The Rest of the Story.........

THE PORCH
BY
J WALKER BELL

Conclusion........

Mandy and Janway looked at each other for a brief moment. Then the whole house shuddered with a sudden jolt, and the rope jerked from the direction of the porch with vicious force. The rope was still wrapped around Mandy’s right hand, and Janway heard the bones in her fingers break with grisly snaps. She sucked in her breath to scream and the rope jerked again, this time pulling her off her feet. Her head hit the edge of the porch floorboard, blood from the wound splashed over the porch and ground. Janway stood frozen, thinking stupidly that he’d always been told that even superficial head wounds bled profusely. Whatever was attached to the other end of the rope began pulling Mandy under the porch. Janway heard an obscene, rumbling growl coming from beneath the floorboards.

Mandy found her voice and began screaming. They were throaty, horror-stricken screams. Her right arm and most of her head were already under the porch, but her left hand grasped the railing with frantic force and her legs scrambled for some kind of purchase.

Mandy’s screams released Janway from his paralysis. Rushing forward, he grabbed her legs and pulled backward with everything he had, hollering unintelligibly. The wet earth slipped out from under his feet and he landed hard on his buttocks. Another jerk on the rope and Janway was pulled along with Mandy another foot. Mandy’s screams increased another decibel.

The house shuddered again. Nails sprung from the porch floor and boards broke loose, letting in some of the fading light. Janway caught a glimpse of a shape under the floorboards. It might have been a large dog once. There was no way to know how long it had been trapped and crushed under the collapsed porch. No way to know how long it lay there with it’s broken skull and crushed hindquarters or how long the changes had been going on. If it had been a dog, all that was left were feral eyes protruding from a cracked skull from which all hair and skin had long since rotted away. The forequarters were a gangrenous green. The forepaws were bloated into massive hooked claws. The hindquarters were stretched into a snake-like length from the effort of pulling away from where it was trapped under the porch. The rope was still attached to the collar around its neck. Into its mouth Mandy’s arm had disappeared as far up as the elbow.

The floorboards crashed back into place. Mandy, sane and practical to the end, realized she could not pull free. She never truly believed in things that go bump in the night, and although she was terrified, it was not the mind numbing kind of terror usually associated with encounters with the unknown. She had been a fighter all her life, and so she did what she had to do. Freeing her left hand from its grip on the railing, she scrambled under the porch to fight the thing which was devouring her arm. Janway did the only thing he knew to do. He scrambled under the porch with her.

It was black under the porch and the air was foul. There was more room than at the edge of the porch, but not much. Mandy grimly fought the beast in that constricted space. She panted in huge gulps that left no room for screams. She clawed, bit and kicked with inhuman violence. Janway did what he could by grabbing and holding one of the beast’s fore legs. The beast kept tearing its foreleg from his grasp, leaving sheets of dead skin tangling his fingers, but Janway kept grabbing at it.

The beast released the remains of Mandy’s arm and lunged at her. The rotting jawbone of its toothless mouth dragged along Mandy’s head and tore open the scalp. Mandy and the thing howled together with maniacal sounds so similar Janway could not distinguish between the two. Mandy’s entire body stiffened and convulsed violently and Janway lost his hold on the thing’s foreleg. Mandy and the beast slumped motionlessly to the ground.

Janway got Mandy out form under the porch. He laid her on her back on the ground and kneeled beside her. There was little left of her right arm. Bone and severed blood vessels protruded from her shoulder, the artery releasing blood with every beat of her heart. Her head had been ripped open where the beast had chewed and tore at her scalp. Blood-soaked bone showed through. The flap of skin covered her face. Janway gently folded the skin back onto her head. Mandy’s eyes were open.

They did not speak. They both knew she was dying. In the moment they had left, they relived the seven years they’d had together, the love they had for each other, the joys, the sorrows, the companionship, and the reassurance for the last time that it was okay that there would never be a child.

When Janway saw her die, he saw the Mandy he knew so well and loved so deeply fade from those eyes.

Only, those lovely green eyes did not close in death. Those eyes did not grow glassy and unfocused, but continued to regard him. Her chest did not rise and fall because she was no longer breathing. No blood coursed from the serrated arteries because her heart no longer pumped, but the eyes watched him as he checked these things.

Janway looked into those eyes and saw something familiar. There was only a spark, but somehow he knew it would grow stronger with time, and sometime over the next few hours, or days, or months, those eyes would look on the world with the same feral madness that Janway had seen in the eyes of the beast. Knowing that, Janway took a rock and began methodically to smash into shards his dead wife’s head.

This is what Janway told his lawyer, but it was not what he told the jury. His testimony in court was much shorter. He testified that he and his wife had, indeed, stopped on the porch of the deserted house to get out of the rain. He then testified that he tried to convince his wife to have sex with him. She refused and he became angry and tried to force himself on her. She fought back, and he killed her by bashing her repeatedly in the head with a rock. When he described how he had battered her head, Janway looked straight at the jury so they could see the truth in his eyes.

Two months after his sentencing, Janway was found dead in his death row cell. The autopsy report concluded that he had managed to strangle himself by swallowing two pairs of socks. Recordings of his psychiatric counseling revealed he suffered from a recurring nightmare. In the nightmare he was pursued by his headless wife, who had clawed her way out of her grave and come for him. On the single table in his cell were two newspaper clippings from the Pennsylvania Herald dated a week apart, the second just the day before his suicide.

Janway's cell after his suicide

The first clipping began “The abandoned house and barn where James Janway brutally murdered his wife burned to the ground late yesterday afternoon. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the blaze. Bones found during the investigation are still being inspected, but one source speculated that they were probably from a dog...” The second article began “The empty, broken coffin of a Pine Home Cemetery grave was discovered by the cemetery’s caretaker yesterday morning. Authorities are unsure when the grave was opened due to the steady rain of the past week. Vandalism is suspected because of the damage to both the coffin and the crushed up headstone. The identity of the missing body has not yet been determined....”

Happy Halloween Everyone!

A Halloween Story........

When we were kids we used to tell ghost stories. Some were just plain silly and some were actually the kind that sent chills down my back. The scariest stories to me are the ones where you don't really see a monster or a slasher, like in the "Halloween" or "Friday the Thirteenth" movies. But, you know there's something there and you want to look behind you if you're walking in the dark.

This is a story that Charlie wrote and it was published in a "Fanzine" called "NIGHTSIDE", The Fanzine of Amateur Horror Fiction, in 1991. He used the pen name "J Walker Bell". He gave me permission to post it in my special Halloween blog. It's called:

THE PORCH
BY
J. WALKER BELL

The jury found James J. Janway guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to death row. Janway refused to appeal the decision, released his attorney, and retreated into silence.

