A 3D Camera! And Chloe Is Still Alive!

It was a day of ease and catching up: errands, appointments, piano practice. I avoided reading the news—just the headlines were enough to break my heart, so I put the screen away. The blossoms are past their peak, petals littering the sidewalks. My allergies are letting up, the sun was shining, and it was a great day for an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood. 

Just a few blocks from home I found a fellow photographer and a rather nervous model. Not just a photographer, but a man reading his light meter, holding a genuine David White stereo realist camera (two extras I will delete soon). I told him the camera reminded me of the Viewmaster disks I loved as an invalid child, how magical it seemed in those years before TV: Carlsbad Caverns, Bellingrath Gardens, the Grand Canyon—places I have never seen except in that Viewmaster, but vivid to me even now. Ken, the photographer, and Laura, the model, both work at Cinema 21.

Thinking I had bagged my blip, I strolled half a block further when I was stopped by a man out walking his Jack Russell. “Excuse me,” he said, a bit tentative. “Are you…”

I gasped. It was Chris, the good man who took my beautiful Abyssinian cat Chloe back in 2010 when my allergies made it impossible for me to keep her. Chloe is now 17 and still alive and well! I am gobsmacked. Chris and Chloe had moved to California, and I imagined her long gone, but California didn’t work out and they’re back—and Chris says the Jack Russell regards Chloe as his best friend, sleeps with Chloe tucked up against his belly, and if I’d like to come see her some time…. Portrait of Chris in extras.