sad friday tale

My boss’s cat disappeared three weeks ago. We’ve all been hoping he’d show up again, since everybody seems to know somebody whose cat disappeared for weeks then came strolling back in the door after being given up for lost. When I was a kid one of our cats was gone for a number of days, then a neighbor found her trapped in the trunk of an old junked car in their backyard. She was hungry and upset, but  in good shape otherwise. When I was in college my beloved cat Zoey vanished, and had been gone at least a week when a friend’s girlfriend saw him in the window of someone across town’s apartment – of all the bizarre things. And got him back for me. So, you never know.

But today when I got to work D’s eyes were all red and she said her boyfriend found Hank yesterday afternoon. He’d been hit by a car almost in view of their house. Since he’d been gone for weeks, obviously someone had taken him home with them and he was trying to get back to his own house. And had nearly made it. I think that was the saddest thing – how close he came to getting back home. Poor D was in tears off and on all day. She’d never had a cat before Hank, and he was actually originally her son’s cat. I think Hank didn’t get along with the son’s dog, so she took him. And couldn’t believe how crazy she was about him. I also think she was a little surprised at herself for being so upset about a cat.

I’ve been upset about it all day too. I felt like I knew Hank from hearing stories about him. And then, to make it worse, there’s been a black and white cat coming around our house for weeks now. It meows at the door – and sometimes comes to the sliding door on the deck and peers in at us – but it runs away if I open the door. A few days ago, someone posted signs on just about every telephone pole on the road to our house about a lost cat. A black and white cat. I thought that had to be the same cat. I waited a couple of days to call because I wanted to check with our immediate neighbors to make sure it wasn’t theirs first, but this morning I called the number and left a message. A few hours later, the girl called back, and was SO excited. She was sure it was her cat – although he’d just been missing a week and I’ve been seeing this one for a lot longer than that. She lives pretty near us, through the woods, so it sounded very hopeful. Then she emailed me a couple of pictures… and it wasn’t the same cat at all. Oddly, the one I keep seeing looks a lot like Eddie, with a black and white face and mostly white legs. The one she lost is a tuxedo cat and looked a whole lot like Cayce. All these black and white cats.

So that was sad too – I think I had hopes that at least somebody’s cat would be reunited with its person. And the one I keep seeing came by tonight too. It does look well cared for, so it probably lives around here somewhere. I’m glad we don’t let the kittens out. We’ve always let our cats go out, but these two are full-time inside cats. It’s just too dangerous a world out there. I’d be a lot happier if Stella didn’t go out, but she doesn’t go anywhere. She sits in front of the house or on the deck, and comes right back in. She’s such a scairdy-cat that if a car door slams she comes running back inside.

Well, enough sad stories. Kim’s coming up to visit tomorrow, so that’s a happy thing. We spent hours cleaning, and I’m tired. But now the house is not a complete wreck. And of course it’s after one in the morning so I need to go to bed. But first, I’ll post some pictures of a very rare spot – and a spot I could probably get arrested for being in, so don’t report me. While we were off, Baker B and I drove over to the next county in search of a way to get to Long Hope Mountain. Long Hope Mountain is a vast and pretty much inaccessible wilderness that has a huge waterfall in one spot, and something like 27 mountaintop bogs in another, along with a whole bunch of very rare plant life. It’s in the process of being at least partially turned into a nature preserve, but there’s no way to get there without trespassing. Baker B has been obsessed with it for years, and we have tried to get up there before to no avail. His workmate is also obsessed with finding a way up there, and a couple of weeks ago he found a new development that came very close to going up the mountain. (Sadly, there are new developments EVERYWHERE up here, but once in a great while there’re at least a little helpful in getting to previously inaccessible spots.)

So. We decided to go ride around one day when we were off and it was very cold, and Baker B wanted to see where the development was. We found it without too much trouble – it’s waaaaaay far away from anywhere, and a pretty weird place for a development. It was gated, but the gate wasn’t locked, so we drove on in. The road was paved, and went straight.up.the.mountain. And I do mean STRAIGHT up. I’ve never seen such a steep road in my life – the car was practically standing on end. I can’t imagine how on earth they’ll get people to move in there – which is fine with me. There are maybe three houses built so far, and we drove for what seemed like miles. Straight up.

And we came to a dirt road with a chain across it that had a sign saying something like Long Hope Trail. So we parked and started walking up the road. Not really intending to go very far – just to see where it went. It also went straight up. I kept thinking we HAD to be at the top – and it would keep on going straight up. It was quite the exhausting hike and I got to see what kind of shape I’m in. Not that great, I’m afraid.

All of a sudden – there’s a tower!  A really weird tower. We thought at first it was a fire tower, but decided they probably wouldn’t build a fire tower out of sticks. It was huge, and had a deck and a picnic table, so I guess it’s part of the in-progress conservancy, or the future development. It seems strange to build an observation tower for a place that doesn’t really even have any houses yet.

Well, of course we climbed it.

And found the most spectacular view EVER.

Those are the bogs, in the center, going all the way down to the bottom of the picture. This is the Rare Hanging Valley of Long Hope. Oh, and those weird white specks are snowflakes.

From a slightly different direction. Oh, and that thing on the top right? Not a bird, or a UFO. It’s a hair. And it’s in nearly all of my pictures. Baker B got it out of a couple of them with Paint, but I need to get it out of the rest. I did clean the sensor and remove the hair, though.

From another direction. And yes, that is fog moving in. Ignore that hair.

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A longer view of the bogs.

Next time I’ll post some of the huge scary cliff we stood on, looking in the other direction. For some reason Flickr is taking forever to load my pictures tonight.

And for good measure and the cuteness factor- my black and white cats who are never ever going outside;