Janway’s blunt testimony at the trial sealed his fate. He had his reasons for lying on the witness stand. He wished desperately to mourn his dead wife, but there was room for nothing but the fear. He refused the authorities’ offer to allow him to attend his wife’s funeral. Just sitting in the township courthouse during the trial, fifteen miles from the neighborhood where she died and Pine Home Cemetery where she now lay buried, made him panicky. For Janway, death row was the safest place he knew.

Both Janway and his wife, Mandy, were tired of the California life-style. When the packaging company where Mandy worked opened a new branch in Pennsylvania, they jumped at the chance to transfer. Three months earlier, Janway, who had been laid-off from his civil service job of ten years, traveled to Pennsylvania to find a new place for them to live. The depressed economy of the region provided many choices and Janway examined numerous houses. He chose a small three bedroom house, just the right size for a mature, childless couple.

The area had seen some development, but that had slowed with the economy, and the atmosphere was still fundamentally country. This part of Pennsylvania consisted of rolling hills and farmland planted primarily in feed corn. The country atmosphere and the friendly neighbors were a main attraction. When Janway called Mandy about the house, she liked his description of the farm within walking distance of the house. Horses and milk cows were pastured there, to Mandy’s delight. They moved in that July.

Near Janway's house

Janway and Mandy were happy there despite the inevitable problems and unexpected annoyances. Janway, unable to land a job in his field, took a low-paying job in a carpentry shop. The job did not help their financial situation, but Janway found that he enjoyed the physical work and the creation of something tangible.

The location of their rented home also proved a little disappointing. The narrow two-lane road which their house was next to was surprisingly busy. Neither Janway nor Mandy were comfortable walking along its almost non-existent shoulder on their regular treasured evening walks. They flinched every time a vehicle hurtled by.

It took some exploration, but they eventually found a nearby intersecting road that offered the country scenery and privacy they sought. A small housing development crowded the intersection of the two roads, but once they were past the row of houses, a dirt road wound through the hills for two miles before doubling back on itself. Farmland cut into only a portion of the woods here. They were delighted at the rabbits, groundhogs, and occasional deer they saw along the road and at the edge of the woods.

In September, Janway and Mandy began their regular walk a little later than usual. The weather was getting increasingly fall-like, and darkness was coming earlier. They knew there would be little light left by the time they returned, but the area was now familiar and neither wanted to disrupt their evening ritual. They stopped to say hello to the horses and feed them each a carrot, then turned onto Old Spring road, passing the development and into the woods. Mandy was wearing a light sweater and Janway was wearing a short sleeve shirt. The temperature was in the low 60's and it was breezy. They knew they would be comfortable as long as they were walking.

It was too late for the rabbits to be out feeding, but there were still many birds to watch. Janway talked about the cabinet he was building. He had designed it himself on commission from one of their neighbors. It would be the first thing he had designed and built without assistance. He was excited about it.

Mandy talked about the letter she had received from her sister, Suzy. Mandy and Suzy were very close. She was due to deliver their third child any day. Then they talked about their decision not to have children. Janway and Mandy both needed constant reassurance from each other on that decision. Even after seven years of marriage, well meaning pressure from both sets of parents raised old insecurities. They held hands as they walked, but the closeness between them went far beyond physical.

The rain started in light sprinkles. They joked about the rain, and their ill-preparedness for it. Janway suggested they turn around and cut the walk short, but Mandy wanted to finish their walk. Janway agreed. They continued on.

The back loop of their regular route consisted of occasional corn fields cut into the tangle of woods and heavy underbrush. The road turned into gravel. Once or twice on their walk a car or horseback riders would pass, and they would wave and smile. They never encountered other pedestrians. Weathered farmhouses were a common sight. There were also large, expensive homes built back from the road. These houses, surrounded by out of place suburbia lawns, were inevitably built on a part of an old farm. A crumbling barn and a boarded up house engulfed by vegetation usually shared the lot and looked less incongruous than the two-story Tudor or split-level ranch that sat behind it. These expensive homes were normally deserted. Mandy dreamily described the homes as “weekend retreats” for the rich and famous.

Janway and Mandy reached the switch-back that would carry them down a steep hill and then around a tight curve that marked the mid-point of their walk. The rain had begun to pick up force. They were walking briskly. Mandy’s sweater was still holding off the bulk of the rain, but Janway was getting very wet and cold. On their right just off the road was one of the abandoned houses with its barn. The house boasted a porch that looked very dry and inviting. Thunder boomed in answer to a flash of lightning and Mandy jumped. The worst of the storm was still on its way.

A chain stretched across the unused driveway with a “No Trespassing” sign hung on it. The barn, on the immediate left of the driveway, held a weather faded “Beware of Dog” sign. Past the barn was a single story, unpainted house with shuttered windows and its porch. The house sat on a hillside that sloped down from its right side. The driveway extended to the end of the long side of the narrow, rectangular house. There were no awnings or other protrusions aside from the short porch, which extended from the house’s front end.

Janway hesitated despite the increasing rain. His respect for the rights and property of others was so strong it often interfered with practical considerations. Mandy admired this trait in her husband, while at the same time the manifestation of it tried her patience.

Mandy pointed out that no one could possibly be living in the house. The owners would not mind if they stood on the porch to keep from getting soaked and possibly catching their death of cold. She shivered convincingly and jumped again at the flash of lightening. Mandy was not as cold as she wanted Janway to think, but she was definitely afraid of thunder and lightning. She then stepped over the chain and headed for the porch. Janway, overcoming his reservations about trespassing, followed.

The barn and porch

They stepped gingerly onto the porch. The untreated floorboards were broken along the edges and the wood sagged and groaned where they stepped. Much of it looked rotten. The front railing and the supports for the roof were made of saplings probably cut right on the property. The floorboards were nailed together, but the saplings were held together by hemp rope. They were amazed that the porch roof did not leak. Two large pines sheltered the area between the house and the barn, about ten feet away. The two-story bulk of the barn blocked the rain from the porch. Janway, who had a nervous fear of spiders, looked a bit anxiously for the expected webs and was surprised and relieved that there were none.

Janway wrapped his arms around his wife, the chill providing a convenient reason to snuggle. Mandy, who knew how cold Janway’s hands could get even in mild weather, pulled his hands under her sweater to rest against the light shirt she wore underneath. She rested her head on his chest. They stood this way for a long moment, drawing warmth from each other and watching the rain fall. Mandy raised her head and they kissed lightly.

