I get to use the word "galore" !

When I was a kid (which includes the time period from my birth until maybe six weeks ago) I had the dream to buy a school. 

Not to operate it as a school, for crying out loud, and not a big place. An elementary school would do.

In fact, I pictured myself taking ownership of Hampton Elementary School in Baltimore County, my olde alma mater. It had all I looked for in a domicile: plenty of storage space (all those lockers!), room for my books (an entire library), a gym where I could HORSE around all day, a cafeteria with industrial cooking equipment, outdoor playgrounds galore, enough classrooms for me to invite friends over and take turns talking about the causes of the Civil War, and long division, and the Oxford Comma, and a public address system over which I could speak to my family and whatever visitors we had staying over.

I offered $200, to be raised over a summer of mowing lawns at five dollars a clip (!), which at the time seemed like all the money in the world, and the county refused my offer. In fact, the school is still open, and they added on to the building a few years ago, as if to taunt me.

All this is why the story of Rowdy The Cat caught my eye. This stuff is like, well, catnip to me.

A couple of months ago, Rowdy landed at Boston's sprawling Logan Airport. In fact, I think that's the official name of that plane place: Sprawling Logan Airport.

Rowdy, four years old and pitch black, landed via Lufthansa, and immediately jumped out of her cage to chase some birds around.

It was three weeks before she was to see the inside of her cage again. Her family even sent the airport people her favorite treats to try to lure her in, and they recorded voice messages, all to no avail.

She was coming back to the US with her family after their deployment to Germany. Hey! Maybe if they had hollered,"Hör auf Kitteh!" she would have heeded the command.

While the cat literally ran circles around them, the staff even called on animal experts, who no doubt told the flyaway brass that the first rule of cats is, they do WHAT they want WHEN they want to and that's that.

For three weeks, the cat and mouse game went on, until...

"Whether out of fatigue or hunger we'll never know, but this morning (July 22) she finally let herself be caught," an airport spokeswoman told the press.

After a health check, Rowdy was back in the arms of her human companions, Patty and Rich Sahli. Patty said, "I'm kind of in disbelief. I thought, what are the odds we're actually going to get her back?"

"But I got a call this morning and I am just so shocked. It was such a community effort. We're just so grateful to everyone who helped look for her."

Things usually turn out for the best where cats are concerned, but again, it's totally their decision as to when.