1. I went out two or three times this morning, looking for Copper, hoping he had come out from under Terry's porch/patio. The third time, for no good reason, I walked through the side gate to our back yard and, wow!, Copper was near the gate, meowing to me. He made a half-hearted move to escape, but I was able to pick him up and carry him into the Vizio room, close the door, and fix him a bowl of Friskies pate and a bowl of dry food.
He wolfed down both bowls.
I turned on the Red Sox/Rays playoff game and Copper stayed with me in the Vizio room for the next eight hours.
At some point, he jumped up into my lap. Since coming into our home in February, Copper had never done this. I began petting him and he stayed in my lap for well over a half an hour. I could hardly believe it!
This was totally unprecedented. In the past, I had picked him up and put him in my lap, but he never stayed long. I was astonished and ecstatic that he wanted to have this long session of being held and petted.
Finally, I had to put him down so I could go to the bathroom. Copper stayed in the room with me until the baseball games were over and slept on the bed. Luna joined us in the Vizio room at some point and we all spent a peaceful night together sleeping.
Copper has not overcome his fear of the living room and Gibbs yet --- but here's hoping we might one day see a change.
His behavior today gave me some hope.
2. The Red Sox won an extra inning teeter totter thriller over the Rays today, 6-4. The game featured a play in the top of the thirteenth inning that I had never witnessed in my over 60 years as a baseball fan, a play that contributed significantly to the Rays' doom.
With Yandy Diaz on first and two out, Kevin Kiermaier pasted a Nick Pivetta delivery into the depths of right center. His blast was a whisker shy of leaving the park for a homer. Then came the weirdness. The crushed ball fell shy of the fence, bounced against it, ricocheted back, and, upon striking right fielder Hunter Renfroe, it hopped over the short fence out of play.
Chaos ensued.
What's the rule when such a keystone cop occurrence unfolds?
The umpires huddled.
They viewed the replay. They consulted with the rules guys in New York City.
Correctly, the umpire ruled that Renfroe had not intentionally interfered with the ball's ricochet off the fence and off of him. When a ball bounces off a player and goes out of the field of play, the rules clearly denote that the hit is a ground rule double.
The umpires sent Diaz back to third base. A stunned Kevin Kiermaier remained at second base.
Nick Pivetta completed his stellar four innings of extra inning relief by fanning the powerful all or nothing Mike Zunino, whose pattern is to either homer or strike out, and the game moved to the bottom of the 13th.
And wouldn't you know it -- ricochet man Hunter Renfroe walked with one out and then Christian Vazquez hammered the first pitch he saw, a Luis Patino 98 mph four seamer, over the Green Monster for a jubilant walk off two run homer.
The Red Sox cashed in on their bizarre good fortune and how lead the series 2-1.
Over in the American League, the Chicago White Sox woke up from their two game coma, erased an early 5-1 Astro lead on the strength of home runs by Yasmani Grandal and Leury Garcia and crushed Houston, 12-6, keeping Houston from sweeping the series and possibly snatching the series' momentum from the Astros.
3. On Saturday, Debbie fixed a delicious dinner of black beans and rice.
This afternoon, she put the leftovers in a cast iron skillet, topped it with corn bread dough, baked it in the oven, and this meal was even better than what we ate on Saturday.
Christy came over for dinner, but I was so entranced by the Red Sox and Rays and so dedicated to trying to build Copper's sense of security and confidence in our home with all of its recent changes that I didn't join Christy and Debbie for dinner, but remained confined to the Vizio room.
Debbie later told me that she and Christy had a great time drinking cocktails and dining together, a way of assuring me that they were just fine in my absence!
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