Sirius Black

SIRIUS BLACK

The amber light — from the streetlight is casting a glow that makes the hedges look black. “Black on black” would be hard to see, but that is not the spectrum that I use for this kind of task.

Earlier a family of raccoons wandered by in search of water, fish, trash cans, or whatever their nightly need was. A skunk ventured right by me, but I didn’t move and Pepe Le Pew did not notice me.

I have been sitting here for a couple hours, hoping to see the runaway in what may be their periodic trail. I am sure they are nearby: I just have to catch them mid-stride. Maybe five feet would be close enough, so I continue to ‘recline’ into my shrubbery. I need a nap

A hint of red — turns the corner onto Bryant by the bridge. Part of the difficulty around the task is that this path is for bikes only, so you can ’t just cruise back and forth in a car. In a car you have to skirt around the poles (bastions) by shifting a couple blocks and then coming back. But in that time, the target could have wandered away. And being actively on-foot is likely to scare the quarry as well. So I just sit and watch as the faint red gets closer and closer.

Three hours later — I drop Sirius Black (a cat… but pitch black, so they at least got one thing right) at the front door of the Waverly house. Sirius spent the night with me in a cage in ‘El Toro’ (my car, which snorts like a bull when you turn it off) given I thought it a bit rude to ring the doorbell at 3 a.m.. Rose greets Sirius with open arms, gives me a kiss on the cheek, and I head off to my morning coffee routine.

I have done about one lost pet a fortnight since my discharge, always based on postings on Nextdoor that are not resolved within a few days. Most pets are just opportunists taking a little trip into the world, but some get a bit lost and another ‘night prowler’ can

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relatively easily return them home. The pet return program is both a public service and good practice for other stealth operations.

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