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Archived News
reported by Comet Mahurin

FALL 2005

 This just in...

Baby Mahurin has arrived!  Hannah Ruth Mahurin was born ahead of schedule at 32 weeks gestation.  She just couldn't wait until December 20 to make her appearance.  I asked Hannah about this change of plans.  "Oh, no change of plans here.  I always thought late October would be a better time to have a birthday," she says.  "The holidays get too busy after that."  Hannah was born at Fort Sanders Regional Hospital on October 27 at 6:30 pm.  She weighed 4 pounds and 7.5 ounces and was 18 inches long.  She stayed for 10 days at East Tennessee Children's Hospital  in the NICU where she had assistance breathing for less than 24 hours and then was treated for jaundice and monitored for growth.  She ate well and after initially dropping to 4 pounds began to gain weight again and was sent home with mom and dad on November 6.  At a doctor's visit on November 11, she was up to 4 pounds and 10 ounces!  Passing up her birth weight by two weeks of age is a very good sign that Hannah is growing well!  Being fed every 3 hours by mom and dad might have something to do with this.  Despite being totally exhausted, Ellen and Rob are extremely happy to have Hannah home.  The rest of us are adjusting to her arrival as well.  I have to admit she is pretty cute and I am starting to feel protective of her as one of the family.  I vote we keep her!

SUMMER 2005

I am very sorry to report that the Cathouse is mourning the loss of Mandarin who was hit by a car and died on April 21st.  This has been a particularly difficult loss for Ellen.  "He was my baby.  I saved his life more than once in the short 5 years he blessed me with his presence.  I feel very sad and guilty that I could not save him this time."  Ellen is participating in grief counseling at the University of Tennessee Student Counseling Center and with a pet loss group created by the UT vet school and college of social work.  The "Mandarin's Friends" section will remain on the web page as a tribute to his sunny disposition.  Mandarin's pictures will always be included in the family photo album.  More will be added soon as a memorial.  Rob and Ellen welcome cards and stories about Mandarin to include in a scrapbook. 

There is also happy news in the Cathouse.  Summer will be a very busy time for Rob and Ellen.  Rob is collecting data in Los Alamos and Ellen hopes to finish her master's degree by August.  They will also both be preparing the house for a new Mahurin!  Rob and Ellen are expecting their first child in December, around the 20th.  They are very excited!!!


SPRING 2005

Spring semester is well underway.  Ellen is thrilled with how well her research is going.  With the help of 10 undergraduates, she is getting lots of recordings of chickadees and is analyzing the differences in their calls when faced with a hawk model, an owl model, a crow model or none of the above.  It looks like she will graduate in May or August of this year.  Rob is also making progress on his small particle physics project in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  He is on track to get his PhD in a year or two.

Rob and Ellen are looking forward to a road trip over spring break.  They plan to make it to Toronto, Canada to visit good friend Savanna and her husband, Tom, and new baby girl, Clara.  They will also make a stop to see Ellen's grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins in Cincinnati, Ohio and Rob's older sister, brother-in-law and three nephews in Chicago, Illinois.  Rob and Ellen are excited about a fourth nephew or niece due in April!

I'd write more but Gilbert is bullying Daisy and Mandarin is annoying Ernie and it's my job to referee.  Gotta go!

WINTER 2004

The school semester is over and winter is here.  Rob and Ellen are looking forward to time with family over the holiday break.  They had a fantastic visit with the Mahurin family over Thanksgiving!  The house was bubbling with 10 people, 1 dog and 1 cat.  The cat, Cali, Sue and Jim's 14 year old calico, was not at all happy about the situation.  I was the dog of this weekend.  I had a blast playing with Rob and Ellen's three nephews.  John-Paul, 7, loved playing tag outside with me and his face tasted really good!  Andrew, 4, made me feel at home with the way he would sit down, look me in the eye and have a conversation with me.  Eliot, 2, and I had a couple of misunderstandings.  I admit I was a little rambunctious due to the excitement which resulted in frightening him a little and then accidentally knocking him down.  But once we learned how to communicate, Eliot wasn't shy at all.  He would give me food, water, treats and toys and remind me what I was supposed to do with them.  "Co-met eat sood," he would command after feeding me and "Co-met eat dis," he would say when handing me a toy.  He also made sure I was well behaved and safe.  He told me "OFF!" if I got too close to his food and he told me "SIT!" before he gave me a treat.  He told Ellen when I needed to go outside and reminded her to "hold Co-met yeash," when taking me for a walk.

Rob and Ellen and I also enjoyed spending time with Sue and Jim (my grandmamma and granddaddy), Rob's younger sister, Catherine, Rob's older sister, Jamie, and her husband Martin.  Jamie and Martin are expecting another child in April.  Congratulations!