After a few minutes the rain had slackened considerably. A heavy mist still fell soundlessly and contributed to the growing darkness. It was very quiet. The light was dim and objects seemed to take on a faint white glow. Mandy walked over to the other side of the porch to see what that side of the house looked like. Janway, still uncomfortable with the unstable look of the porch floorboards, stepped off on the nearer driveway side and walked around the porch, between the house and barn.

Mandy discovered that the house and porch foundation were made only of thick pieces of hand-cut timber. The upper and lower ends of the timber rested on the underside of the house and the ground, respectively, with no other visible support. Over the years the weight of the house had forced the timber out of alignment and it was obviously only a matter of time before the whole structure tumbled down the hillside. Already the house showed a slight lean and some of the porch supports had collapsed. That explained why the side of the porch near the driveway was lower than the opposite side. The porch had already partially fallen to ground level on the higher side of the hill.

The leaning house and collapsed foundation suddenly made the porch look dangerously unstable to Janway. The area of the porch where Mandy now stood was supported underneath only by a small boulder, which had evidently been dragged to that spot to hold the porch in place. A quick look at Mandy confirmed that she felt the same sudden fear. Moving quickly, Janway pulled Mandy off the porch and they wasted no time getting back to the front of the porch and out from between the structure and the hillside.

Their relief gave them the giggles, and they playfully prodded each other, trying to get the other to admit who was more scared. Janway noticed that a rope was tied to one of the railing supports on the driveway side of the porch. The rope stretched to the ground and then disappeared underneath into the ten inch gap left between the half collapsed porch floor and the ground. Near the rope was an old, iron skillet with something still crusted in the bottom. Mandy rapidly caught the implications, confirming Janway’s own deduction that the rope had been used to leash a dog. A dog that had been fed from the iron skillet.

Janway, still playing up the scare they’d just had, wondered aloud, in a foreboding voice, if there might still be something attached to the end of the rope which snaked under the porch. Mandy was standing next to the rope. She looked from her husband to the rope and back. The dare had been made, and Janway knew Mandy would be too curious to leave it alone. They played this game often. One would dare the other, and then if the dare was taken, the roles were later reversed. Mandy smiled. It was getting darker and harder to see.

Mandy grasped the rope where it was tied to the railing. When she touched the rope, Janway felt an inexplicable tension. He almost spoke, telling her to let go and forget it, but there was no reason for the feeling and it would make him look silly, so he said nothing. She began to pull on the rope, collecting the coils that lay on the ground and wrapping them around her hand. She stopped just before starting to pull the rope from under the porch. She made scary noises at Janway, teasing him, and he mustered back a smile. He teasingly told her that she should back away from the porch a few steps, but the words came out too seriously. Mandy’s smile faltered slightly at his tone. She didn’t back away, however, chiding him for being a sore loser, and then she pulled on the rope.

Janway saw immediately that there was more tension on the rope than there should have been. The logical part of his mind informed him that the rope was probably caught under some part of the collapsed porch. The rest of his mind went numb with terror and his eyes fixed on the rope, unable to look at anything else.

Mandy jerked on the stuck rope, and they heard a sharp sound that was half yelp and half whimper.

More in Part 2.........

Leaving PA......for CA

Rowdy, Calvin, & Chelsi

It was late April and snowing when the movers came to pack our things up. Then two days later when they came back to load up the truck, it was lightly snowing again. A day or two later, we packed up our cars and headed south to Virginia to visit our relatives in Virginia and North Carolina, before leaving for San Diego. Chelsi was riding in the backseat of Charlie’s car and I had the two cats, Rowdy and Calvin in their kennel, in my car.

Calvin always meowed for the first hour of the drive. Rowdy was the silent sufferer, but you could see how he felt when you looked into his eyes. Chelsi was the perfect traveler. She sat in the backseat and then when she was sure she was on her way, she layed down and took a nap. Of course, we didn’t know until we got to San Diego, that she had been quietly chewing the seat belt almost in half!

We spent several days in Virginia with Charlie’s mom and really enjoyed it. The cats and Chelsi were always welcome at “grandma’s” house. We had our own room and the cats were right at home. Chelsi ran around the house like it was hers.

Then we went down to N.C. to see relatives there. Everyone got together at my mom’s house. She was the other “grandma” who always welcomed the pets. We again had our own room and the cats and Chelsi adapted very well, even with all of the people there.

Chelsi loved running around with the little nieces and nephews. Of course, it made it much more fun if they were carrying a cookie or piece of candy. She ran along behind them, hoping to get anything they dropped. Jerod, my sister’s little boy, was Chelsi’s favorite because he was only 3 years old and the smallest.

Then we left the families and drove across country to San Diego. The cats were in their kennels all day and when we stopped at night, the first thing we took into the room was their litter box. I remember one night when we brought the kennel in and opened it, the cats looked around the room and then headed for the litter box. Rowdy stepped in and as we watched him, we could see the “relief” on his little face. He had held it all day. What a feeling! I’ll never forget that look he had.

We had a rental house ready for us when we arrived in Chula Vista. When we had come to San Diego a couple of months earlier to find a house, we were looking for a good place for Chelsi to be in during the day while we were at work. This house was perfect. It had an enclosed “California room” where she could go out in the yard when she wanted to. We left the door to the yard open wide enough for her and were able to lock the other door into the house. We didn’t want her to be cooped up in the house all day and we didn’t know if she was completely housebroken.

She ran in and out, even on rainy days. The carpet was indoor/outdoor and held up well.

About a month after we moved in, we decided to go to a movie one night. We were gone a few hours. When we came home, we were surprised to see Chelsi sitting in our front yard. We don’t know how long she had been out, but we were very relieved that she was in the yard. In just a few years, that would be a different story........

........More later.

Chelsi.....Part Deux

Chelsi (tiny isn't she?)

Measuring Chelsi (7 weeks old)

Chelsi was not happy in the basement. I talked to friends at work and they suggested that we get a crate and put her in the kitchen so she would be able to be with us more. She was with Charlie when he was working on the computer in the basement, but then when he came up, she cried and cried. We felt so bad about leaving her down there.

We went out and bought a crate and read all kinds of books about crating a dog. We’d never done it before. Two weeks after getting Chelsi, we brought her up to the kitchen to stay. She was not housebroken, so we still had to do that.

Isn't she adorable?

Charlie took her out in the morning before he went to work. I took her out before I went to work. Charlie came home at lunch to feed her and let her out. She had wet her bed. We were told that puppies wouldn’t wet their bed. Wrong. Chelsi wet her bed. I came home and took her out. Washed her blankets. We took her out during the night. The next morning she had wet her bed.

