Getting Claw'd

     Cappy's cat, Claw'd escaped and found himself on an adventure. Usually when he gets out, he meanders back into the house within a few minutes. He'd been gone about four hours and we had begun to worry. Our neighbor let us know that a black cat was treed in his fenced-in yard with his two excited German shepherds who were running back and forth, urging him to come on back down. Was it our cat? 

   The lady who lives next door owns two house cats who never get loose said that there was another black cat identical to Claw'd who she'd been feeding, thinking that it was Claw'd having gotten out, because it let her pet him. But wasn't Claw'd. We had to check the times he'd gotten out to make sure it wasn't our boy. Plus, a few weeks before this the neighbor with the dogs had come to see if Claw'd had been out the night a pure black cat had been taunting his dogs. Nope, Claw'd had been inside for days and not that particular night, so we know there is a duplicate of Claw'd prowling around the neighborhood.

   When our neighbor with the dogs said there was a black cat trapped in the tree in his yard, Cappy and I followed him back over to his house, where we heard the most pitiful, terrified mewing going on way up in the branches of one tall tree. 

  The man brought out two different types of ladders in an effort for Cappy to climb and try to coax the cat down.

   Claw'd always wears a reflective breakaway color with a bell on it.

    I called up to Cappy, "Is that cat wearing a collar?" Cappy couldn't tell because of all the branches. "Do you think he recognizes you? ...think that's him?" He couldn't tell that either. So, for now it was "Schrodinger's cat"...we just didn't know.

   When finally, after almost an hour, the cat gingerly lowered itself for Cappy to get within reach of the poor thing...whether it was our cat or not, it wanted down! Would Cappy be able to hold onto it, or would it frantically struggle to get free and fall into the waiting jaws of the two happily anticipating German shepherds?

    Scary moments!

    I hollared up, "Is it Claw'd?" 

     The dogs' owner yelled, "Yeah, don't let it claw you! Don't let it claw you!"

    I yelled up again, "You think it's Claw'd?"

    "Yeah, don't let it claw you, don't let it claw you," loudly warned the guy again. "You don't wanna get clawed!"

     "Oh, yes I do wanna get Claw'd" Cappy squawked, standing on his toes on one of the upper steps of the ladder, the feet of which were not firmly planted. 

     Profusely sweating and holding onto the ladder with one hand and finally able to grab the snarling yowling cat with the other, he rasped, "I still don't know if it's Claw'd or not, but it's not wearing a collar." 

    The cat wrapped his back legs and his front legs tightly around Cappy's forearm, while the neighbor and I kept yelling about not getting Claw'd or clawed. The cat had no collar and until Cappy put him into my arms, we still weren't sure, but it was obviously relieved to be there. As frantic as the cat had been, wrapped around Cappy's arm, Cappy did not get even one scratch. So, he did get Claw'd, but he didn't get clawed.  (sorry, I hadda do it)

   Well, we got him home, where BeauxBear confirmed, yep, that was his cat, whom he dearly loves and had missed him.

   Now we need to be extra diligent on door patrol. None of us enjoyed that adventure!

  Driving home from Baton Rouge yesterday, I spied a few horses grazing in a field and mentioned to Cappy that poor Claw'd will be hard pressed for any kind of excitement from now on, cloistered in the house. I remembered our other Bichon Frises, SparkyBear and MarkyBear used to love seeing cows and horses because we'd slow down, or park next to the fences and let them all peacefully and quietly, nose-to-nose get acquainted, which both the dogs and the horses seemed to enjoy. I said off-handed to Cappy, "I wish Claw'd could see a horse, too; I think he'd enjoy that."

   A half an hour later, after getting home to our quiet little neighborhood, with the paved lanes, Claw'd sat in his hammock in the window wistfully gazing out onto his lost kingdom, when Cappy suddenly said, "There's a horse and buggy slowly going down our street! Claw'd sure seems all interested and is enjoying it!"

   "What? A horse? What's a horse doing on our street??"

     Well, to me, it seemed like the Lord was saying, "And, you're welcome!"