Ellen had a good fall semester.  Her master's project got underway with the help of three dedicated undergraduates:  Carrie, Elizabeth and Jessi.  She needs to collect more data this coming spring and present it to her committee to earn her master's degree.  She also has one more class to take.

Rob is continuing his work, in small particle physics, at the National Lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico (LANL).   It has been a rough year for his project because of safety, security and financial issues at  LANL.  It may be 1-2 more years before he earns his doctorate.

SUMMER and FALL 2004

Rob and Ellen have had a great summer!  The highlight of the season was a trip to the Dominican Republic with their church, Westminster Presbyterian  June 12-19. [photos in the family photo album] They participated in distributing used eyeglasses in the small towns of Azua, Estebania and Las Charcas near the southern coast.  This service was made possible through the international Lions Club (there was a chapter in Azua) and VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity).  They were joined by optometrists and optometry students from other parts of the US like Dr. Joe Crosby who kept the clinics running over any bumps in the road.  It was a special treat to have with them a trio of muslim siblings from the Northern US.  Ahmad was an optometrist, Mona an optometry student and Tark a business student.  The Westminster members enjoyed making this mission trip and interfaith experience as well as getting to know this kind and caring family.  It was also a pleasure to get to know associate minister Chris Berwanger's fiance, Nellio.  He took on the majority of the responsibility in organizing the clinics and also translated.  They were also blessed with a group of dedicated Dominican teens who translated for them each day.  On the Westminster team was also a group of exceptional teens who worked very hard and had so much fun making friends with their Dominican peers.  Through these combined efforts, the eye clinics served 770 people.  In addition clients and servers alike felt a part of the "world church/community." 

Visitors to the Dominican Republic were lucky enough to stay with host families throughout the week.  I talked to Ellen about this experience.  "We were touched by their generosity, openness and trust for strangers," says Ellen.   They were also impressed by the way these attitudes made strong and connected Dominican families, neighborhoods and cities.  Ellen told me that Dominicans also like to have fun!  Host families took their guests to the beach, made sure they had plenty El Presidente beer and Cuba Libre (locally made rum in Coke) and held big supper parties with dancing and performers.  Ellen enjoyed the trip so much, she had difficulty remembering anything negative about the trip.  "We did have a few casualties," says Ellen, "Of course we were all exhausted by midweek, some had GI upset, some had colds and some suffered from the heat and loss of electrolytes.  Plus I sprained my ankle and one of the girls, Amy, got a spider bite that turned into cellulites."  Still Ellen smiled at the memories and added, "But Amy was a tough cookie and she can't wait to go back.  And without my injury, Rob would have never taught me how to do the 'crutches meringue' and Nellio would have never told me my new favorite phrase.  In Spanish it is 'nunca deje su como' which literally means 'never leave your bed' and more descriptively means that once you go to bed or decide you are going to bed don't get up again for any reason until morning."  According to Ellen, she and Rob were just about to go to bed when Chris and Nellio arrived to take them out for ice cream.  Ellen suspects her exhaustion played a part in her stepping off of a high sidewalk curb.  Despite illness, injury and poor Spanish skills, Ellen and Rob found a special relationship with their host family and look forward to corresponding with them and to the adventure of more mission trips in the future.

In the realm of school, Ellen has been helping her adviser build aviaries at the UT Forestry Experimental Station in Oak Ridge.  They are currently working on the first two out of six.  This project will continue in the fall semester.  In addition, Ellen has been fleshing out her ideas for her masters project.  This fall she plans to carry out the research and write it up as well as finish her classes.  She hopes to complete all her masters work by summer 2005.  She is also thinking of a side project in which she can study the effects of pet owner attitudes toward pets on the success of behavioral modification.  This will help her gain experience for her planned pet training/behavior modification business.

Rob is continuing his work, in small particle physics, at the National Lab in New Mexico.  This will turn into his dissertation and will lead to him earning his doctorate by spring of 2005 (approximately).  He spends 2-3 weeks per month there and the rest of the time in Knoxville.  His most recent trip to Los Alamos, in mid-July, was canceled, however, due to a safety and security issues in other departments.  He hopes to return sometime next month.

SPRING 2004
This spring it's back to class for Ellen and back to Los Alamos for Rob.  Rob is continuing his work, in small particle physics, at the National Lab in New Mexico.  This will turn into his dissertation and will lead to him earning his doctorate by spring of 2005 (approximately).  He spends 2-3 weeks per month there and the rest of the time in Knoxville.  Ellen is continuing her study of animal behavior at the University of Tennessee.  She hopes to earn her masters degree by spring 2005 and start a pet training/behavior modification business.


