Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

Ground Control to Major Tom

Yes I had another "Major Tom" moment.
Wednesday
Donna picked me up from work after she finished college, and on our way home we saw this chap siting in the street.
Now, some of you may not realise but cats are not allowed out, by law, in Wisconsin.
So, if you do see a cat outside, it is generally either lost or feral.
A feral cat is one that lives wild and will run away from people.
We stopped the car and I approached this cat.
Immediately I could see that he had been shaved so I was pretty sure he wasn't feral.
I spoke to him and he meowed back to me.
Oh dear......lost kitty.  So, I picked him up and brought him home.
We whizzed him through the house into Donna's room so the other cats didn't see him.
We had a brief crisis when he was looking under the bed and growling.  On inspection we found Tootsie sitting under there, refusing to come out because she wanted to see who the new bloke was.
A few quick prods later she was heading, reluctantly, out the door.
This cat was lovely.
He was very big, had been totally shaved (suggesting he might be a persian, as they get easily matted) and he had huge feet.
He had been very recently shaved as there were a couple of marks from the clippers on his neck.
So, someone should be very upset that he is missing , we thought.

I posted  his photo on our neighbourhood page on facebook.  I phoned as many cat groomers as I could find to see if they had recently shaved a cat of this description.  I checked lost and found on Craigslist.  I placed an ad in the 'found' column on Craigslist and lastly I placed an ad on a lost pets page.
No luck.
I was mildly panicking as the last thing I need right now is another cat.
We are at cat capacity.   Most of ours have now accepted the newcomers but Looby Loo still has a bit of a problem with Tommy Jones.
Elsie doesn't like other cats at all so they all just ignore her.  I didn't feel like starting a whole new introduction process with this one, no matter how cute he was.
Plus, he must belong to someone.
Finally, the neighbourhood page paid off.
Someone recognised him as her neighbour's cat.  Then several people also confirmed they knew him.
We found out where he lived and after a couple of awkward moments trying to get him in a cat carrier, we took him home.
The lady told us his name is Taz and he is something of an escape artist.
It was a great relief to hand him over and now if we see him outside we will know who he is and where to take him.
Phew.......that was a close one, but if ever any of my cats got outside I would want someone to pick them up.  This is the second time I have taken a cat in and found its owner.  The other one was Baxter and that poor thing was starving.
It was so lovely when his dad came to get him.

Thursday.
On the bus going to the mall, a guy behind me leaned forward, showed me his phone and asked if I could tell him what time he had phoned the chemist as he didn't have his glasses with him.
I had to find mine first, but then I told him 9.44.
He then thanked me, using a British accent.  Now, this is something that a few people do.  I am sure they think it is endearing......it is not.
It infuriates me.  It is not appealing to mimic, badly, someone's accent.
Anyway, I just smiled and looked out the window.......but,  'you are not going to leave it there'..I thought.
Sure enough, he leaned forward again and asked if I came from London.  I actually do, although a lot of people here think that everyone who is British must come from London.
He again launched into his British accent to tell me how he loves all things British particularly the music.  Had I been to Wembley stadium...etc etc.
I must admit, his British accent wasn't bad.  He also did a fair Liverpool accent too.  By now I had forgiven him.
He then told me he is a guitarist in a band called Bad Habit.  A Milwaukee band that plays the festivals in the summer.  I looked at him and he did look the part.
He was wearing a bandana and looked a bit haggard, a very typical musician.
After a dodgy start, he turned out to be quite a nice guy and even shook my hand when he got off the bus.  I was going to put it all down to my 'idiot magnet' but he didn't deserve the title 'idiot' really.
It was a bit of a weird day altogether.
As I walked through the mall, people kept talking to me.  It got to the point where I was getting worried.
I found a mirror and inspected my image just to make sure I had gone out with pie all down me.  Fortunately I hadn't.

Oh and finally.........I've got a bad foot.  I have got Planter Fasciitis and it bloody hurts.
I did it coming downstairs a few days ago.  I am having to wear a splint at night.  I think it will take some time to heal.
Pants.

posted by Sue Banks @ 9:03 AM