How I located Elsie

Did I not tell this story yet?

Last Monday, August 1, I got two phone messages from different people. One was from the Humane Society. "Someone called us--she thinks she may know where your cat is." The other was from the somebody, Pam, who had been feeding a light-colored, fluffy, blue-eyed cat over at her mom's house on L Avenue NE (just a few blocks from the vet's).

Pam said that she'd been feeding the cat for about 3 weeks. She had wanted to find the cat's owner, and had resolved to catch her and take her to the animal shelter. She was telling a friend, and the friend said "Oh, that sounds like the cat on the "lost cat" poster I saw hanging up in the neighborhood."  The poster was gone, so Pam called over at the Humane Society (where I'd made a report when Elsie got away) to see if they knew anything, and they gave her my number.

I went over and met Pam that evening, and as I came up the driveway, there was Elsie, standing under a bush between Pam's mom's house and the neighbor's house! "Elsie!" I said. "There you are! Where have you been?"

She scampered off. Apparently, she was very easily spooked, Pam said, but she would let Pam feed and pet her.

I felt so relieved to know where she was! Pam and I decided that I needed to come and get her reacquainted with me.  So over the next few days, I came--sometimes meeting Pam, and eventually on my own. I let the neighbor know what I was doing--it's a bit of a rough neighborhood, so I didn't want to alarm anyone.

At first, I didn't see her.  I just sat on Pam's mom's back steps and read my "Peterson's Guide to Birds" app on my phone. One night, just after I finished reading about the elusive (and possibly extinct) Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I looked up to see Elsie walking up to the dish of canned cat food I'd set out. She ate, and let me pet her, eventually relaxing and purring a bit. Then a neighbor's dogs started barking and she dashed off. Still. It was great to see her!

The main thing I was trying to figure out was how to catch her so I could bring her home. She was definitely skittish, and I know from experience that she is very strong, so the idea of grabbing her to put her in a carrier seemed unlikely. I investigated ideas, from ways to trap cats with live traps to getting a "Cat-in-the-Bag" to maybe putting sedative in her food (didn't fly; the sedative takes too long to take effect).

In the end, it was Elsie herself who became relaxed and happy enough to let me pick her up. Without that, she'd still be living in that backyard.  And without Pam's kindness and diligence, I may never have found her! Right now, I'm just feeling relieved and grateful.

The Lost Elsie Saga from the beginning

I thought I'd give a quick overview of the Elsie saga: how she escaped, what I've done.
It all started Tuesday morning. She had her annual check up with the vet, and I was going to see if he had any insights about her persistent chronic cough. She was easy to plop into her cat carrier--wow!--and off we went to the vet.

But when I got there and parked, and went around to get the carrier out, the cat carrier door popped open and she sprang out and ran!  I just stood there for a minute, but then walked slowly after her. I didn't know at the time what this meant. I just thought I'd walk slowly to her, call her to me, and pick her up. She eventually ran around from one end of the lot to the other, and I lost sight of her. The vet's assistant came out and discovered her sitting in a tree outside the house next door.

I could almost reach her. Almost. But as I talked calmly to her and reached out, she ran further up the tree, then further.

I called the Animal control people to see if they had advice, but they did not answer the phone. The non-emergency police dispatcher got a hold of animal control, but they (AC) declined doing anything, and the dispatcher sent . . . the CRFD!

 Yes, a big fire engine with ladder.

 The ladder scared Elsie, who ran down and bolted around the house. By the time we (me and the firemen) ran after her, she had disappeared. I mean completely.  We looked for a while until I told them they should just go. And I looked and looked. No Elsie.

Eventually, I went home, but came back later in the afternoon with a live trap that I borrowed from the Iowa Humane Alliance. I set it up and caught . . . a neighbor's cat! I took a break for dinner, then came back with Bruce and Eli. We set up the live trap again, and also walked the streets, me calling to her and rattling food in her dish. No sign of her at all--we were there almost 2 1/2 hours.

