[at-l] Mt Washington Mascot retiring

[Mark Hudson]

*MOUNT WASHINGTON, New Hampshire (AP) * -- Neither strong wind nor high
flames bothered Nin the cat during a dozen years patrolling the Northeast's
highest peak as mascot of the Mount Washington Observatory.

It's retirement that bums him out.

The regal ex-stray with a bright white coat and black splotches was carried
off the mountain Wednesday for the last time and will live with some park
rangers in the valley below due to old age and a recent infection claiming
the last of his teeth.

"He's 17 or 18 years old, so he's getting up there. We wanted to do the most
humane thing for him," said Scot Henley, executive director of the nonprofit
weather observatory.

Nin is moving in with Diane Holmes and Mike Pelchat, rangers at Mount
Washington State Park, after years of petting and pampering from visitors
and researchers alike.

"I am the latest in a long and famous line of Observatory felines," reads
Nin's profile <http://www.mountwashington.org/about/staff/observer.php#nin>on
the facility's Web site. "I ... find it very unnerving to head down
the
mountain (especially since they only take me to the vet's!)."

Nin was never fazed by the gusty wind and bad weather. He trotted down the
peak with the rest of the crew during a fire in February 2003, going
straight back to work when the time came. He was a welcome pal to legions of
meteorologists and scientists passing through during weekly stints taking
weather measurements in hurricane-force wind and heavy fog.

The observatory isn't expected to be feline-free for long. The Conway Area
Humane Society is evaluating successors to take over by the end of January,
Henley said. They're looking for a new cat who is friendly, not spooked by
bad weather and has the wits to know when to come in out of a storm.
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