Dharma Found in Verdun!

Thursday morning on Verdun’s Rushbrooke St. found Myriam, a beautiful, francophone mother-to-be searching urgently for her lost Calico cat. “C’est la deuxieme journée” she whispered.

“Viens,” I replied to Myriam, new to Verdun, “Let’s look together. “Je connais le coin tres bien!”

Our first stop, on Wellington, was at the home of passionate feline lovers, Janine and André Veronneau.

The long-time Verdun residents said yes, they’d seen her pet only yesterday! They encouraged us to search the garage areas of the buildings a few doors down.

“I got her in France, in Bretagne and brought her to Canada with me six years ago when I came to study film at the Universite de Montreal, voiced Myriam, a little encouraged now. “It’s where I met Francois. We both love our Dharma so much!”

Next we saw a woman raking leaves in her back yard. She smiled a calm welcome as we approached with the flyer.

“You’ll find her, dear mother. she said. “My name is Huldah. Would you like me to say a prayer for Dharma’s safe return?”

And so the three of us formed a tiny, but important circle in a back woodlot we’d never been while the cool, lacey shadows of the yard’s brambly trees nodded full assent.

We rang the front doorbell of St. Athanasius Church on Wellington St.

“Yes!” cried David, the young man who answered, “I’m sure I saw that cat in the basement last night! I recognize the red collar!”

I heard the clatter of David’s feet, racing down several flights of stairs, to fling open the basement door for us.

Myriam decided it might be better if she was alone to call her shy pet, so breathlessly, David sleuthed the kitchen area. I went back into the garage.

“Dharma, I whispered, “Dharma, how are you today?” I sing-songed in a voice I use for young children.

‘Mew”, I heard.

I stood very still and sang again, “Dharma, do you hear me?”

“Mew”!

Oh! What blissful monosyllabic sound emerged from that dusty darkness!

I called Myriam who also heard the wonderful, immediate reply: ‘Mew!”

We dashed around the dozens of bags of broken bits of cement desperately hauling the heavy sacks away from the grey stone wall where Dharma was trapped.

Suddenly I saw, framed in the background of Maxi’s open-air market of summer fruit, a flash of orange, black and white fur leap directly into Myriam’s arms!

It was pure joy for David and I to witness jubilant Myriam hugging her beloved bundle, rocking back and forth in that universal motion of consolation.

Dharma’s long tail descended to outline her body, perhaps a way of including Baby, soon-to-be-born, in this ecstatic moment of rich reunion?

On Saturday at lunch, all of us including Myriam’s partner, Francois, gathered once more to celebrate Dharma – and meeting each other through her!

Eleanor Cowan, Verdun, QC.