So yesterday was a humdinger in the neighborhood. The bank was robbed and then five hours later we had a big ol' cougar. The cops shot it in the alley right behind my old apartment, the very first place I lived when I moved to Chicago.

Last night after dinner, Glinny and I went on a nice long walk and ran into all sorts of neighbors who were all abuzz with what had happened. All Chicago enclaves, when put to the test, are really just like small towns that inhabit one big city. The first neighbor I ran into told me what happened, as apparently the cops shot the cat only an hour earlier. Thank Jesus I'd opted to take Glin for a walk AFTER dinner, and not before, as I'd originally planned. It's irrational, I know, but I'd have thrown myself over Glinny and let the cougar have at me before I'd let it touch my dog. About 40 minutes after hearing about what happened, we made our way towards the scene and the woman whose porch the cougar made a home in for part of the day filled me in on the details.

She was on the 10 p.m. news later that night.

The most entertaining part of all of it for me was not only talking to a whole ton of my neighbors, but also being able to call my Gram, who always wonders when they're "talking about Chicago on the news" if they're talking about an area close to where I live, and tell her yes. That's where I live.

When I got home I sent Scott a text message to fill him in on what's going on and his response was, "People need to leave those old ladies alone."

Sigh. I'm madly in love with him so it's too late to turn him in for a new model.

Posted by Erin at 12:35 PM | filed under: Chicago