This is Outside In, a show about the natural world and how we use it. I'm Justine Paradise, one of the producers of the show.

And today, we're dropping in your feeds with a surprise extra for this holiday week.

We'll be back next Thursday with a regular

episode. We wanted to share this short and sweet little something, an audio

obituary of a creature of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Here's producer Taylor Quimby.

Marty, Maine Cooncat, 12-year resident of the Mount Washington Observatory,

and the highest altitude feline in the Northeastern United States

died after a sudden illness on November 9th, 2020. His exact age wasn't known, but

according to longtime night observer and meteorologist Ryan Knapp,

Marty was about 14 or 15. He was set to retire from his post next year.

It was a little bit hard to take because when I left him on the Wednesday prior he seemed in good spirits and like

Marty like usual and it's one of those things that you'd never really expected and then out of

the blue it happens kind of thing.

Marty had black shaggy fur, green eyes the color of spring ferns, large double paws

and a broad face that lent him the regal dignity characteristic of his breed.

He wasn't particularly large for a main coon, but he was distinguished by his station

atop the largest peak in New England. He was appointed to the Mount Washington Observatory in 2007,

after receiving more than 53% of the vote in a cat primary held by the Conway Area Humane Society.

As indoor cats, his opponents Sarah and Wilson the Conway Area Humane Society.

As indoor cats, his opponents Sarah and Wilson, were admittedly less suited to the job.

Marty was brought to the peak, 6,28 feet above sea level in January of 2008.

When he was younger, you would always get in trouble because he'd get into the buckets and whatnot that were up there and splash water all around and create a mess because he loved looking at the ripples that his paws would create in the water.

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