cairistiona | A weird, weird week.... (Reply)

I'm searching online for ark blueprints. Also searching for one of our cats. But first, the flood....

Remember this idyllic spot I shared in a post some months back?

It's the main spring that feeds the Roaring River. After yesterday, the river itself is definitely roaring... the area got dumped with about 8 inches of rain overnight on Monday into Tuesday and a 4-foot wall of water surged through the campgrounds. Fortunately, they knew the flash flood was coming and evacuated everyone before the waters hit, but some still lost their campers. You can see the topography of the area in this pic:

The area is nothing but steep hills and 'hollers', which serve to channel the run off down into the river. The spring itself, I'm sure, is at full flow because of all the rain we've received over the last month or so, so you can imagine how quickly the river zoomed above flood stage. Most creeks and rivers went anywhere from 10-14 feet above flood stage in a matter of hours yesterday.

Here is a video of Roark Creek, in Branson, at full flood. Scary stuff. We've stayed at the resort along that creek and I don't think I'd be standing around videoing. I'd be heading for high ground!

Naturally, while all this was going on, Dink was down in the Branson area, staying with a friend at their lake condo. Fortunately, the condo was high enough off the lake that it didn't flood, nor did their road wash out. (To give you an idea of the scope of the rain, Table Rock Lake, into which all these rivers like Roaring River and Roark Creek feed, covers some 43,000 acres and has an average depth 220 feet. It rose 7 inches yesterday morning. I'm no math whiz but 7 inches orver 43,000 acres is a sh**-ton of rain). Also fortunate: the rain stayed ~~on the plain~~ a good 50 miles or more south of our house, and today's flooding rains seem to be skirting us to the north.*whew*

We all wish there was a way to send all this excess rain to the West Coast.

More weirdness, and I fear sadness... Pepper has gone missing. :( She's previously gone a day without coming back to the house at night, but now it's going on two nights gone, and it just feels... different this time, maybe my imagination but a sort of 'gone' feeling when I go outside, as though her presence is simply not there any more. *sigh*

I've looked up and down the road--no sign of her, so I doubt she's been hit by a car, but this is, aside from the beef cattle pastures, fairly wild country. Cars are almost the least of the dangers. We have coyotes, bobcats, owls, who knows these days maybe even a black bear or mountain lion (I think the mountain lion would be a greater risk than a bear). There was a mountain lion killed along the interstate only 40-50 miles away this spring, which definitely puts them "in the neighborhood", since mountain lions roam hundreds and hundreds of miles looking for new territory. There've been black bears spotted even closer.

I hope she just decided to hang out at a neighbor's house. She came to us on her own and it might be that she's moved on... she's always been sweet and friendly but at the same time very much her own cat, not even bonding much with Pip. Some cats, like Pip, move in and bond with the family, but Pepper has always been very much an outdoor cat who bonded with the food dish and one of the downstairs beds more than with the actual people living here, though she occasionally sits uneasily on my lap. We tried keeping her indoors at first, caving to the societal finger-wagging shrieks that all cats must remain indoors or zomg you're an irresponsible owner, but she was so miserable that we simply had to let her remain an indoor/outdoor cat, despite the risks. To have done otherwise would have lengthened her life but made it intolerable. When you're owned by a cat, or even simply visited by one, you often have to let the cat dictate the terms.

So... definitely a worry, and I don't expect a good outcome. But keep a good thought. Maybe she'll show up yet.