We set the clock for 2:00 a.m. Charlie got up and took her out. The next morning when he got up to go to work, he fed her and took her out. I took her out before going to work. Same thing that day. She had wet her bed. We made her crate smaller so she had a bed and her water. She still wet her bed. We really didn’t know what to do. She did her #1 and #2 when we walked her.

So, we did the laundry and thought we were bad parents. She was happy and frisky and we just loved her to death and she loved us. Poor thing. She had only known snow on the ground. It started snowing in Pennsylvania on December 5 and when we brought Chelsi home on the 22nd, snow was still on the ground. It stayed on the ground until April when we moved.

Chelsi in the snow (3 or 4 months old)

At night when we were home and could watch her, we let her out of the crate. We were standing in the kitchen one night talking. Chelsi went to the kitchen door and barked. We both looked at each other. She wanted out! After that she was housebroken. She still slept in her crate at night and when we were gone (we rented), but with caution, we let her out of the crate when we were at home.

She never chewed up shoes or table legs or anything that wasn’t hers. We supplied her with toys and rawhides and she knew her toys from our things.

We were supposed to transfer to San Diego in April 1993 when Chelsi was about 6 months old. The movers were expected in a few days and we had been packing at night because we were both working during the day.

One morning I was getting ready for work and had let Chelsi out of her crate before I had to leave. I was in the bathroom finishing my hair or makeup and I kept coming back to the diningroom where she was playing with one of her toys on the rug. Our house had hardwood floors and each room had a large carpet, but not wall to wall. When I came in to check on her, I was horrified to find that she had pulled the pile of the carpet up and had made a perfect bare circle about the size of a silver dollar! I was more shocked than anything because she had never done anything like that.

Our landlord was always very nice, but his wife was such a shrew. She probably had the first quarter she had ever made. Well, I knew we would pay dearly for that little place that Chelsi chewed up and most likely would have to buy another whole rug. I wasn’t about to do that.

At lunch time I went to the fabric store and bought some hook needles, the kind you use for rugs and canvas, etc. I got some strong thread and that night I sat and hooked every one of the pieces of pile back into the carpet bed. When I finished, no one was the wiser and it passed inspection!

Theda did get some money our of us though, but it wasn’t Chelsi’s fault. One day I was in the basement packing and the light bulb was out. I climbed up to change it. It had one of those glass coverings to remove so I removed it, changed the bulb and when I was trying to put the cover back on, it slipped and broke into pieces. That cost us $35 from our deposit.

More later..........

Chelsi.......... Part I

It's all about Chelsi!

We were living in Pennsylvania when we adopted our dog Chelsi. It was December 1992. We went to Virginia to visit relatives before Christmas. While we were there we went to the mall and we liked going into the “Pet Go Round” to see the pets. We had been talking about getting a dog and we had looked at books and magazines and decided that we would adopt from a shelter or buy from a kennel, not a pet store. We wanted a Norwegian Elkhound. We liked the way they looked and their personality. So, that was the kind of dog we wanted. Yeah, that was the kind of dog we wanted. Fast forward.......

That Saturday we went into “Pet Go Round” we were not expecting to see so many dogs! There were puppies everywhere. We started walking around and came upon these little 6 week old pups who were Doberman/Australian Shepherd mix. They were so tiny and several were in the pen. One was a little female. We picked her up. She snuggled in my neck and had that “puppy” smell. She was so sweet and cuddly. We held her and petted her and then put her down and left. We had puppy fever.

The next day, Sunday, we got ready to leave and go home. Charlie said he wanted to pick something up from Sears before we left so we stopped by the mall. He asked if I wanted to check the pet store before we left. Of course, I did. The pet store was right outside Sears. We went in there and Charlie called the sales person over and said we were here to pick up “our puppy”. I was a little surprised when "our puppy" was handed to us. She was wearing a little collar that said “Adopted by Mr. Bell.....See Ya!” I was so happy to have her, I cried.

We took her back to the car and decided to take her back to the house to introduce her to the family before we took her home to Pennsylvania. She was a big hit with Uncle Jeff and Uncle Tim and Charlie’s grandmother, “Mammaw”.

So, we started off with our new family member on a 6 hour drive home. She was christened “Chelsi” before we crossed the Virginia stateline. It just seemed to fit her.

Chelsi slept on my lap or on my chest the whole way. When we were about 30 minutes from home, she started to squirm to get down on the floor so I put her down. There were some papers there and she peed on them. We were so amazed! What a smart little puppy!

We had two cats at home, Rowdy and Calvin, both about 4 years old. Rowdy was very curious about the puppy, who was smaller than he. Calvin, on the other hand, was having none of this dog.

We set up a bed in a pen for Chelsi in the basement. She ran around and played. The cat’s litter box was also in the basement. We didn’t know it, but Calvin refused to come down to the basement. We didn’t notice.

About a week after we got Chelsi, I noticed that the Norfolk Island Pine that we had in a pot in the livingroom looked like it was dying. I started looking at the pot and soil and that’s when I noticed that Calvin had been using it for a litter box. He had not been going into the basement because Chelsi was down there. No matter that she was in a pen! So Charlie had to take the tree out. It had died. Sigh.

Stay tuned for more............

Tim....ber........!!!

Our cats looking out the patio door in Virginia

This is the weirdest October for weather that I can remember here. Usually it is hot and dry and we get the Santa Ana winds. But, we’ve had overcast days for the whole month and it’s been misty and drizzly. Yesterday we had rain that continued all night.

Sometime about 2:30 a.m. I woke up just in time to hear something. It sounded like something brushing the side of the house, like “swish”, but I really couldn’t tell. Sheila was asleep by the bed, but she also heard it. She jumped up and wanted to bark I know, but like me, she didn’t know if it actually was something to bark at. So, she went through the house, but never really barked. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t.

Well, when it was later and I was opening the blinds in the bedroom, I saw that the big bushy tree that was on our hillside, had fallen over. The whole front of the house was leaves and branches.

The sound that Sheila and I heard was that tree falling over. I remember that sound because it was the same one we heard when we lived in Virginia during Hurricane Isabella in 2003.

We had a huge maple tree by our back deck. The storm hit in the late afternoon so we could see the sheets of rain and the trees blowing side to side. I was scared witless and all I could do was sit on the stairs and listen. Charlie went into the little den we had and was reading. My imagination runs wild sometimes and I thought “What if our doors or windows blow in and the cats get out?” So, we found all of the cats and put their I.D. collars on, just in case.

Then I heard that “swish” sound. We went to the back of the house and that maple tree had fallen....away from the house, thank goodness. Not only that, but the huge Sassafras tree back by the fence had fallen as well. It took out three sections of the fence.

