The year was 2003. I was living with my sister in my house in NE Minneapolis with the big yard. We had two kitties at the time, Louis and Lovely Rosebuddear who is my namesake.
They were both outdoor kitties. It was a large yard, a pet friendly neighborhood, and a quiet side street. Pretty safe for outdoor kitties — we thought.
Rose was just kind of a homebody, liked to lurk in the ferns and hunt small creatures. Louis on the other hand was a traveler — he had a regular patrol route encompassing several city blocks. He liked to visit people and he enjoyed napping in strange places. It was this last trait that got him in trouble.
On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, my next door neighbor got in his convertible and drove over to another part of NE Minneapolis, about 10 minutes away by car, to visit a friend. He didn’t know he had a passenger — Louis was snoozing in his back seat. When the neighbor arrived at his friend’s house, Louis got scared, jumped from the back seat, and ran away.
Well. Poor neighbor. Poor us. I will never forget the look on that poor man’s face when he told us what happened. We didn’t blame him, of course. How could he know that Louis was stowing away in his back seat? It would never have occurred to me, until it happened.
No Facebook in those days. That was a year before they started. And believe me, no other social media form can compare with Facebook for its ability to rouse an army of helpful busybodies in a neighborhood. (I know a lot of folks here do not like Facebook for various reasons. I can certainly see their point, but it does have its uses.) I see lost kitty postings on my neighborhood Facebook page all the time, and they are ALWAYS found within a week or so. One little guy had traveled about 15 miles from home.
So we had to do it the hard way. I spent that whole summer stumping the neighborhood he had traveled to, putting up lost kitty posters, knocking on doors, calling for him at all hours — I was over there pretty much every minute I had off work — I became quite the local fixture. People were most friendly and helpful — nobody had seen Louis, but they gave me cookies and ferns out of their gardens — my sister would remark on the things I would bring home. And it was sort of fun, in a way. I got to know a lot of people.
My Mom went over there in the car with me one time — it was kind of amusing in a sad sort of way — my parents lived in one of those “super afraid, aggressively white” neighborhoods, as I call them, and this one was quite a bit more diverse. She sat in the car terrified, rolled up the windows, and locked the door on her side. I said, really Mom? I’ve been walking around this neighborhood all summer, everybody has been wonderful. But she still wouldn’t get out of the car. Sigh.
When I say the whole summer, I mean The Whole Summer. It was getting on toward Labor Day when I got a call from folks in the neighborhood who said they thought they had seen Louis. They offered to put a live trap in their yard if I would get it. I borrowed one from the Humane Society (they had them available for rent), and took it over. Rather above and beyond to help a stranger, I would say.
My sister and I went out of town for Labor Day weekend. By then we certainly needed a break. We got back home at 10:30 that Monday night to a lit up answering machine. They had him! Well we just couldn’t wait. I called them at 10:30 at night and asked if it was too late to call. They said no, we’re still having a backyard party, come on over. So we went over and sure enough, it was Louis. A much thinner scruffy bedraggled Louis. It was clear he had spent the summer living on nuts and twigs. 😊
So that night I had my little guy back home, purring and drooling in my ear on my pillow, just like nothing had ever happened. He was VERY glad to see us. I think of this a lot of times when I see those present day Facebook lost kitty postings. My favorite one recently was Elvis. He was missing for about a week or so and his person was totally frantic. He traveled a long way too. So far that I wonder if he didn’t do it the same way, hitchhiking with some unwitting motorist.
Happy Monday all! Try to stay cool, and make sure your furbabies are chipped. Marvin and Buzzy are both chipped, even though they never see more of the Great Outdoors than their screened porch. Hugs.
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