To the Editor:
Here’s a report on “climate change” and the dock cat. Cassie, our cat, has been greeting friends and strangers, even some dogs that don’t chase her into the water, for over a decade. She loves her scheduled and closely monitored times on the dock. She is very cute but not the brightest bulb. She takes after her dad, but I am not cute.
There have been episodes of Cassie chasing gulls until there was no more dock and nothing but water. The occasional sloping transom on a neighbor’s boat was more like a sliding board right into the water again. She is a very good swimmer but doesn’t like the water, and hates the fresh water rinse even more.
However, this summer something changed. She didn’t want to roam her docks anymore. If she did she would cry and run back to the boat.
Figuring we all get weirder as we age, and I definitely am, my lovely wife and I thought Cassie was just getting old – until, and I am a very slow learner, we realized she still wanted to go out after our dinner and relax on her docks. It was her time.
Summer 2026 here on LBI was really hot. Our docks here were very hot. We needed flip-flops to walk. Cassie doesn’t have flip-flops. My very cute but not that bright kitty is probably smarter than most of us.
Marc BellagambaHigh Bar HarborOctober 21, 2026
