Sunday, August 2, 2009

Zoe Saves the Day . . .

I am in Detroit for a show this weekend (I'll post pictures from that when I get back to work on Monday -- thanks to all of you who came). But this is how my Saturday started . . .

We were putting the finishing touches on our booth about an hour before the show started when my cell phone rattled on my hip. It was my wife, with a story to tell. Zoe sleeps in the living room, and Carla had left the bedroom door open just enough that Zoe could get in if necessary. About 1:30 in the morning, Zoe decided it was necessary -- ran into the bedroom, jumped on the bed, woke up Carla, and then ran to the sunroom door. Then (probably because it was 1:30) she had to repeat the process. Zoe doesn't do this unless something unusual is going on outside, so Carla got a flashlight and they both went outside the investigate.

What they found was our 14-year-old tomcat, on the wrong side of our invisible fence. Apparently, Tom had a confrontation with another cat strolling through our neighborhood and decided to hop to the other side of the field. Once he got there, he had no idea how to get back -- Carla and Zoe found him in the yard across the street. I have no idea how Zoe knew -- our house fan runs all the time to circulate air upstairs, so even a good catfight would have been hard to hear.

So Zoe gets all the credit. Carla called this morning and told me that she locked both cats in the garage last night . . .

This is Tom -- his momma adopted us 14 years ago in the spring and three days later had five kittens under our front porch. We kept two and gave the others (and Momma) away. Tom has ruled the yard ever since. He is the greeter -- his sister was always skittish and would run away if someone new came around. Tom just ambles up (he is never in a hurry) to see what's going on.

When I went to the local pound two years ago and picked out Zoe, I went home and got Carla, then went home again and got Ryan and Tom. Wife, son and cat all had to sign off before Zoe could join the family. With Zoe's energy, sometimes I wonder if Tom regrets his decision . . .

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