Matcha found

 On New Year's Day, we did have beans again for dinner and remembered to set aside three beans each for good luck in 2026. Shortly after sunset, my husband took the beans out to the edge of the woods, next to a fallen tree that was a favorite walking spot for Matcha. He set down the beans and said out loud to the dark, among other things, that we hope Matcha is safe. My husband didn't tell me this until late in the afternoon the following day. 

On the morning of January 2, around 11:15am, I received a text with two photos of Matcha and then a message from someone who said she had found our cat. It was clearly recognizable as Matcha, looking very much like he did seven weeks ago. Having entered the acceptance stage, and hoping just that someone was caring for Matcha, even if we didn't see him again, I was overwhelmed with relief and started crying with joy right away, completely useless except for securing the cat doors to keep Mack and Daisy indoors. Meanwhile, somehow, my husband got the lady on the phone and exchanged information with her. We gathered up the cat carrier and some kibble just in case, and I threw some chocolate bars in a bag, and we got in the car. 

 The story of Matcha's rescue became even more amazing as the story unfolded. He was in a patch of woods in a cul de sac of a neighborhood two miles north of us. How he got there and whether someone else cared for him along the way, we will probably never know. The lady noticed him just before Christmas and started feeding him dog food. There was another stray cat there as well, but Matcha was friendly and the other cat seemed feral. He ate as much as she would give him, wet and dry dog food, and then at some point she bought some cat food and made him a dog bed to sleep on in their screened-in porch. That was the scene when we arrived-- their dog in the house and Matcha set up on the porch, a big plate of food and a bowl of water right next to his dog bed. He looked healthy and happy. 

At some point, their daughter had looked on Facebook and found our post on the Gainesville Pet Finders the Original page, with our contact information. As soon as we got there, I handed the chocolate to their daughter and we set about the business of greeting Matcha. 

We took Matcha to the vet clinic as soon as we could and the doctor said he was in good shape, no injuries. He had lost 1 1/2 pounds. We grabbed a bit of lunch nearby while they were keeping him for a while. They took a blood sample and urine sample, and we had a fecal sample for them and took it over the next morning. 

It came in texts throughout the afternoon that the lady and her daughter had become very attached to Matcha already and were thinking of adopting him. It was good of them to look online for us. 

Matcha has to be kept separate until we know about FLV and parasites, which should be soon. He really wants to be out in the mix with everyone, but we are waiting for medical clearance. My husband has gone to great lengths to allow the other cats to have a little time outside in the morning. And last night he kept Mack and Daisy upstairs with him so Matcha could spend the night snuggling with me. He did a little exploring but mostly he was with me the whole night, just like old times. 

Everyone has been so kind along the way. I texted everyone I could think of who knew he was missing, and the response was the same-- happiness and relief that he had been found. I even got a text from a neighbor I barely know who had heard the good news. 

On January 2, while Matcha was at the clinic, we went around to all the signs we had posted in Kenwood and Haile and my husband wrote with a red sharpie, "Found. Thank you." I got the idea several weeks ago from a neighbor who walks her dog near us and notices things. On January 4, we took the signs down.  

Reunited, miraculously.  

 

New Year's Day 2026

 For as long as I can remember of our life together, my husband and I have had a traditional southern meal for New Year's Day. Beans for good luck, greens for wealth, and cornbread for prosperity. 

We always tweak it a bit. Instead of black-eyed peas, we have navy beans, made with Colu Henry's recipe for roasted tomato and bean stew. Today we have steamed spinach and instead of skillet cornbread, I made corn dodgers cockaigne from The Joy of Cooking. 

We usually eat midafternoon. And unfortunately today we both forgot to leave three beans in our bowl for good luck. We'll have to figure out a way to rectify that oversight at dinner by having some more beans. 

We both fervently hope that 2026 will be a good year.

Matcha missing

 Our youngest cat Matcha has been missing since November 12. I was out in the garden that morning and he came up and greeted me several times, seeming happy and comfortable. Around 11am, I called for the cats to came in. Mack came right away, but Matcha was nowhere to be found. My garden helper was in the yard also, the cats used to him by now. 

We started calling for him after lunch. No answer. We texted and talked to all the neighbors nearby. I posted on every lost pet website I could find. We expanded our search, knocking on doors on the other side of the woods. We put up signs over the weekend. I got some really good advice from the directors at Operation Catnip. They made me two color signs, which we put up right away. They looked at the map of our neighborhood and the nearby neighborhoods on the other side of the woods. They observed that a cat can travel through areas that a human can't reach by a car. The following weekend we made more color signs at a copy shop and put them up. My husband spent hours walking in the woods behind our house, mostly a narrow corridor between neighborhoods, but in some places wider and more densely overgrown. 

 A couple of times people said they thought they might have seen our cat. We went over right away, but it wasn't him, or the sighting had been fleeting and hours before. During this time, I was texted by a neighbor who had lost her orange cat a month before Matcha disappeared. We both feel the heartache. 

There was no sound when Matcha disappeared. No deer barking or snorting. No dog barking. No cat yowling. Nothing. Just a neighbor's cat sauntering down the driveway, reputed by his owner to be an avoider of fighting. We asked neighbors to check their garages, and my garden helper checked his truck. 

Weeks later, my husband is still calling and has clothes with his smell on them hanging in the yard. He still walks around the woods and the neighborhood. If I could, I would walk too, but I am in between hip replacements and I can only get around with a walker. 

Everyone has been very kind, wanting to help, understanding the pain of losing a cat who is a beloved family member. It will be a miracle if we see him again, a miracle I would gladly accept if he came walking in the yard or we got a call from someone who found him and had his microchip scanned. 

