Swords and a Gargoyle

I'll start with the gargoyle.

My building had a funny yet scary incident involving....what else? This is me, after all...A CAT. A silver tabby somehow got stuck between the cement scaffolding on the front of my building about 25 feet up, roughly near the second and third floor. Poor thing was yowling and howling. Since my entire building is filled with cats, dogs, birds, fish, hamsters, snakes and iguanas it was basically the Zoo Lovers to the rescue!

The fire department wouldn't help. 311 sent us to animal control. Animal control was closed for the evening (It was 8:30 pm) and the ASPCA was closed, as well. My super's wife grabbed the painting ladder from the basement and an enterprising teenager with a talent for climbing fences began to scale the wall. I was hanging out of my third story window with a long stick from my living room shade tapping at kitty to send him over to the side of the building to jump down from a/c to a/c and leap to the ground. After 40 minutes of madness, kitty jumped and FLEW up the block. We broke into cheers and decided if this little bugger comes back, I'll give Dexter and Kashi a new playmate and name him GARGOYLE.

As for the sword, my curiosity regarding St. Michael's statue in the church across the street was happily fulfilled yesterday. Since August 2004, I have wondered exactly how the sword protrudes from his hand. It's not cut in marble, but is made of brass pinned and screwed into his fist. Today is Mike's feast day, the ground workers prepared the space yesterday and...WOW...they took down the sword. The screw was a bit loose due to gravity and tarnish. I got to run my finger across the sword right before they polished it to a gleam. Turns out this statue was there from before World War I, was blessed at the Vatican, and the sword was hammered and shaped specifically to fit into the hand. It's pinned on one side and locked on the other. What I didn't notice was the crescent insignia in red and yellow carved in the back of the sword. One tiny little dragon and one lion are intertwined at the base. I stood there, amazed. It's not often you get to see, let alone, touch something like this. I returned from lunch knowing I had received a real gift.

I might not have caught the cat, but I did touch the sword. A blessing indeed.

And thank you, Meg, for the card. Muffins had so many friends who loved watching her attack the Christmas tree. I wonder if Dexter's up for it this year...