NANCY GARDELLA

508-693-3308

(vhavenvgazette@yahoo.com)

I am making a general announcement of the only two gifts I want for Christmas but never get. I am in love with that four letter word­ — hope — so here goes. I want world peace. Been asking for years, always disappointed. The other thing I want — need — this year is perhaps more doable. I would like a benefactor to provide me with 52 breakaway collars. In my household that’s approximately a year’s supply. When I adopted my now-three-year-old sleek black cat, Teddy Paul Bruschi Kennedy Gardella, I gave him five names, almost close to nine, but I can tell you he has more than nine lives. I tried to make him an indoor cat but perhaps I should have added Houdini to his names.

I purchased the first breakaway collar. It went missing in four days, this is at approximately $8.95 per collar. I bought a new one. On a pitch black night he escaped out in the backyard, a new kitten, and immediately climbed the tree where I have my basketball backboard — not just any backboard but the one given to me by Eddie and Evelyn Heywood, the jazz pianist who lived in our town years back, when their son moved away. (Another story, another time.)

Teddy got up on the ledge of the hoop and was afraid to come down. I can do this, I thought. I got the big ladder. Mind you, my outdoor bulbs had blown and I hadn’t replaced them, so I took a flashlight, setting the ladder against the tree. Now here was the Girl Scout and adventuress who used to climb my parents’ garage roof, fashion a cape around my shoulders, and jump off trying to fly. Loved helping Dad clean the gutters. That was then, this is now. I’m older, arthritic, rotator cuff problems, and now scared of heights. I got up the ladder just in time to grab Teddy by the collar, which did break away, and free his frightened soul to scuttle down the tree, leaving me holding a flashlight and a nine dollar collar.

I froze. I became afraid to go down. There was no moon, no stars. I did not have a cell phone in my pocket. I am in a neighborhood where people can hear me if I scream for help. But as is my way, embarrassment is the major fear factor in my life and I didn’t want the neighbors to know that a woman of a certain age could not back down a ladder. I forced myself. I have gone on to buy Teddy breakaway collars that glow in the dark, that are gem-like colors, ruby, fuchsia, emerald, they all go missing. My first thought as an animal lover should be when he returns without his necklace: “Oh, thank God! His furry little life was saved by a breakaway collar!” But I am my father’s daughter so the first thought in my mind is: “Holy cow! Another $8.95!” Well, the gist of it is if no one is willing to get me world peace for Christmas, maybe a year’s supply of breakaway collars?

Thank you all for the lovely holiday cards and notes. Jim and Trude Hart’s always informative letter even mentioned our dear Rupert the Rooster. Oh, how I miss him in the ’hood.

Anniversary bouquets go out to Edson and Norma Rogers for their 51st on Dec. 26.

The birthday bandwagon pulls along Stephen Perry, Emily Chappell and Leo Kelley on Dec. 24. Kelly dos Reis celebrates on Christmas Day. Dec. 26 belongs to Haley Panek. Dec. 27 is shared by Rene Moncada and Austen Ostrowski. And on Dec. 28 Fred Shapiro, Pia DiTerlizzi and Carol Slocum take the cake. Many happy returns.

And on Sunday morning, in your homes, in your hearts and under your trees, may you all find peace.