WINTER 2003

Rob and Ellen had a lovely Thanksgiving with Rob's family.  They will probably see them again for New Year's.  Rob and Ellen look forward to Christmas being spent with Ellen's family.  The next two weeks are full of projects and papers and exams for the couple.  They can't wait for the semester to be over!  I can't wait for them to be home with me more!

FALL 2003

The Cathouse crew has settled into their new house on Gilbert Lane.  Yes, Rob and all of the critters approved of Ellen's choice for a home.  You can see fantastic iPIX images of the house before they moved in and did a little redecorating.  Rob and Ellen like the funky colors of the place so most of what you see is still there.  With much appreciation to Chris King of iPIX, here is a link to the Cathouse tour: www.ackingdom.net/Mahurin/scene1.html .  The big house warming/potluck/drop-in/1927 themed party is scheduled for All Hallow's Day (Nov. 1).  Call the Cathouse for all the details.

This Fall at UTK, Rob is taking his last semester of course work for his PhD in physics.  That will leave about three more years of research to get his degree.  Ellen is in her first year of graduate study in experiemental psychology focusing on animal behavior.  She plans to have her masters in two to three years.  She is continuing her work with Todd Freeberg on Carolina chickadee calls.  I asked Ellen how she likes being a graduate student.  "It's great!  My classes are so focused on information I am really interested in and that will apply to a career in animal behavior.  Plus, suddenly, I get a lot more respect from my proffesors and peers.  The commeradery among the small group of psychology graduate students is also great."  When asked if she plans to apply to any school sof veterinary medicine in the future she responded, "I really like where I am right now.  I am having so much fun going to school and learning.  It's so great to enjoy the process and not just be looking ahead to when I am finally finished with school.  Study and work in animal behavior really appeals to my inner scientist.  I think this is where I can be most happy and make unique contributions to human knowledge.  Reapplication to vet school is not out of the question but it's just not that intersting to me right now."


SUMMER 2003

Summer has been an exciting season for the cat house.  Rob has really enjoyed his research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.  No, he's not doing anything top secret or bomb related.  He is studying neutrons.  (For more you can email Rob).  Rob has also enjoyed the opportunity to live in New Mexico.  The landscape there is so different than that of the southeast and so beautiful.  Rob has enjoyed hiking up onto mesas and down into canyons.  Such hikes often reveal native American ruins, petroglyphs and cave dwellings.  Ellen got to visit Rob for the July 4th weekend.  They had a blast camping in and exploring the Bandelier National Monument, attending the beautifully housed Santa Fe Opera for a hillarious performance of Offenbach's La Belle Hélène, eating lots of great Mexican food and hanging out with friends Rob has made in NM.  Ellen will be returning to Los Alamos on August 8 and driving back to Knoxville with Rob.  They will be back by August 15.

Meanwhile, Ellen has been keeping busy at home.  She bought a house!  On July 31, there will be a new and improved cat house in the Island Home area.  We are all excited to be moving our 6 member family to a larger home.  Here's the kicker:  Rob hasn't seen the house yet!  Now that's trust!  He has been very supportive of Ellen's decisions about the house and she is confident that he will love it.

This Fall at UTK, Rob will take his last semester of course work for his PhD in physics.  That will leave about three more years of research to get his degree.  Ellen will begin her first year of graduate study in experiemental psychology focusing on animal behavior.  She plans to have her masters in two to three years.  She will continue her work with Todd Freeberg on Carolina chickadee calls this semester.
SPRING 2003

During spring semester 2003 at UTK, Ellen will finish up her BS in Psychology bringing her degree collection up to two (the first BS being in Biology).  Ellen's focus on animal behavior combines these two disciplines.  She is currently assisting professor Todd freeberg in research on Chickadee calls.  This spring, recordings of Chickadees will be taken at various seed stand sites that have been set up by Todd and Ellen this past fall.  Locations of these sites include the UTK Arboretum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Ellen sums up her enjoyment of this work by saying, "For class credit, you can't beat hiking around in the woods, watching and recording birds and learning about their calls and behavior.   I love it!"

Rob plunges into the first of his last two semesters of course work for his PhD in physics at UTK this spring.  He will then complete an additional year or two of research including a dissertation before receiving his degree.  Rob has an amazing opportunity to work at the national lab in Los Alamos this summer!  He will be spending about 3 months there.  (If you would like more details on what he will be doing, drop him an email.)  

Ellen will stay in Knoxville this summer to hold down the fort but will be visiting Rob as frequently as possible.  She will be traveling to Nicaragua in the first week of June with Westminster Presbyterian Church.  The group from WPC will be participating in the eyeglass recycling program by fitting and distributing the glasses to young and old in Nicaragua.

Tarantula Photo Hchtpcht (AKA Sweetums) has found a new home at the office of Todd Freeberg!   Todd is a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.   Ellen is currently assisting him in research on Chickadee calls.