The next day was beautiful. The sun was shining and the sky was so blue. We had two big trees down in our yard and our neighborhood looked like a war zone. Other neighborhoods were worse though. Not far from us a tree had fallen on top of the house and it was split in two. Luckily the people were not home. The man was a professor at Wesleyan and he and his wife and little dog went to his office for the storm. Not sure why.

We didn’t lose electrical power because our lines were underground. But, the older neighborhood behind us had overhead lines and they were without power. We heard generators going everywhere for weeks.

At the time, we had a little white cat named Blanca. She lived in our garage and in our backyard. We had found her in our yard one morning not long after we moved to Virginia. She was tiny and we thought she was a kitten. But, she was probably 4 or 5 years old, according to the vet. She had been someone’s cat because her front paws were declawed and she was very friendly. We had tried keeping her in the house with the other cats, but there was too much fighting going on. She was outnumbered and she never backed down, so there was no peace. She had her own little room in the garage and she was pretty happy out there.

After the storm, Blanca went with us to inspect the backyard. Charlie wanted to take some pictures for the insurance company. So, Blanca and I climbed all over the fallen trees. Those didn’t get sent to the insurance company, of course, but I have them in an album.

When we moved back to California, we sent Blanca ahead to stay with a friend until we arrived in a couple of weeks to get her. In the two weeks, my friend, Kim, became attached to Blanca and asked if she could keep her. We agreed. Blanca had about 5 more happy years living with Kim, her daughter, Haven, her cats, Pinto, Colby, and Tessa. Blanca became ill last year and passed away. She is still missed by her family and Charlie and I talk about our days with her in Virginia as well. She was a real sweet little cat.

Blanca

As for the tree that fell down in our yard this morning, it has been cut up and taken away already. Now the privacy screen between our house and the neighbor is gone. Charlie says it’s good that the tree is gone. He plans to ‘do some work’ on that hillside. I told him I would remind him of that. There’s a witness......Kaci is lying behind me in my chair as I write this.

More later........

We're Upside Down

Ellie May Bell aka L.E. Maybell

In our crazy house of cats and a dog, we talk for all of them and they all have a “personality” that may not really be them, but in our minds, that is what they are like.

Taz was a very shy boy. But, we built him up to be bigger than life. He “talked” all the time. When Charlie forgot to do something, Taz would “say”, “Dad screwed up...again!” It always had to be ‘again’. Then Charlie would play along and say “Yes, I did.” I could get away with telling him he ‘screwed up’ if Taz said it.

Charlie and Taz had a little game they’d play. Taz would say “Dad, don’t forget” and Charlie would always say “Forget what, Taz?”. Then Taz would get all excited and say “You already forgot!”, and no matter how many times we’d do that, it was always the same. We’d just laugh and laugh. Like I said before, Taz was a little person to us and we miss his constant chatter.

But, he got the chattering honestly. When I was a little girl my mom said I was constantly talking like a little Magpie. Like Taz, I talked about nothing.

My mom liked to tell the story of the time I was sitting on my granny’s lap at the kitchen table. I was chattering to granny. I told her that “When I get ‘m’ed’ (married), I’m going to have 6 ‘childen’”.

Then one of my younger brothers came up and wanted granny to tie his shoe. When he left I continued my constant chatter. “When I get ‘m’ed’, I’m going to have 4 ‘childen’.

A little while later the other brother came up and asked granny to tie his shoe. When he left, I said “When I get m’ed (married), I’m not going to have any ‘childen’. Then I’ll just have only my own shoes to tie!”

In our make believe cat family structure, Taz took control of us all. He ran the house. He had “money” socked away. The other cats all paid him to live here. He let us live here! He was always trying to think of ways to put the cats to work to bring in more money. He sent away to buy degrees if he thought it would make him sound smarter in front of the other cats. He would gather them all in a circle and tell them things that he made up. They believed every word of it. They didn’t call him “Taz”, they referred to him as “The Baby” and what “The Baby” said was gospel.

Ellie May Bell is our little tuxedo cat. She’s black and white. When she was a kitten, she was fearless. When she was about 6 weeks old, she was the first kitten who escaped the kitten pen. She zeroed in on Charlie, climbed a 4 ft. fence to get out and run across the room to get to him. Nothing could stop her. We have a tape of it. Since Ellie is black, I named her after “Elvira”, princess of darkness. Today we saw a picture of “Elvira” in her black witch costume and it reminded me.

Ellie’s professional name is “L.E. Maybell”. She “worked” directly for “The Baby” as a secretary, taking care of Taz’s financial affairs. He gave her a little stipend to buy her little white tights when she needed them. At first he would let her take a taxi on Wednesdays to do her shopping. But, Ellie being the agressive little cat that she is, was soon driving the cab every week. We always thought that Ellie was skimming off the top, but we never could prove it. And since Taz was so tight, we didn’t worry about it. We know she was smart enough though.

With Taz gone, we’re all floundering about. The house is quiet compared to when he was here. I think he did most of the talking! He was in control and we haven’t recovered yet.

It will take a little time until another theme appears that we can entertain ourselves with. We’re trying to make something out of the Twins, but Jason is so layed back, he won’t be able to run the house like Taz did.

“Little Girl”, Kaci, has shown signs of not liking the other ‘girls’ in the house. The other day she attacked Jezibel on the bed. I was surprised that she would do that. Of course, she is her dad’s girl and when I told him about it, he looked at me like I was telling stories on his “Little Girl” .........”I can’t believe she’d do that!” Well, she did.

Jason has always liked to chase Jezibel through the house. Jezibel runs and hisses and growls and spits and it just turns Jason on. Of course, if Jezibel would just ignore Jason, he would leave her alone. Jason is a young rascal and he does not want any responsibility right now. He wants a Facebook account, but we’re afraid to let him have one. We’d have the police helicopters circling our house. Crazy, huh.

So for now, the twins still go around the house looking for each other. Kaci says “Where’s my brother?” And Jason says “Where’s my sister?” Even if they are in the same room, they are always looking for each other and they are never far apart."Little Girl" Kaci (top) and Jason

Taz in the RV reminding Dad
"Don't forget!"

More later...........

Our Chelsi Girl..........

Me and Chelsi 12/30/07
This was her last visit to Arizona, no hiking

She gets to wear "the" bandana

While I was walking with our dog, Sheila, this morning I started thinking about all the walks we had with our first dog, Chelsi. We adopted her in December 1992 when she was about 6 weeks old. She was with us until she passed away September 15, 2008.

When Chelsi was about two years old, Charlie and I took a week off and stayed at a timeshare unit in Pinetop, Arizona. We liked the area so much, we stopped by a real estate office to get some information on surrounding properties. The agents we talked to, Diane and Mark, were very nice. They gave us listings with directions and we took off on our own to look for ourselves. We spent that week hiking trails, relaxing and looking at property. We fell in love with the small, laid back town of Show Low.

