Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Looking for Gato


In my twenties, oh so long ago, I had two cats named Gato and Cujo. We were very close. I was really crazy about them. I suppose I was not very careful with them, though because they got lost a lot. Cujo especially. One time he was lost for a week until I found him closed up in the utility closet under my neighbors house. Another time... well, I'll make a long story short, but I found him after looking every day for three weeks. He was five miles away from where I lived in a small hole in the drywall of a chinese family's house on Clement street in San Francisco. When I finally got him home, he looked pissed that it had taken me so long. Another time, Gato disappeared from our house in Mill Valley. After a few days, a neighbor told me that some people down the street had moved away. So I stole mail out of their mailbox, found their new number in the phone book and tracked them down. They had taken Gato, thinking he was homeless( he apparently spent a lot of time at their house talking trash about me). They kept him in the garage, but he had run away into the hills in San Rafael, and they had no idea where he was. That weekend, My sister Jennifer, my brother-in-law Ben and I spent every daylight hour walking around that neighborhood shaking boxes of kibble, calling Gato and posting flyers. Late Sunday evening, I remember hanging our last flyer at Scotty's market. At least 5 miles away and down in a valley below where Gato had disappeared. We all went home defeated. Two days later, a lady called. She had seen that VERY LAST FLYER and Gato was in her yard. WE FOUND HIM!

So why am I telling this story? These experiences have had a profound effect on me. The life lesson I learned is that, well,the cat is out there. You just have to keep looking.

This is the way I feel about Oskar. I keep looking for the person who is going to know how to help him. I truly believe that the cat is out there. I don't know if there will ever be day when I will give up. I almost gave up on Cujo , and all I had to do was intimidate a crazy chinese woman and get into her crawlspace. Some nights I cry because I feel like I can hear the cat, and I don't know where to look any more . Some nights I can't sleep because I can hear the cat and I can't wait to get up the next day and start looking again.

I will find the cat!

KITTENS KITTENS KITTENS






It has been a very exciting week around here. Al and Maddie made a video last summer when we were up at a cabin in Northern Minnesota. Maddie found an old book in the library at the lodge and she had such funny things to say about the pictures, Al filmed it. We showed it to our friends and family this summer, and thought nothing more about it. Last week, Al put the link on his Facebook page and all of a sudden,  Maddie is all over the internet and TV. She's had over 3 million hits on yahoo and you tube, and last friday she was clip of the week on the Soup. She was also on the front page of Yahoo and on about a million websites, including Boing Boing and Funny or Die. We are just cracking up and can't believe it. Last nite she had in interview with a reporter from the Boston Metro and tonight they will be playing the video on TRL on MTV followed by another interview with a producer at the Bonnie Hunt show to see if they might be interested in having her on. Now my favorite offer so far is an off-off broadway director in New York who watched all of Max and Maddie's videos and wants to talk about collaborating on a script with them. I can't even get them to collaborate on cleaning the basement, so good luck with that. 

Saturday, February 7, 2009