We had almost four years with Matcha as part of our family. We all had a lot of work to assimilate him into our family, to heal the trauma of his previous life fighting thirty other cats for food. You could not ask for a more willing learner. I often said that Matcha got up every morning looking for ways to be a good boy that day. While I was recovering from surgery especially, Matcha was by my side during the night, right where I could reach down and pet him. Of course, he was also a normal cat. 

Our other two cats are adapting, and we give them treats and snuggles as always. Sometimes they look for him around the yard and the house. 

Matcha is always on my mind. I hope someone is caring for him, and that he is safe. 

 

 

Age-related

 Now that I am retired, I have time to spend with my husband, work in the garden, volunteer with a pet rescue organization, meet up with friends, play word puzzles, and get back in shape. 

Except the getting back in shape part didn't work out the way I expected it to go. For a couple of glorious months, I got up before everyone else in the house and walked two miles, usually listening to a guided meditation for the first part of the walk. Then I would make breakfast for everyone and get on with my day. 

At first there was no problem. I gave my body about fifteen minutes of gentle movement before starting the walk. Sometimes I would feel a little stiff but after a half mile the muscles would warm up nicely. But two months into my morning walks, I began to feel pain in my left hip. Cleaning up hurricane debris in the yard, after Hurricane Helene, was extremely painful. I used a rake to clear aside leaves and branches, so I wasn't bending over all the time. I decided to stop walking to give my injury time to heal. That was around the time Hurricane Milton came through and we had company visiting. Much less to clean up after Milton. 

But the injury wasn't healing. I sought the help of my chiropractor. She formed a theory and sent me to get an x-ray. Arthritis had degraded the cushioning in the left hip socket and there was a slight flat spot on the side of the head of the femur. I continued receiving ultrasound, muscle stimulation, and massage therapy and adjustments. I also asked my doctor for arthritis medication and a referral to physical therapy. They gave me exercises to strengthen my muscles and recommended an arthritis pain topical cream. They were optimistic that the inflammation could be reduced and the muscles strengthened.

I admit I did not understand the warning signs of arthritis. Several years ago, I began to wake up at night with pain in the hip on the side I was lying. I would turn over and sleep until the other hip woke me up. After the national Covid pandemic lock-down, when we returned to school with most students attending class on Zoom and a few in person, my work became sedentary, with long hours at the computer teaching and grading digital files. We all tried cameras and remote microphones to counter sitting at the computer, but ultimately sitting was what had to happen. I tried to get exercise to balance the computer time, but it was a challenge with all the other things that accompanied teaching high school that year. Then last year, my last year in the classroom, my hip started to hurt while I was standing and teaching.

So here I am, less active now but determined to recover strength, balance, and mobility.

Thoughts on leaving the classroom

After thirty-five years, I have left the classroom. People ask me if it is bittersweet. "Bittersweet" implies more of an extreme duality than I would use to describe my experience of teaching high school. The times when I felt bitter were mainly frustration that many institutional tasks took energy away from my teaching. "Sweet" seems superficial and doesn't really describe the deep fulfillment and satisfaction I felt from watching my students catch the thrill of finding their own discoveries in a text. My own process of learning as I was teaching brought me hours of contentment, reading and planning and making my own discoveries. I did a lot of groundwork to be able to lead discussions that invited my students to have their own creative interpretations, always staying grounded in the text. I am grateful for the hundreds of fascinating students and colleagues I met and got to know through the daily contact in the classroom. They are cool people. They are worthy.

So I prefer to say it's a mixed bag-- a balance of sadness, joyfulness, and gratitude. And now I have time to do other things that make me feel useful and active.

Messages to the Universe

 My husband hosted a retirement party for me and I invited our friends to send a message to the universe. I promised to deliver the messages and here they are. 

 

I am sending my best wishes to the world for more peace and tolerance among human beings. May everyone emerge from their own opinions, biases, mental strongholds, dogmatic teachings, and open themselves to allow things to happen and be--Don't resist, don't hide, don't retreat! "Be open to everything and attached to nothing," to quote Wayne Dyer. Allow things to come and pass! All is well, all is good. 

Dear Universe: Hope you are well. I don't really know what to ask, but if you could tone down the temperature a bit in summer, it would be nice! 😊

Keep my heart open in order to love, value, and connect to others without judgment. 

Let us please figure out this environmental problem or should I say disaster we humans made in the last decades. I know it is possible to solve it before it is too late. 

Dear Universe: You deserve so much more than we're giving you right now. I don't even know that we're trying our best. I know that you will go on, without or without us. Thanks for this brief, glorious moment. 

Hello! Is anyone out there? Is anyone out there? If you are there, I have a few requests. 1--Please help my wife not be so crazy. Marrying a crazy man is not a valid excuse.  2--Make sure we have plenty of beer. There is no life without beer.  3--I hate to bring this back but I do not understand why my wife doesn't not understand that I am always right... (sometimes, actually, I am left...)  4--Help baby grandson understand he can be in a crazy family--all the normal ones were already full.  5--Thank you for our neighbors--they are doing ok with their crazy neighbors.  Okay, so if you hear me--Hurry up---this is urgent and I need your help. Thank you--be good-- 😊

I am humbled to know that I am part of this magnificent universe. And to the freshman who left his mother's avocado green Oxo silicone spatula at International Day about 20 years ago, and never claimed it--thank you, universe, for sending me this wonderful tool that has been part of my morning breakfast routine ever since.

We know answers will come from the universe and we are listening.

Tomato update and summer plans

 The tomatoes are recovering from being savaged by the deer just as they were getting started producing fruit. I had put up netting but not all the way around, but now they are fully protected and bearing fruit. 

Summer plans are very loose. I'm not making any big decisions for a while. Retiring from the classroom after thirty-five years of teaching high school was a decision that took a lot of energy and planning. That's enough for now. The thank you notes are getting me through these early days.