Finding Fitz

We went straight to DefCon One.  Fitzgerald, Lord of Hessle House, was a fugitive.

We plastered Facebook with his picture and a BOLO, calling for "Eyes On!" and listing our personal cellphone numbers.  We didn't know what to expect.

Patty called soon after Fitz took off to say that she'd seen him 'way over on the west side of Bella Vista, not far from Lake Windsor.  She even photographed him.  We raced over there, thinking that someone had stolen him here and dumped him over there.  People sometimes do things like that in big cities like the Dallas area, where we are from.

Patty's photo sure looked like our cat, so we searched and searched, and called and called -- totally disrupting an otherwise peaceful Bella Vista neighborhood more than once.  Even at night we or our son and granddaughter were hiking through back yards, into brush and down ravines.  At length, we rented an animal trap from the shelter and parked it on their porch.  Days went by.  Nada.

Then we got a sighting report from here in the Lake Ann area.  Hopes raised again.  Scramble, search, call out to him, disturb more peaceful neighborhoods.  Our son caught sight of him, but not enough to confirm the cat's identity.  Nada.

Hopes up, hopes down.  It was awful.

Turns out that the west side cat belonged to a couple who own Bengals that run free.
The east side cat was a grey, ownership undetermined.  Things were looking grim.

I prayed.

Then Tena called with multiple recent sightings off Lake Ann.  Confidence was high, and neighbors concurred.  Fitz was living in the woods, up a hill in a pile of brush and fallen trees.  And probably hiding in a nearby drainage pipe when it rained.  Roger set his animal trap with a can of tuna, and the very next afternoon, the fugitive Fitzgerald, Lord of Hessle House, was in custody.

I delivered the good news to the multitude of Fitz followers on Facebook.  The response was stunning: nearly 600 likes and comments, if my lousy math is right.  That is entirely a testament to the wonderful people who live in this town with the beautiful view.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.