We quickly found a favorite restaurant and one afternoon we went there for dinner, but it didn’t open for dinner until 4:00pm. There was a separate bar, so we decided to go in there and wait since it would only be an hour or so. It was like walking into a western saloon with pool tables and pin ball games, etc. Just inside the door, a dog lay sleeping. We thought that was pretty cool. It’s not something we’d have seen in any bar at home! Chelsi was not with us on that first trip, but we promised her that next time she could go in the bar with us.

When we got home and back to our routines, we couldn’t stop thinking of Show Low and how much we liked it. Over the next year, we took several trips back to Arizona until we located property that we finally bought. Chelsi was with us on all of those trips.

On most of those property seeking trips, we also took a day to hike the numerous trails in the area. All are loops and some are as long as 11 miles. We usually chose a trail that was only 5 or 6 miles long. It was August and we decided to try the Land of the Pioneers trail, which is 11 miles.

We didn’t know how Chelsi would hold up for a hike that long. Heck, we didn’t know if we could finish it! Chelsi was about 3 years old then. We had stopped at Walmart and bought her a new bandana to wear on this hike.

We got to the trailhead at 9:00am and started out. It was a beautiful trail and the difficulty scale was easy/moderate. Chelsi ran up ahead or would stay between Charlie and I. We stopped for lunch and rested. Chelsi was holding up well and we were doing okay too.

Then after several hours we started hearing thunder and saw lightning in the distance. August is monsoon season in Arizona and a storm can just pop up during the day. We were hoping we wouldn’t get caught in the rain, but it kept getting darker and darker.

We came out of the trail and onto a dirt road to walk on for awhile. Charlie was walking up ahead and I was dragging behind, but doing okay, just not walking real fast. Chelsi ran between us. She would go up with him and then stop and look back at me. Sometimes she come back to me and “guide” me along. On one occasion, she ran back to me and stopped a distance in front of me, looking back. But, she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking PAST me and down the road behind me. I got a chill up my back because I thought “What is behind me down the road?” I turned to look, expecting a bear or cougar or something, but there was nothing there. I’ll always remember Chelsi’s face and her looking past me.

Then of course, it started raining. Softly at first and we started walking faster. We could hear thunder. There were trees all around. Then the trail turned to go through an open meadow. We were all getting soaked. By that time, we were all walking closer together. I was a little chilly since I was wet. Charlie said I needed to cover my head and stay warm. He called Chelsi over and took off her new bandana and gave it to me to wear. For the rest of the walk I must have looked like “Old Mother Hubbard”.

We’ve always talked for Chelsi and through the years she never forgot to mention that “Mom took my NEW bandana”.

The rain tapered off and we finally saw the car up ahead at the trailhead. Charlie and I were dragging, but that Chelsi ran on up ahead of us and when we got there, she was impatiently stamping her feet like “Hurry up and open the door, you two”. We were “dog” tired, but Chelsi had so much energy after walking 11 miles. It was almost 6:00pm. We had been out walking for 9 hours.

Over the years we took Chelsi everywhere we went. She was the perfect little traveling companion.

More later..........

Hey Soul Sister..........

Taz's Mom one Easter long, long ago........

I’m starting to get my voice back. It’s been a week now and although we still miss Taz terribly, it’s getting a little better. I’ve also noticed that the Twins miss him too. The three of them were always together.

When I was trying to get Taz to eat by giving him treats, Jason was always there too. Of course, he got a treat for every two that Taz got. I thought it was so neat that Jason “wanted to be with Taz” and Charlie, being the realist, said “I hate to say it, but he’s there because he knows that if Taz eats, he gets to eat too!” We had to laugh. It was true I’m sure, but there is definitely something in the way the Twins seem to miss him being around. We’re glad they had each other for three years.

I didn’t know that my friend, Mary, was following Taz’s blog. She and I had worked together. Both of us have cats and at work we were always talking about our cats. She and her husband, Mike, and their 7 cats, moved to Arizona after they retired in 2007. I’ve talked to her a couple of times and caught up on how they were and how their cats were.

Mary left a message saying she had read the blog and thought Taz was going to pull through for us. We played phone tag a couple of days.

Yesterday when I getting ready to go for a walk, Mary called and I took the phone with me to talk. We talked for awhile about what was going on, etc. and then we talked about our cats. It helped to talk about it, although I haven’t been able to talk much lately!

Then Mary told me that her cat, “Samantha” passed away at the end of August. Here she was consoling me about Taz and she had just lost HER favorite cat too. It was heart breaking that Samantha was diagnosed with kidney failure in April. Through the months, she was taken to the vet a two or three times a week for fluids. Then one morning Samantha couldn’t walk well and she was trying to get into her little “cupboard” to hide. Mike and Mary found her halfway in and knew she didn’t have much time. Mary held her and Samantha passed away in her arms.

I could tell she was still in a lot of pain from losing her little Samantha. But, she encouraged me to be happy about having Taz as long as we did. She told me to listen to a song by Garth Brooks called “The Dance”. She had played it over and over again (I can relate to that) and the words “.....I could have missed the pain, but I would have had to miss the dance..........”

So to Mary it was worth the pain of losing Samantha because she had the joy of knowing and loving her for 16 years, which is better than to not have ever had her at all. And I feel the same about Taz. I wouldn’t take anything for those 11 years that we had him with us.

It was a nice conversation for an hour plus and I said good bye feeling much better. I still have the guilt of letting Taz go and wonder if it WAS too soon. Mary has been “lucky” with her babies. They have all passed away “on their own”. I don’t think I’ll ever stop second guessing it, but she did make me see that even though the vet didn’t think Taz was in pain, we don’t know that for sure. Cats do not show pain like people do. She wasn’t even sure that Samantha wasn’t in pain, but Samantha was still eating a little and still liked being held, so they kept her. I would have liked that for Taz too.

Taz will "come home" to us tomorrow. The blog will begin to lighten up.

Thanks Mary. You are truly a “soul sister”.

More later..........

If the bunny fits...........

Kaci on her bunny chair

We just love our twins, Jason and Kaci. We’ve had so much fun with them. They came to us in a “round about” way three years ago.

We have a dear friend, Kim, who I met at my office back in 2000. Jezibel had just had her 7 babies in March and I was looking for a home for them. It just so happened that she was looking for a kitten and I had all of the pictures in an album to show. She came over and picked out the little boy, Pinto. But, of course, she didn’t stop there. She now has 5 cats. Like ours, all of hers are rescue cats one way or the other.

