Today is the feast of Guardian Angels, as I noted here exactly one year ago.
Since my most recent post was about the archangels feast day, I was planning to move on to a new topic. But, the storm came.
On September 30, San Diego underwent an incredible battering by Mother Nature. Forked lightening, booming thunder, screaming sheets of rain, even hail--the perfect storm of "global climate disruption" attacked the county with unfettered fury.
My 7-year-old Labrador, Riga, does not like noise. Ever since puppyhood, she has quaked at any loud or sudden sound. On July 4, during the neighborhood fireworks display, Pete and I would find her burrowed far back into the well of space under the computer desk. In recent years, Riga favors her garage bunker, behind the washing machine, during fireworks.
But on Thursday morning, the interior door to the garage was closed. Matt, Nicole, and I were at work. And the thunder was deafening. So Riga tried a new solution--she jumped the fence and ran.
Matt arrived home from a 24-hour shift at around 9:30 a.m. and found Riga missing. He began to drive and search for her. He phoned Nicole, and she left work to help him search. Wisely, my kids did not notify me of this crisis. I can only imagine the wreckage I might have caused on the freeway as I raced home in the tempest. Riga is my bridge to Pete, who unabashedly doted on her. She's my living link to better times, a walking furball of fun memories.
I arrived home in the evening blissfully ignorant of the days events. Matt informed me and said that in the afternoon, about 1:30 or 2:00 p.m., a woman called. Matt happened to be at home, preparing to begin a new round of searching, and he answered the phone. The woman told him that Riga was at her office, about two miles from our home.
Matt went to collect Riga. She was wet, scared, and tired. Who knows where she had traveled during those many hours of raging storm? I only know that she had to cross one of the busiest thoroughfares in San Diego to reach that business park. The thought of it still makes me shiver.
You may be wondering what Riga's dangerous flight and happy rescue has to do with the feast day of Guardian Angels. Well, I find it somewhat relevant that I had just posted on the archangels the very day before.
But another fact is more noteworthy. You know that woman who phoned Matt, to tell him she had Riga safe and sound? Her name is Angel.
