually put up with my company for the sake of food and heat. You could always count on Jasper to be present and begging for breakfast and a morning snooze in the warm office… and very occasionally to show his soft side and prove affectionate!
One particularly cold December morning in 2009 I arrived at the stable to the tune of a major feline temper tantrum. Jasper was not interested in breakfast. He was not interested in a nap next to the heater. He was single mindedly putting up a regular racket, hissing and howling into a small crack behind a tack trunk in the aisle way. Thinking he must be in hysterics over not being able to squeeze his hefty haunches in after a rat I slid the tack trunk aside only to reveal a teeny-tiny little orange stripped kitten. Jaspers boarders had been breached!
I rescued the kitten and although Jasper and I returned to our traditional routine, I don't think he ever quite forgave me :). Who knows where the little tabby had come from as our stable is very rural, located in the middle of 380 acres of protected land 10 minutes from the nearest small town and surrounded everywhere at that moment by five feet of snow! Yet there he was... an since Salem is in the buisness of providing a safe shelter... here he has stayed!
This little orange fur ball has never been shy, which is probably how he survived abandonment that chilly winter night... and growing up with the horses and old Jasper. He has been The S.E.C.'s Stable Mouse Manager & General Pest Control for six years now and has his own slew of hysterical misadventures which I hope to share with you someday!
Meantime, when you visit The S.E.C. expect to meet a handsome orange tom cat who is a bit impish and has a fondness for hopping in people’s laps while they are getting their riding boots on!
His is named after Charles Dickens plucky little orphan, is Oliver Twist.
"How precious is your loyal love, O God! The human race finds shelterunder your wings."
- Psalm 36:7
