Merle - The Rest of the Story

As promised, I'm letting my "out of town" followers know the outcome of the "election"/calendar contest.  Merle got 968 votes and placed #12 (top 14 go in the calendar), so he's in!  We are all very excited for Merle.  Merle, however, remains stoic on the subject.  So the beautiful picture that Haley took that shows off his beautiful eyes will be in the calendar, right?  Wrong.  Friday, as Mom and I are driving to the bank (more on that later) I get a call from a woman at the Courier congratulating me and Merle on his getting in the calendar and telling me that I need to call Bob Straub Photography to make an appointment for Merle to get his picture taken for the calendar!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?  I haven't had the heart yet to tell Haley as I know it'll break her heart that the picture she worked so hard to get and is so, rightfully, proud of will not be in the calendar.  But take heart!  My thoughts are there is still hope.  Frankly, Merle is an outdoor cat.  Merle isn't fond of strangers.  Merle is not the easiest subject to work with.  Merle likes to go on walkabouts, so it isn't even guaranteed that he'll be around on Saturday (the day of his appointment) for me to even attempt to nab him (by myself, as mom is in San Diego this week) to get him there.  So in my mind, there is still a possibility that they'll (have to) use Haley's picture… so I haven't told her yet.  Sigh.