Lost Cat is Home!

We are very happy tonight that the lost kitty who came to us Saturday night is back home with his family. We had called or emailed everyone we could think of that might know the cat, but nobody did. We got in touch with Helen Morrison to find out is she could take him at the Kingdom Animal Shelter, and she said they'd be happy to take him but there is a very long waiting list for animals to go to the shelter, so we might have him for a while. Based on that and our failure to find his owners, tonight we took him to the Veterinary in Danville to have him scanned for a chip. There wasn't one, so we made an appointment to have him checked and shots updated, etc., thinking we'd have him for a while and wanted to be sure he was healthy and didn't need special food or medicine.

He behaved quite well in the carrier - some howling, but no "accidents" like some cats have when they are stressed while being transported. When we got home, we had a call from Julie Drown, who cuts our hair. Julie has three cats and we had told her about our stray, thinking she might hear about him from friends or clients. Julie told us she had just seen a notice on Facebook about a missing cat she thought might be our stray. I went to the Facebook page and sure enough, there he was! We called the number right away and found out it was a young couple (Monica and Colin, I think it is) with a year-old baby that   moved into Jay and Kate Chatot's house on Chatot Rd. (Jay and Kate have moved into their house on W. Shore Road, just below us).

When the cat, "Solstice," went missing last week, Monica was very upset. Being new to the area, she didn't know about Front Porch Forum and didn't know her neighbors, but finally Colin persuaded her to put it on the Love of Peacham Facebook page, which she did today. The rest you know. Julie saw it, called us, and Solstice was reunited with his family.

We cautioned Monica that it's very dangerous for a cat to be out in the woods these days, especially where they are living. Kate has told us many times about all the wildlife she saw around their house. It's kind of a miracle that Solstice made it all the way to our house at least twice without mishap.  Monica promised Fred she was not going to let him roam free anymore. We are just happy to have found his family. We did enjoy his visit, though. But no kitty can replace Woody - and we are reluctant to get attached to another animal, at least not for a while. Maybe again some day. We'll see.

For those of you who are away from Joe's Pond, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon we had snow flurries and at one point the ground here was white. Within 30 minutes or so the sun came out and the snow melted away, but there's more to come, and soon. This next batch the forecaster said would be "shovelable." Like that's good news of some kind! The weather is going to be abnormally cold later this week. November is here, for sure.  The recent rain has done a lot of damage along streams, washing out roads and bridges in many parts of the state, so it will mean a lot of work to get things repaired ready for real winter. It would be good if the snow and cold held off for a few weeks to give crews a better chance of getting repairs done, but that probably isn't going to happen. I'm sure the repairs will get done, whatever the weather, but just not as easily or quickly if it's  miserably cold. At that, Vermont is still a pretty nice choice.