Friday, January 1, 2010

Cloverdale's Kitty Alert Program

All that's left of the Widow Marcell's pedigreed Siamese Cat, the Empress Chow. The "Kitty Alert" failed to find her.
She'll appear in the next thaw for proper burial.


Hello Friends,
A quick read of the posted weather shows another winter storm developing over the Sea of Sorrows. There will be snow and more snow. I really don't worry too much about the resilient folks of Cloverdale. Vasts amounts of snow usually don't stop us. When you live in a small village everything is close by. If you need a dozen eggs, the Piggly Wiggly is a few blocks away. If you want to go to a movie, the Grand Theater is again, only a few blocks away. If you're really depressed because of the ice and cold, the Moss Wonderland Bakery is, once again , only a few blocks away. A walk through the deep snow is quickly rewarded with a cup of hot, milky chocolate and a warm sticky bun.

The one problem we have in Cloverdale, resulting from deep and never ending snow, is lost pets. Villagers will let sweet Petunia or grumpy Bowser outside to do their business and forget all about them. Sometimes they get lost in the knee deep stuff, and when they do, the Constable is called to activate the village's "Kitty Alert".

Cloverdale has a special program for lost pets called "Kitty Alert". The police station activates the program when you call in a lost pet . A text message goes out to every cell phone in the village telling us to be on the lookout for the lost pet. Just last week a call went out when the Widow Marcell's pedigreed Siamese Cat, the Empress Chow, disappeared in deep snow while in the back garden being a good girl. That alert brought out the villagers because a reward was offered. You know there's a reward if a couple dollar signs appear in the text of the alert.

The alert is also broadcast to Cloverdale Weekend Television. Right in the middle of your favorite program a "Kitty Alert"message scrolls across the bottom of your screen. Just last night I was caught up in a good episode of Gunsmoke. Right in the middle of a nasty gunfight between Marshall Dillon and a desperate bank robber a "Kitty Alert" scrolled across the bottom of the screen telling me that the Wilburs of Cottonwood Avenue were looking for Flipper, their Parakeet. I don't think that particular alert bought many villagers out of their homes on a cold New Year's Eve to look for a yellow parakeet. Chances are it was dead a few minutes after fluttering out into the bone chilling evening.

I urge Cloverdale's pet owners to be mindful of their animals during our blanketing storms. Don't toss them out into it with no regard for the comfort of your fellow citizens that don't want to be disturbed with an annoying text message on their phone and a frustrating scroll across the bottom of their teles.

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