Library Notes
September 25, 2003
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
Now, where were we in this kitty story when we left last week? We had four kittens and mama on the front porch and Suzie wondering what she would do with all of them. Well, honey, she hadn't seen nothin' yet?
We shall continue on, with the next day being Monday. Suz went off to work, Cheyenne went to his "school" and I did a few things at the house, preparing to depart for Farmersville and home, shortly.
I went out the front door to put something in my car and stopped right there - and started counting kittens. I had to chase them all over the porch and find them hiding out behind anything handy. I went back and counted two or three times and I still came up with SIX kittens. I had a great time trying to get out the front door, to load everything in my car, trying to keep from stepping on six kittens and not letting them run into the house.
When I got home, I thought I would call Suzanne and leave a message on her machine that she was now the mother of SIX. A short time after I got home, however, she beat me to the telephone. I answered and she said, in an excited voice, "There are EIGHT of them now!" Spoiled my surprise! There is multiplying and there is multiplying, but that was ridiculous.
Well, kitties were everywhere. Suzie was thinking that when they got a little older, she could "peddle" them around to neighbors like we did with a litter or two of puppies when she and her brother were young. We'd drive around to a house and they would take a puppy each and proceed to find it a happy home. That worked pretty well too. Suzie thought it might work well with kittens.
In the continuing parade of kitties, there was another one that matched the Siamese- looking one that I had my eye on. The second one didn't have the black on her nose that looked like a mustache, as the first kitty had. Other than that, they were almost identical. They both had those beautiful blue eyes -- a matched pair. I thought they both might go home with me.
There was a black and white one that Suzie really liked too. So, if we kept those three, that left five to peddle.
Suzie had kittens everywhere she looked, in a multitude of colors. Then she came home from work just a couple of afternoons later and there was not a kitty in sight. Nada, none, zero~~~They were gone-e-e-.
I'd ask her each day if any kitties had shown up and she said no every time. Nary a one has made an appearance. Mama Cat has come around, but no babies. Suz has decided that Mama Cat just pulled a fast one. She brought everyone over to eat and then left when they got full.
Suzie kept saying those kitties were too tame to have been raised out in the wilds. They were used to people, so, they may have belonged to a neighbor. Perhaps they just came around to see what kind of cat food was served at that house.
I'm still catless. And Suzie's porch is not nearly so crowded now. If this story were in book form, we could call it "The Mystery of The Disappearing Kitties" or "The Mysterious Litter of Kitties". Anyway, that's the end of that cat tale.
Bring on the books, book in this instance, book by Tom Clancy. Hah! That sure got the men's attention. "The Teeth of the Tiger" is the title to look for, and here's what it's about.
"A man named Mohammed sits in a café in Vienna, about to propose a deal to a Colombian. Mohammed has a strong network of agents and sympathizers throughout Europe and the Middle East, and the Colombian has an equally strong drug network throughout America. What if they were to form an alliance, to combine all their assets and connections? The potential for profits would be enormous -- and the potential for destruction unimaginable.
In the Brave New World of terrorism, where anybody with a spare AK-47, a knowledge of kitchen chemistry, or simply the will to die can become a player, the old rules no longer apply. No matter what new governmental organizations come into being, the only ones that could be truly effective are those that are quick and agile, free of oversight and restrictions….outside the system.
Way outside the system.
In a nondescript office building in suburban Maryland, a firm named Hendley Associates does a profitable business in stocks, bonds and international currencies, but its real mission is quite different: to identify and locate terrorist threats, and then deal with them, in whatever manner necessary. Set up with the knowledge of President John Patrick Ryan, "The Campus" is always on the lookout for promising new talent, its recruiters scattered throughout the armed forces and government agencies -- and three men are about to cross its radar.
The first of them is Dominic Caruso, a rookie FBI agent, barely a year out of Quantico, whose decisive actions resolve a particularly brutal kidnap/murder case. The second is Caruso's brother, Brian, a Marine captain just back from his first combat action, in Afghanistan, and already a man to watch. And the third is their cousin----a young man named Jack Ryan, Jr.
Jack has grown up around intrigue. As his father rose through the ranks of the CIA and then to the White House, Jack received a life course in the world and the way it works, from agents, statesmen, analysts, Secret Servicemen, and black-ops specialists, such as John Clark and Ding Chavez. He wants to put it all to work now -- but when he knocks on the front door of "The Campus, he finds that nothing has prepared him for what he is about to encounter. For it is indeed a different world out there, and in here ---and it is about to become a lot more dangerous."