The silent auction had an unexpected bonus for two cats. Reunited after decades apart, the cats now live contentedly together in the household of Jon and Anne Gardner, both News Review members.
The story begins in England when the Gardners met in Durham in northeast England some 25 years ago. They had decided to get married and a group of their college friends made haste to be at the wedding. The friends were running too late to put a lot of thought into a gift so they stopped quickly at a second-hand shop and bought a tall, thin, gray wooden cat. Time went by and the Gardners established themselves in Greenbelt, where they have raised their three children. The gray cat came too.
Enter the Greenbelt Archive Project’s silent auction and Diana Weatherby, donor, with the newspaper in the role of the fickle finger of fate.
Weatherby was exploring her home for intriguing items to give to the Greenbelt Archive silent auction because she and her husband are planning a move. One of several items she donated was a tall, thin brown wooden cat. Anne Gardner, perusing the catalog, recognized it with a start and, to the amusement of her family, exercised the buy now option to immediately purchase it. It is now happily re-united with its gray twin. They stand together next to Anne’s piano and present an imperturbable front to the other feline denizens of the home. A happy ending after years alone.