I came back  the day after at 5:30 am and in the evening, and several times on other days. My friend Anne and I walked through the area one evening and tried to "think like a cat" and we thought that maybe she might be in a shed near where she escaped. We tried the live trap overnight, but . . . nothing.
Later, I made flyers and posted them on telephone poles and gave them out to anyone I saw: businesspeople, people who were outside. Everyone seemed very concerned and was encouraging to me. The guy in the sign shop who said he walked his dogs and sometimes saw stray cats, the guy in the other sign shop who offered to put out a live trap and hung the poster in his store window, the middle-aged lady with the bird feeders, the toothless guy with the detailing shop.

The flyer has this picture of Elsie

And this text:

Elsie

Female, spayed, has all claws, about 5 years old

Microchipped

Mostly white with gray patches and dark gray tail. Blue eyes.

Last seen outside Family Pet Hospital, 1101 J Ave NE, 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 10

If seen, please text or call 319-431-9084

 

It was just so hard to go walking the streets calling and calling, shaking the dish with food and have nothing. No sign of her at all. :-( that's why today was so hopeful and heartening: maybe we will find her after all.

Elsie Search Party

So this morning was the search party for Elsie. Totally awesome idea from Michelle, who despite being terribly ill this week, had a great idea!
When I got to the meeting point on J Avenue, Helen Reddy's song "Keep on singing" was playing. Got me singing along, head bobbing.  There was already someone at the meeting place: cheerful Julie, who's been posting responses to my Lost Pet posts.  Julie and I walked through the area behind the vet's, me calling out to Elsie and her stuffing flyers in mailboxes.

Michelle, Luke, and Dudley (a large "dumb," according to Michelle, and handsome dog) came a bit later, and I walked with them, glad for the company. It was nice to catch up with Michelle and watch Luke's energy and antics. A guy with a SAINT sweatshirt met us, too: he seemed knowledgeable about some feral cat colonies and went to check them out on his own.

After about an hour, we said goodbye to Julie and started walking between J and I Aves, along the streets. I dropped off a flyer at Green Gables Inn--a neighborhood bar on J Ave. I've never been in that place. Of course I haven't: I don't really drink. Amazing: at 10 am it was full of men in baseball caps drinking beers in dim light at the wrap-around bar. The barkeep told me she'd put up the flyer.

There was a sign for a garage sale in the next alley, so we went down, thinking we'd drop off a flyer there. The woman having the sale looked at the flyer. "I think I might have seen your cat this morning," she said.  Really?  Where? When?

"I'm a smoker, so I go out on the porch," she said. "This morning there was a light-colored cat I haven't seen in the area before. There are other cats that live around here, and another light-colored one, but this one was different. She started to come up on the porch, but when I got up to pet her, she went across the street--not very fast."

Totally sounds like Elsie.

We told her how grateful we were for the lead, and she showed us where the cat had run, across the street to an abandoned house.
I was so heartened by this report. Michelle and Luke went home soon after, but I stayed and walked around that neighborhood, putting flyers on cars and handing them to people. I met a couple getting out of their car. The man said he thought he'd seen a cat like that recently in the alley. "There are a lot of stray cats around here," he said. "They come by our house. My wife leaves out food for cats."

"Oh, thank you," I said to the wife, who didn't answer, but just smiled slightly and looked down.

"If we see your cat, we'll try to get her to come close so we can catch her for you," he said.

I put out lots of flyers in the area, and walked one more time by the house where Elsie had run.  As I walked along the house, I looked into the neighbor's yard, lush with deep grass and a perennial bed. Could that be a light-colored cat?  I called Elsie's name, and "here kitty kitty" and the cat looked at me: blue eyes, light body, but this cat had tabby markings on its face. Such a let down!  Maybe this was the other light-colored cat that lives around here. Hard to know.
When I got home I finally remembered to check my phone. I am very bad about that: my phone lives in a wallet in my purse, so I never hear it vibrate. There were two messages from the person from SAINT left before we met up . . . and two messages from people regarding the flyer about a lost cat!

One person, Candace, said she might have seen Elsie. I called her back, and she said that she and her boyfriend saw a cat like the one in the flyer on Thursday night in her alley near the car detailing shop. "My boyfriend and I love cats, and she was a beautiful cat. She came pretty close, but then ran away."
Again, sounds like her.
I thanked Candace for calling. "I have some pouches of cat food--if she comes around again, I'll try to get her to come closer," she said.

