Sept 12

About 10 days after the storm, I ran into an ex-coworker of mine while on my daily water and food run. I asked him how he did and he said he had very little damage. He lived out in the country and I suddenly realized that he had a place to keep my dog Julie. I asked him if he would mind keeping her for a week and he agreed. I immediately made plans to go to Chicago and see Brad. By this time, there was a few flights coming in and out of Gulfport, and we were able to get tickets to leave Sept 12.

Brad picked us up at the airport in Chicago and took us to his hotel in a charming little town called Itasca. It was a very strange feeling to drive through the undamaged streets and see people doing normal everyday things. Brad was still working long hours so I tried to amuse myself my going to a local mall. When I got there and saw all the beautiful things for sale, I thought about all of the people who no longer owned anything and I broke down and cried. For the next three days, everytime I sat down to a nice meal, or went to a grocery store or drove past an undamaged home, I cried. After 3 days, I was able to get it all out of my system and I began to enjoy my time in Chicago. Brad tried to distract me as much as possible and we did a lot of sightseeing. After a week, I was able to go back home and face the destruction again. Flying in and out of Gulfport was an experience. Even though I had lived and driven in the destruction every day, it was a very different perspective seeing it from the air. I am sure most of the world had seen it on the news numerous times, but that was the first time for me to see it like that.

I need to back up once again and update on our cat, Mattie. I posted that Mattie had come in the day after the storm and hidden behind the washing machine. Well, after staying there for a day and a half, she came out and cried to go outside. Mattie was a part feral cat that Brad had adopted from the humane society, and she had never been an indoor cat. She only came in to eat. After she went back outside, we never saw her again. She was already so old that she may have just died after the stress of the storm. There were also large packs of dogs roaming the street that had been abandoned when everyone evacuated, so one of them may have killed her. We never found out. Mattie had a very loud, distinct meow that she used when she wanted to come in and eat breakfast. After she disappeared, I would frequently wake up in the middle of the night, thinking I heard that meow. I would get up and go outside and call for her. I searched and searched but finally decided that I was just imagining her call. One day, weeks after the storm, I was sitting outside and I heard the "meow" again. I looked up and saw that it was a Mockingbird that was imitating Mattie's call. He must have learned it before she disappeared and was now sitting in our tree making the cry exactly like she used to do it. Mockingbirds are amazingly smart and this one would call at the same time each morning. After about 6 weeks, he started to call less and less, but I still hear him every once in awhile.