Thanks
so much Leslie for the recap. It's completely riveting, from start to
finish.
And
it's wonderful that you took the opportunity to talk up leukemia kitts on
TV.
I'm
amazed by the efficiency of the chip company. I mean, that's how you hope it
would work, but......
Thanks
too for taking the time to compose the list of do's and don't for future. I
don't have a car now, but when I do I'll def be installing a cut-off switch.
Only
one of my cars in the past had one. I could never figure out why they're not
automatically installed in the factory.
I must
dig out my microchip info...or at least get the vet to scan my brood again, so i
can re-visit the chip companies. Make sure it's all in
order.
I'm so
sorry you had to go through this nightmare...and so happy for you and your babes
that it's over.
Big
hugs to you and your sweeties.
Kerry
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leslie
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 4:40 PM
To: Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: The End.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leslie
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 4:40 PM
To: Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: The End.
Hello everyone!
I'm sorry that it's taken so long to give you the recap, but the saga has
continued.
Okay, Beth's recount of how I got Satch is spot on - I found him through a
call generated by the broadcast about 5 miles north of where the car was
stolen. The confusion with the microchip reading was actually at the
shelter that he's co-registered to. They just switched their computer
system and have the files from 2004 on paper still - I know this because it took
a couple of calls for me to convince them that Satch and I existed to them.
So once I knew where Satch was, I figured that Bea might be in the
same area - the fear that she'd been scared under a seat was there, but at least
I had a place to start. So I took the flyers that I had in my car and went
over to a nearby apartment complex - I really think that you guys, the spirits
of all of our past cats were guiding me to this place - to put flyers on cars in
the lot there (little did I know that if I'd continued further down one row I'd
get to my own car! But that comes later...). Nina, this is when you
called and I so feel that that little distraction of mind (my
talking to you while putting out flyers) opens the motions of the body up to the
will of the universe, my methodical flyer placement became a little sporadic as
I told you the story and shared my excitement - moving across and up and over
the rows, not just down them, I'm certain that this is when I put a flyer on the
right car. About an hour later I got a call from Bea's microchip company,
a girl in that apartment complex had seen one and took the sweet little kitten
she'd found to the vet to get scanned. And it was Beatrix. The chip
company gave me her phone number and I went right back over to pick her up.
The first woman (who had been hoping that Satch would become their store
mascot - evidently anytime someone opened the door to the back, he'd run in and
go visit people) soundly refused the reward. The girl who found Beatrix
was young - late teens, early 20's - and lived in a not so nice area. It
would have been so easy for her to keep Bea, so I foisted a reward of
$100 on her. I was just so appreciative that she called.
My work, Full Sail Brewing, was so impressed with the story, they are
sending the newswoman, Amy Troy, and the cameraman, Steve, $100 gift
certificates each for a trip to the brewery in thanks for helping.
So to answer the questions about needing more reward money - I am
good, and for those who have sent funds, your money is so appreciated and
has been/will be put to good use. For the reward for the girl, Iris, and
to replace cat medications that were in the car.
So more about last night below, but today the news station called, they
wanted to do a follow up. I met just the cameraman at my apartment and
told him why leukemia cats are so wonderful and why people shouldn't be afraid
of adopting them, or keeping them when they test positive. I told him how
the negative vibes of the violence from a stranger had been overwhelmed by
the positive vibes of the kindness of strangers. I thanked him and thanked
him.
Then I went back to the area that they were found on my lunch break and
took a stab at looking for the car. I called the police department this
morning to follow up on the messages I left last night, the operator said that
she forwarded the messages to the responding officer's voicemail, but that he
was off until Monday. If I wanted to go look for the car, fine.
If I found it, call 911. I thought that the chance of me finding this car
were minimal - I don't know the area, don't know anywhere but that apartment
complex. So I went there to start. I was driving down the rows of
cars, and saw yet another white car two from the end. It was a
Mazda. It was a Protege. It had my license plate!
I started shaking, I couldn't believe it. The anger and fear of the
last time I saw it came flooding back, I didn't know whether to stand by it or
to run away! I called 911 and a policeman came. Miraculously, the
only damage to the vehicle was where the meat that I'd gotten to make cat food
had thawed. It was dumped here, window down - I assume to let the cat's be
able to come/go. So it was wet on the driver's seat from rain, but not too
bad. He took my overnight bag with toiletries, medications, contacts,
wallet, watch, ring, cell phone, he took the contents of my glove compartment:
registration, title, insurance; he took my visor cd organizer that had maybe 8
burned cds, that, between you and me, skip. He left the groceries, the
cans of cat food, he didn't open the trunk. He took the electronic parking
card that makes the gate go up and down at work. He didn't even use that
much gas. He was listening to a radio station that I listen to.
The police officer wasn't surprised that it wasn't jumped or have a damaged
ignition, he said that there are interchangeable keys that exist for different
makes of car. How scary is that? I asked if there was anything that
I could do to prevent this from happening again, and he said that what he has in
his car is a cut-off switch. Something that even if the key turns, the
engine won't start. He said that it wasn't very expensive (probably less
than getting the carpets cleaned to get the meat juice out) to get installed, so
I'm going to call the mechanic to get it.
He lifted the alert on the license plate, I parked the rental car in front
of the electronics store with their permission, and drove my car back to
work. Hands down, this has been the most surreal, strange thing that has
ever happened to me. I called the reporter at KGW, and am hopeful that
this is the last update that I have to give.
When I picked Beatrix up last night, she settled quickly into my lap in the
car and I put my arm around her. She rested her head on my arm and
sighed. It was as though she were saying: Ok, that was an adventure, now
let's go home.
Once we came inside, Satch greeted us at the door just as he'd done in what
seemed like so long ago. They were nonplussed to see each other, as though
they'd just parted ways for five minutes.
What I noticed most was that they smelled funny. I couldn't tell you
how they normally smell, but I can now tell you how they don't normally
smell. Satch smelled like the perfume of the woman that fed and petted him
outside of the electronics store. And a faint cigarette smell from where
she'd kissed him on his head.
Beatrix smelled like cooking grease, like someone in the apartment she'd
been rescued into had been cooking frijoles.
Satch was very tired. His left eye was bothering him, he looked like
a pirate, but it wasn/t weeping, and he was SO tired, I wondered if maybe having
been on alert for 36 hours outside hadn't just irritated them - as it had mine
with the crying and restless sleep. It is better this morning. I
loaded lysine into his wet food last night and this morning.
But most importantly, they both seemed like...themselves. I
still haven't processed the act that initiated the whole thing and found myself
wondering if it was all a dream....and then Bea would jump up on my lap and I'd
find a bit of leaf in her tail ... a benign souvenir to recent adventures.
What role they played in getting the car dumped quickly and with no real damage,
I don't suppose that I'll ever know.
One of my favorite movies of all time is "It's a Wonderful Life" and I've
just now realized that I'd been misinterpreting the final scene. When
George Bailey's brother gives the toast, "To George Baily, the richest man in
the world," I would look skeptically at the basket of money that his friends and
family had been contributing into and try to guess how much it took to make one
the richest man in the world, and if the basket was really big enough. Now
I understand that the basket could have been empty but the statement still true.
I have a plaque from my late grandmother that is the first thing hung in a
new apartment and the last thing removed before I go, it's a quote from Robert
Louis Stevenson: "So long as we love, we serve; so long as we are loved by
others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless who
has a friend." All I can say to you all, is thank you. From all of
us. You have undone me in such a wonderful way, and proven things that I'd
always hoped to be true.
Leslie
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