Walking Spirit

We have a new cat. He belonged to a friend of my roommate who moved to Louisville and couldn't take him with her. A few nights ago I went out on the deck to look at the moon. The cat got out and wouldn't come back in. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know his name and he only responds to "kitty, kitty, kitty" said in a high pitched voice. (I'm not real happy about that.) He came up on the deck once but I had already gone in. When I went to open the door he saw me coming and went back out in the yard. So, I decided to leave the door open thinking that he would walk back in on his own.

Two hours later he still had not shown up. There was no sign of him in the backyard so, thinking that he might have found a way out of the yard, I went out front to look for him. I saw a cat two yards over who darted in between the houses when it saw me. There was a guy and his son walking their dog in the street so I asked them if they would look between the houses. At this point I was feeling pretty useless since I couldn't really look for this cat on my own.

The guys didn't see the cat when they looked for it and the guy said he was going to take his son home and come back to help me. A half hour later I'd given up hope that he was really coming back. Looking out into a dark yard with wet grass I decided that I was going to have to find this cat on my own.

I put on the legs, went down the steps, and started walking around the yard calling for the cat. (The high pitched kitty, kitty, kitty call that I despise.) Keep in mind that the two times I've fallen at home have been in the yard at night. After opening the gate so that he could get in, if in fact he was out, and walking around the yard I finally heard a small meow from the other side of the fence. Unfortunately he was in a neighbors yard that is also fenced in. (these are 6ft privacy fences by the way)

Thinking that maybe he might be on the front side of the fence I headed back towards the deck. As I was climbing back up the steps he came running by and went straight into the house. I'm not sure how he got over the fence but that little adventure was over.

When I went inside I went into my den for something. In the process I knocked one of the folding doors off of it's track. I went out to the garage and got a screwdriver. I then stood in the den, holding the door in place with one hand, and tightened the screw on the track with the other hand. A few months ago I never would have been brave enough to make those attempts without anyone around.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet, with one exception. Yesterday I went to U of I to work with Renee and to be in a photo shoot for their new brochure. Renee and I are starting to work on balance, which includes walking with only one hand in the parallel bars. I've tried that before and it hasn't really worked. Yesterday went a bit better but we're still a long way off from walking with only one crutch.

The photo shoot was fun. They had two students and another faculty member work with me. A photographer took pictures as I walked, climbed steps, and took one of the legs off. Occasionally he would ask me to hold still for a shot. This usually was when I was mid stride or halfway up a step. It's not easy to freeze in place but we managed to make it work. I guess the point is that it's getting easier and I'm getting much more comfortable with the legs.