I spotted Willie!

Willie is a former foster kitten from the Bisbee Animal Shelter that I was tending to with two other kittens from another litter in late 2011.  He's a pretty grey-white tabby with a white chest and paws. Willie never was tamed, and feared the dogs, but I was able to get him neutered and vaccinated against rabies.  One day, in early 2012,  he got out of the house and never returned until two years later when I saw him sauntering in my neighbor's yard.  He comes for food and water and I don't normally see him in the summer months (perhaps because there are plenty of desert packrats and cottontails to hunt)

I last saw him the weekend I drove off to El Paso for the long President's Day weekend last February.  That was nine months ago.  I normally spot him every few weeks in the yard mewing for food.  He has a soft mew, unlike Bobby's deeper mau.  I had placed some food for him before I drove off to Indiana in June, but feared he had passed on because the Gambel's Quail are back in our front yard and hadn't left any food for him since.

I spotted him again today after all these months.  I heard him faintly mew from under the juniper shrubs that I was watering.  This is the second Sunday in the row i spent watering my front yard, to keep my drought-resistant shrubs from dying.  He kept answering me when I called out "Willie!" but he never came to view until I saw him jump out from under the juniper to escape the sprinkle.  He marked his scent on our mail box post and then ran into the noman's land between two homes across the street.

I'm always so happy to see my Willie.  I always feel like I failed him, but his presence still reassures me that he trusts me enough to take care of him.  I will do that for as long as I know he's still alive.  He's nine years old, outliving my Pache.

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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-weather/2020/10/11/arizonas-monsoon-season-driest-record/5930457002/?fbclid=IwAR3DAnhJUyDbTb3bZKTvxyzVndev076FaMGc05TNUozVTtFlXh38EtJJvW4

Global cases: 37,994,177

Global deaths: 1,090,516

US cases: 8,029,945 (+38,925)

US deaths: 219,981 (+286)

AZ cases: 226,050 (+475) 1965 in Cochise County

AZ deaths: 5,759; 73 in Cochise County

IN cases: 136,555 (+1574)

IN deaths: 3,795 (+6)

UT cases: 86,832 (+ 988)

UT deaths: 522 (+5)