So, here is the “round about” story of how we got the twins. It's much longer, but I've condensed it.

In 2005 Kim noticed a little long haired calico cat at a house near work. She stopped to ask the man who lived there, if he owned the cats. He said no, but she was eating whatever food she could find there. He did not want the cat so Kim decided to catch her, have her spayed, and then release her.

She had the cat spayed and discovered a skin problem which had to be taken care of with several follow-up shots. Charlie and I told her that we could keep the cat in a kennel in our garage and Kim could make sure that the cat got her shots and then we could release her.

Well it didn’t turn out that way of course. We named this little cat “Holly”, because it was near Christmas when we got her. She was afraid of us, but she was pretty good and eventually we could pet her. After several weeks of having her, we couldn’t think of putting her out on the street again, so we decided to keep her. Taming her and finding a forever home for her was the idea we had.

Fast forward two years. Our animal shelter here has more cats and kittens than they can handle, especially in the Spring time. They always want people who can foster kittens that are too young to put up for adoption. I have never volunteered because I know it would be too hard to give the kittens back to the shelter.

Kim decided to try the foster program. I applaud anyone who will do that. It saves a lot of lives. She brought home 3 kittens, all grey tabbies. Two were brother and sister. She named one “Bam Bam” and the other, yes, “Pebbles”. The third one, an unrelated female, was “Lily”. Kim had them at her home for about 3 weeks. She then had to return them to the shelter where they were spayed and neutered and would be put up for adoption. By that time they were 8 or 10 weeks old.

Kim checked the shelter regularly to make sure the kittens were adopted. She didn’t want to leave them there and risk losing them if it became too crowded. “Lily” was adopted right away, but “Pebbles” and “Bam Bam” had eye problems and were still there when Kim checked back. They had watery eyes which caused crustiness and they didn’t look well. But, they were healthy every other way. They were always playing with each other.

Kim and I talked about it and we were both afraid that the kittens wouldn’t be adopted. Kim adopted both of them and brought them home. She set up a room for them to keep them from the other cats she had. They had all kinds of toys in there and a cute little pink bunny chair. Both kittens were so small then, they could sleep together on the bunny. When Kim took a two week trip, I went over and took care of her cats. I got attached to those kittens right away.

I asked Charlie if we could have one of them and he said “NO! we have enough cats right now.” Of course I couldn’t get those kittens out of my mind. We only had 9 cats!

We wanted to keep the kittens together, but if they had to be separated, Kim and I talked about her keeping “Bam Bam” and me taking “Pebbles”. At lunch one day, I tried another approach with Charlie. I said “So, what do you think we should name our new kitten?” It was half a joke and half determination. He didn’t protest, so I thought maybe he was weakening. But I still had some work to do.

One night in September I was over at Kim’s visiting with her and the kittens. She asked me if I thought that maybe we could take both kittens IF she took Holly. I said I’d ask Charlie about it.

Well, the rest is history. Charlie thought about it and said “OK”. It only took us a few days to do the cat/kitten exchange. We also got their pink bunny chair.

We re-named them the twins, “Kaci” and “Jason”. Because of their great personalities, they moved right in our household of cats and made themselves comfortable. Taz would never have accepted just any cat. These were special and I’m glad that the twins got to spend so much time with Taz. It was good for all of them.

Yesterday Kaci was curled up in her little bunny chair. That is when we noticed how big she’s getting. Her leg was hanging over the edge. Charlie said “You need a bigger bunny chair!”

More later………

The world's most fearless human.........

Taz and Twins, Jason (L) and Kaci (R)
September 2009

owns a white cat and a black couch.

I would like to get back into doing Taz's blog. I was very close to him, but I was also close to Grady. I always thought that Grady would be the buffer to help me get through losing Taz one day. Of course, we hoped and expected both of them to live longer than they did. But, Grady suddenly passed away last February. That was very hard on us. And now that Taz is not here, who is going to be "my cat?"

Taz was always so jealous and possessive. None of the other cats were allowed to sit on my lap if he was around. Since Grady had his bed in my computer room, we spent more time together and he was attached to me. Besides Grady, I did not groom another cat to be with me after Taz.

The 3 year old Twins, Jason and Kaci are the only cats we have ever had that Taz not only tolerated, but he sat with them and I think he actually liked them.

When we went on trips in the RV, we took Taz and the Twins with us, along with Sheila. They got along well. If Taz was on my lap and Kaci wanted to sit there, she had no qualms about trying to squeeze in next to Taz. I discouraged it because I knew Taz would just leave, but sometimes he didn't leave. He would let her lay right next to him. That would never happen with one of the other cats. The Twins were special.

I'm working on getting closer to Jason. He's very independent and very cute. We call him our "Dennis the Menace". He's not a lap cat, but sometimes he will come and sit next to me and just purr so loud. I think I can win him over one day.

In the meantime, I plan on giving all of the cats as much attention as I can. It will help all of us to get back to some kind of "normal". Who knows, maybe I'll get a lap cat one day!

I know there's not going to be another Taz. I can always hope though!

More later..........

Kind of a hard day........

Sorry, but I have to let you know that I have relapsed a little. We came home on Thursday after being with Taz at the San Diego Pet Memorial Park. We were both numb from the day. I don’t remember too much of the evening. I do know that I tried to go to bed later and couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about Taz.

I went to lie down on the couch in the family room. I turned the TV on and went into a “twilight”, not really thinking of anything, a zombie. I’m not sure how much sleep I got, but I did sleep some. Kaci, one of the twins, slept near me.

Yesterday morning, Friday, Charlie came in to where I was about 6:00am. He saw that I was awake and came over. He held me. We didn’t say anything, but each one of us were deep in our thoughts of Taz and his last moments with us. I cried, I heard Charlie swallow and knew he was also having a hard time with losing Taz. He has said several times “He was our child!” ….and he was. All of our cats and our dog, Sheila, are our children. How else can you think about these little souls that depend on us to care for them and love them the way they love us….unconditionally?

So, we went through the day, doing what we needed to do, and we tried to be normal for the rest of the “children”, but they knew something was a little out of kilter.

In the afternoon, while I was out walking Sheila, I prayed to have some sign to let me know that we did the right thing……putting Taz down…..and that it was not too soon. I wanted a sign from him that he was okay with it too. Did I interpret the signs right when he came and layed with me early Thursday morning and I thought he died twice? Because I missed him so much, I worried that he could still be with us, if we hadn’t made that decision earlier. And then I thought that if he had gotten worse, couldn’t walk, couldn’t eat, go to the litter box on his own, was in pain, etc., that I wouldn’t have these doubts, but I still was in doubt. I needed reassurance.

