Welcome!

... to the go-to location for details and updates about my upcoming memoir, BOOTSTRAP: A MONTANA ORPHAN'S RISE IN SILICON VALLEY. February is the month dedicated to honoring love. In this issue, we meet my first love/pet, 5% the cat, and her rubber replica, Bendy 5%. Then we'll travel south to Baja, Mexico where each February gray whales give birth to their young or mate if not already pregnant. We got up close and personal with a mother and calf who swam alongside our panga for a few minutes last year.

Update on Bootstrap

BOOTSTRAP is now in the queue for line edits and design at Roan & Weatherford Publishing. I can hardly wait to see the creative ideas coming from the publishing power couple, Casey and Amy Cowan. Stay subscribed and be the first to see the cover reveal.



For almost fifty years, Bendy 5%, pictured above, has been my good luck charm. She rides in my car wrapped around the rearview mirror, serving as guardian and constant companion. Feline Intuition is the essay that I wrote about the important role Bendy 5% played in my life growing up, the real black cat named 5% for whom she was named, and the time I almost lost my beloved talisman.

Both Bendy 5% and the real 5% are important characters in BOOTSTRAP. To hear their backstory, listen to this recording of me reading Feline Intuition by clicking here.

I hope hearing Bendy 5%'s story brings you fond remembrances or your pets, past or present, real or rubber, during the month of love.

Credit: Feline Intuition was first published by Cutleaf Journal in April 2022.

Gray whale migration is happening now along the Pacific Coast. Each year, tens of thousands of gray whales make their way south from the cold Arctic waters to the warm protected lagoons of Baja, Mexico.

Pregnant females give birth in Mexico from January to March. We saw the above mother and calf in Magdalena Bay, Baja last year. They gently swam between several small boats, called pangas, like we were monkey bars on a playground. Some babies satisfied their curiosity by gliding beside the boat close enough for a pat on the head. Baby grays weigh around 1500 pounds at birth and gain 60-70 pounds a day. The calf pictured above is approximately a month old.

Calves nurse for nine months. Eventually they join a pod either with or without Mama for the northern migration. When two adolescents cruising Magdalena Bay took time to play with our panga, their spouts created a mist rainbow at the bow of our boat. Watch them zig-zag in front of us in this incredible close-up encounter by clicking here.

According to the Oceanic Society, "gray whales undertake one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling 12,000 miles round-trip." Living on the Monterey Peninsula, we're able to keep a daily watch for these intrepid travelers. From our unscientific observations, we noticed larger pods this year. One sunny day we saw a dozen pods, each with three to six whales bursting blow holes like Jiffy Pop. I captured four altogether in the photo below.