Cat Found, an Emotional Day

 I saw something that looked like a cat in the bushes of my backyard around noon today. It wasn't our lost cat, Biggie, but a bigger cat, which after I spotted him/her, quickly jumped up on the fence and escaped to a different yard. Meanwhile, I also saw a smaller, skinny cat streak out of the same bushes, and this one definitely was Biggie.

But he seemed so disoriented and frightened. First he jumped straight into the fish pond, then ran around the yard as if he were crazy. As I tried to calm him down he once again fled into the bushes. I yelled for the kids to come out back and all three did.

We started stalking him, trying to contain him to some area where we might be able to pick him up, calm him down, and get him back into the house.

Despite the kids' sweet words and outreached arms, he continued to act crazy, running here and there and twice more falling into the (very cold) pond.

Finally, in an odd turn of events, he raced up the stairs and into our apartment, after which they picked him up, wrapped him in towels and blankets, dried and warmed him, and convinced him to start eating food and drinking water.

Tonight, he appears back near to his "normal" self. I have taken down the "lost cat" signs.

Tonight, my daughter played soccer and her team won its first game of the spring season, 1-0. She played brilliantly on defense, making many strong kicks up the sideline after stripping the ball from strikers. At some point in the second half, it became clear she was hurt. She'd injured a toe on one of those violent foot-to-foot collisions so common in soccer.

"Are you okay, Julia?" her coach yelled from the sideline.

"I'm fine," she said.

After the game she limped next to me, her shoe off, her toe swollen, as we got to our car.

***

Tonight is her 18-year-old brother's senior prom. He took his girlfriend. This morning we picked up the flowers they are wearing tonight. "To tell you the truth, Dad, it doesn't matter all that much to me, this three-hour dance, but it does to her. I'm just happy to be there with her."

-30-