When I got home, I felt better, but still in doubt that we did the right thing. Sometime after I settled in and was watching TV, not really paying attention to what was on, a peaceful feeling came over me. I felt that Taz was okay with it. He was at peace and was in a better place.

Last night I slept in our bed until almost 6:00 this morning. When I awoke, I got up and went to the family room to watch the morning news. Charlie came in about 6:30. He said “Good morning” and expected me to be in my zombie trance, like yesterday morning, but I told him I had slept in our bed and that I had only been here since 6:00! I felt at peace.

So today was a pretty good day, although there were a few times of thinking about Taz that made each one of us choke up. We miss him terribly. I can’t even imagine how people live with losing one of their kids. Shane comes to mind. He was Charlie’s 18 year old cousin who died in a terrible car accident last year. His parents, grandparents and family are still mourning his loss. We are too. It takes time to be able to get back to a somewhat normal life. Nothing is ever the same again.

I remember when my brother, Jimmy, died from a drowning accident years ago. It affected the family like nothing I had ever known before. We had had grandparents die before and that was hard, but nothing hit home like this. It seemed like it took forever for my mother to be able to even say Jimmy’s name, much less talk about something we had done as kids. It was one day after my 18th birthday when it happened, and I was all into myself like so many kids that age are today. I couldn’t understand why my mother would be crying in the middle of the day or why she didn’t want to talk about him.

My mother was away from work for over a month. We were in the bedroom sorting clothes for the laundry one day, and we both heard “Mama?” as clear as day. We looked at each other and said, “Did you hear that?” No one else was in the house that day. Mom said, “Who did that sound like to you?” I said, “Jimmy”. She said, “That’s who it sounded like to me too.”

To this day, I don’t know what we heard, but it does make me believe that there is a connection. I do look forward to seeing people I love, again and I do look forward, and hopefully it’s true, that there is a “Rainbow Bridge” and we will see our beloved pets again. I have to believe that. Otherwise, I’m destined to sit and cry for our babies that have gone from us. We miss them so much. It makes it “easier” to think that we will see them again.

I will be better tomorrow, but I can’t promise there will be no more relapses.

More later………..

(Originally posted Saturday, 10/9/10)

What's a father to do?

Jezibel in one of her favorite places, with her dad

We appreciate the kind words we are receiving about Taz. He had so many relatives and friends who loved him. Most of them have pets that they love too, so we know that they understand how we feel.

This morning Jezibel was in fine form. After her breakfast she came down and went to the door, expecting to get her "dress" (collar) on to go out. I needed a hug so I, to her, "rudely" had the nerve to pick her up and hold her for a minute. She immediately started growling and then hissing at me. I held on to her though because she expected me to. I never just put her down just because she demands it! It's a mother/daughter thing I guess.

We had a very bad scare with her last year. It was in June. She was outside and sometimes she goes over the front fence and likes to sit in our neighbor's yard, under the bush.

It was about 6:00pm and Charlie and I had just had dinner. We were sitting in the family room, which is at the back of the house. Then we heard a commotion outside in the front of the house. I got up to go and check on it. My neighbors on either side were out near our driveway. I walked out and before I could ask what was going on, someone said that they thought one of my cats was hurt.

I walked down towards the neighbor's yard and up against the house by their garage door was Jezibel. She was hurt and crying. I didn't have a blanket so I ran back to the house yelling for Charlie to come out and get her while I got my purse and car keys. He took a blanket and scooped her up. We rushed her to the local emergency hospital.

She had been attacked by two dogs who none of us had seen before. One was a Pit Bull and the other was a Beagle. My neighbor managed to catch them and since there was a phone number on their collar, she called the owner. He lived up on one of the streets that ran behind us on the hill. She said that the dogs had been down on our street before. They had been picked up by animal control one time before. Since they were licensed and the Pit Bull was not spayed, the owner had to pay a heavier fine for that. Still these dogs got out again and this time they could have killed Jezibel.

When the doctor examined Jezibel, she was in lots of pain. One of her legs was bitten through. The X-rays showed no breakage though. She was in shock. The doctor gave her a pain injection and started fluids. There was a chance of severe muscle damage, nerve damage and infection from the dog bite. The prognosis was "fair". That's what we knew when we left her there for the night.

The next day her care was transferred to our regular vet. We called and they told us that we could pick her up later in the day. We brought her home and the poor little thing was so sore. She couldn't stand on her leg. We made her an area to stay in so she could get better. She had antibiotics to take and we'd take her back in about a week for follow up.

The cost of this emergency was close to $1,004. Even though we have pet insurance on Jezibel, we were definitely planning on getting the owner of those dogs to reimburse vet costs.

I can tell you that there's nothing like a dad whose daughter has been attacked. Someone was going to pay! Charlie and I found out where "Joe" lived and walked up to his house. He wasn't home, but a room mate gave us Joe's cell phone number. Charlie called him and left a message.

Later Joe called back and Charlie talked to him about the dog attack and that he expected to be reimbursed. Joe said he could work out some way of paying. The agreement was $300 every two weeks until the $1,000 was paid. Joe gave Charlie a date he would start.

That date came and went and no money from Joe. Charlie called him again and again.

One morning while I was walking, I decided to turn up Joe's street and walk by his house to see if he was home. We didn't know what he looked like because we had only talked to him by phone. When I walked by, the garage door was open and someone was sitting in the garage watching a big screen TV.

I went home and told Charlie that someone was home and the garage door was open and there was a guy watching TV. Charlie said "I think I'll pay Joe a visit" and away he went to Joe's house.

Later Charlie told me that when he got to Joe's house, the garage door was still open so he walked in. The guy had his back to the door. Charlie said "Are you Joe?" Before he could think, Joe responded "Yes".

So Charlie proceeded to have what he calls "a heart to heart" talk with Joe. He pinned him down on when he would make payments and he told him that he would be back if Joe didn't pay on time. After all, our cat was in her own yard, minding her own business and Joe's dogs attacked her and could have killed her. Joe gave him $100.

Joe was true to his word. He paid back every dollar he owed.

I've been by the house several times either walking or driving. Joe doesn't live there anymore. The dogs are also gone. At the time of the attack, Joe had just moved here from Ohio with his dogs. He was living with his son, who still lives there I think.

Jezibel healed nicely. She went through loss of appetite and we had to give Mirtazapine to get her eating again. She lost some weight and actually looked pretty good (she has gained all of it and more back now!).

So Charlie defended his daughter's "honor" and Joe learned a lesson. Don't mess with one of the Bell cats--especially one of dad's girls. We don't take kindly to dogs running wild in our neighborhood.

More later..........