Another caller, John, left a message "I'm calling about the lost cat, call me back", but I couldn't get a hold of him because his voice mail isn't set up. I'm going to keep trying.

It's good to have some sightings and an address:  1029 Center Point Road. I think maybe I'll go over there at dusk tonight and see if I can find her.  I'm a bit sad that I'm going away tomorrow. I wish I could find her before I go. 

Garden update

Good news and bad news about the 2015 garden on July 1.

Good news:  raspberries! 

This year, the bugs have not eaten the berries, and they're doing well despite the not-optimal location behind the garage.  Every time I stop back there, I can pick a handful or so.

Other good news: Eli's pumpkin! 

Its huge leaves and ever-growing vine are a wonder to see!  Just male flowers so far. Not sure what will cause it to start producing female flowers.  Perhaps less rain? 

Speaking of rain, the humid weather has caused stupendous tomato growth. Despite constant pruning, the 4 plants--1 grape tomato, 1 Celebrity, and 1 President--are as tall as I am. That's 5'3".

Plenty of little green tomatoes waiting to ripen.  These are on the grape tomato plant.

But bad news: all the rain has also caused the usual tomato fungus to spread very quickly. 

Many of the lower leaves are dying. Not sure if these plants will live long enough for the fruits to ripen. I spray them with copper soap spray because I can't bear to use anything stronger. I think it's supposed to be dry the rest of this week, so maybe that will slow the spread of the fungus.

Meanwhile: good news:  basil is doing great.

Some of these plants (I have about 7-8 plants) are knee-high. Others a bit smaller.  Probably we'll have our first pesto dinner in mid-July, with plenty of pesto in August and September.

Zinnias and blue salvia are doing fine: I'll post photos when they start blooming.

Challenging a Geek

Apparently, Robbie's work study job at Luther College (he works at the IT Help Desk) involves a lot of tinkering with electronics.

"When I'm not taking things apart, I get antsy," he told me this weekend. 

That was right before he started taking Bruce's malfunctioning tape deck apart.

I'm glad he likes his work study job, but I was a little worried about whether he was getting challenged enough at college when he told me about his computer science class this term. It's a required class, and one in which he's learning a new language, C++ (a funny name for a language). 

Apparently, it goes so slowly that he has his computer open, and is teaching himself a completely different computer language DURING CLASS, and he's still able to "answer more questions than anyone else." 

Hmm.

OK, that part about doing something else during a class really bugged me, but mostly because I teach.  I mean, at least he's pushing himself to learn new things when he's bored.

Still, I started wondering, as I have before, if maybe I should have pushed him to apply to places like ISU or UI or CWRU or MIT, where he would be in bigger Comp Sci departments with graduate programs and probably more classes. Programs where he might have been challenged more.

Hard to believe I started thinking that: I'm a big proponent of liberal arts colleges, with their close-knit communities of learners and the connections that they forge--between different disciplines, between students and teachers.  But I was worried about my comp sci geek child--I want him to be challenged and have opportunities to develop his skills.

Later, though, he told me more about what he's up to at Luther, and my faith was restored. 

He loves his math class, one called Chaotic and Dynamical Systems.  Is that even math?  Anyway, he told me "It's the math class that I've always wanted to take!"  Right now, they (the class is just 6 or so kids) are learning all about the Mandelbrot set, which he thinks is about the coolest thing ever.  I guess it's a type of equation that creates images like this.

Apparently, the math teacher is taking them to a math conference this coming weekend to attend sessions and meet the guy who wrote the book.  Robbie is beside himself with happiness about that.

A couple of weeks after that trip, he'll be going to a computer programming contest, too--the students who work with him at the IT Help Desk recruited him. He'll be able to use the computer language he learned in high school, Java. 

And!  They're starting a new Robotics club at Luther, and guess who is one of four students who will be getting it started?  Yup, my tinkering computer geek boy:  "We'll be building a quad copter," he says.

So OK.  This is exactly why I wanted him to go to a place like Luther: so he could have these kinds of special opportunities to pursue his passions and get challenged.  So what if his comp sci class is way too easy for him.  That's just this term.  "I can't wait until I get into the upper-level CS classes," he told me. 

He also said, when attempting to unlock the car door from inside the house:  "The screen on the window must have enough metal in it to create a Faraday shield."

That's my geeky boy.

Autumn ride

I skipped my usual Wednesday lap swim time and went for a bike ride instead. After two days of constant rain, the weather was bright and sunny--if cool.  I went over to the bike trail near Cedar Lake--it's a ride I used to do frequently.  I hoped to see the fall flower bloom.

Cedar Lake used to be called Cedar Slough, so I think it used to be a large wetland. It's in an industrial area, and the water hasn't always been very pristine. Still, I think the city would like to improve the area. The bike trail was one improvement.

It goes by some railroad tracks . . . .

Sadly, I was too late to see the fall flowers that grow along the trail: goldenrod, asters, thistle, tickseed.  But it was still an interesting ride.

There were lots of wooly bears--I saw 11 before I stopped counting!

They all seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. And for those of you who look to those caterpillars for winter weather predictions, the brown and black segments were all about equal, whatever that means.

Though I'd missed fall flowers, there were lots of ex-flowers--and they had their own beauty, I think.

These are  burdock pods, waiting to go home with some kid on their socks or mittens.

 Queen Anne's lace skeletons by the lake.

 Petal-less tickseed or rudbeckia remnants--just the centers are left.

Thistle down is all that's left of these thistles.

One remaining evening primrose is ready to unfurl.

And fall colors were nice--like these blood-red sumacs. I thought they were almost Draculanian.

Look at these nice colors!  Yes, that's poison ivy and sumac, right next to each other.

OK, it wasn't exactly what I'd hoped to see, and I am sorry to have missed the fall bloom.  But it was also kind of cool to find surprising and beautiful sights in mid-October.

Hindu Dance in Iowa

Those who had her as a teacher will not be surprised that this frightening personage is none other than Miss Julia Bennett. Maybe in their minds, she always looked like this: frightening and formidable!

In this photo, she is in full costume as Raksha, the evil sorcerer in the Dieman-Bennett Dance Studio production of the Hindu Swan Lake.

Maybe you didn't know there was such a thing as a Hindu Swan Lake. But there is!  Or was: choreographed by American ethnic dancer and choreographer La Meri, it was danced many times by Dieman-Bennett dancers here in Cedar Rapids--and at such important dance venues as Jacob's Pillow and the Edinburgh Festival.

Swan Lake is the story of a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. It's a very well-known ballet, with music by Tchaikovsky, a quartet of cygnets, and an evil twin to the princess, who does 28 (32? or more?) fouettés en tournant. 

The Hindu version that La Meri created uses the same Tchaikovsky music, but Hindu choreography. I've seen excerpts from a PBS documentary. It is a remarkable work, blending the familiar music we all know with the gestural, beautiful moves and gorgeous costumes of Hindu dance.

La Meri gave Miss Dieman and Miss Bennett the rights to perform her choreography--this must have thrilled them, as both loved Hindu dance. Miss Dieman had learned it from La Meri herself when she studied and danced with the famous choreographer in New York City (she was a Hindu cygnet). But it was a lot of work.  Miss Bennett writes in her notebook that it took two years to prepare the dancers to perform it.

Here is Miss Dieman with sari and drums in a picture from the same era, maybe rehearsing the dancers. 

La Meri came back to perform the role of the princess and Miss Bennett was the sorcerer at the Cedar Rapids debut on June 11, 1964 at Sinclair Auditorium on the Coe College campus.  

"Madame Le Meri complimented me and said I was the strongest Raksha she had ever danced with," says Miss Bennett in her notebooks.

Miss Dieman and Miss Bennett continued to teach Hindu dance classes along with classical ballet. It surprised their dance colleagues from different parts of the world that excellent instruction in Hindu dance could be found in Cedar Rapids, Iowa of all places. But they took it all in stride.  For them, Cedar Rapids was the perfect location for the flowering of the arts of East and West.