My Cat - Shaddow

    There was  this jet black cat/kitten that followed my son as he walked  home from school one day.   I'm sure my son encouraged him.  It was a very sweet cat but you could tell it had been born outside and wanted to live outside.  It wasn't a full grown cat yet it wasn't a kitten either.  Later with time my son let slip that it had siblings, and we asked him how he knew this- It turns out they had been born under a storage building of a friend of his.  They had come across them when they were just days old and their eyes were still closed.  That was how we knew the cat was born in March-  March 2002.

     The cat followed him home in Aug  2002.  My son had a birthday coming up and he told us the thing he wanted more than anything else in the world was for us to adopt this cat.  I was heartbroken over this request because it was such a sweet cat but my son, who wanted it, was highly allergic to cats.  I knew if we agreed to it the cat would have to always be an outdoor cat because I just couldn't let it into the house.  I knew my son, if the cat would have lived in the house it would always end up in his bed.  (We had enough problems trying to keep things under control so his allergies wouldn't be so bad. I knew my sons allergies were bad when one time the kids were playing if you could wish for anything in the world what would you wish for - and my son answered to be able to breath normally and for my allergies to go away.  He wanted that over money, fame etc. We took him to the doctor and were trying to follow all the protocols just so he could have some seasons without breathing problems.  But with the cat it would be year round and I just didn't want my son to live with all those breathing problems all the time.)
     At first we said no but the cat kept on hanging around, I knew my son was slipping it food.  And my son kept on begging for it. Finally on Aug 28, 2002 we caved in and agreed to let him have it with the understanding it was to be strictly an outdoor cat.
          I took the cat to the vet to get the shots and to have it neutered.  That was another condition for it to be kept- it needed to be neutered. My boys didn't care for that but they understood the necessity of it after the vet told us that by neutering him, it would help prolong its life because he wouldn't get into as many fights.  The vet told us that outdoor cats typically don't live to be very old- 5 to 10 years if we were lucky.  She explained it all to my son but he kept on insisting that he was okay with all of that.  We went ahead and made him officially ours.
      While at the vet they wanted to know its name.  My son decided to call him Shadow.  The girl typed it in as Shaddow.  I explained that wasn't how Shadow was spelled, but my son liked that version of the name. We tried using Shaddow but through the years, it was too confusing always explaining the extra 'd' and eventually his name did become just plain old Shadow.

     I never dreamed Shaddow would last 15 years.  Shad was one of the best cats ever.  He was such a smart cat, and so sweet.  He was very street savvy, and avoided cars, except if they were parked and the engine was warm then he like to sit on top of them, or if the birds were dive bombing him and he would stay under them for protection.
    We did do things for him to encourage him to stay in the area.  Our house has a garage and we would keep the door open about a foot so he could come and go as he pleased. He liked to stay there when the weather was inclement.  We also had a thermal bed for him in the garage. And when it would be freezing we would fill milk/water jugs with hot water and place them around his bed and have his bed as close to the house door as possible so he could get some of that heat too.
    On the front porch we kept a cat house that he at first would sleep in but then he got to be too big and would just sit on it, that way he could observe what was going on in the neighborhood. Since it was on the porch he was also protected if it was raining.  But most of the time he preferred to sleep in our flower beds, hidden among the bushes. We would feed him twice a day on the porch. 

     We live on a bayou and was prone to having critters visit us. That is until Shad showed up.  He'd keep them under control and  loved to bring presents home to us, that he had killed.
      He was also very good about his food.  I never saw a cat like him.  Shaddow would eat almost all of it but would always leave a couple of morsels.  He would share this with his dog friend named Sugar - a beagle. A friend would always walk Sugar by our house every day and sometimes he would stop and visit.  Sugar would like to eat Shaddow's food while we visited and over time it just became a ritual for them to stop and get a few morsels, even if we weren't around.  I would be amazed when sometimes I would just feed Shaddow and Sugar would come by to visit.  Shaddow would back up and let Sugar get her few morsels, and even Sugar wouldn't eat it all either, then walk off again. Shaddow would resume his eating and eat it until it was all gone.  The owner would only let Sugar get a few since Sugar needed to watch her figure. They never hissed or growled at each other.  You could tell they had a mutual respect for each other and liked each other. They were the best of friends.

     Shaddow was always so good at greeting us as we would pull up in our cars.  Or in the morning when we would go out to get the paper he would show up expecting to be feed.  We would feed him twice a day.  In the morning and in the evening around 6. He would come running when we showed up with his bag of food. But first he would always wanted to be petted for a few minutes. It would never be for long before he'd let you know he'd had enough.  He would always purr real loud as he was petted.  If you didn't pet him he would like to rub against your leg instead, always purring needing that attention.  He like to greet people who came to the house, it was if he had to give his approval before they could go in.  He would only let my son and I pick him up everyone else he would fight to get down with.

    Last week Shadow fail to show up in the morning for his morning breakfast. During the day his food disappeared and I didn't think much of it.  Then again that night he didn't show up.  We weren't too worried about it because he'd disappeared before for a couple of days, especially once the weather starts to get nicer.  The next morning still no Shadow but the neighbors cat from across the street was hanging around.  The food was put out and we chased the cat away.  During the day a muscovy
duck was hanging out in our garden (Shaddow and the muscovy duck) .  I knew those ducks like to eat his food.  I began to suspect the duck was eating Shadow's food and not Shadow.  That night we didn't put any food out knowing that Shadow would meow if he was there and was hungry. Shadow didn't show up. 

     It been over a week and there is still no Shadow.  I talked to the vet and was told that Shadow was 15 years old which is a very long time for an outdoor cat to live.  I don't think I'll ever see Shadow alive again.  I do miss him so much.  He was such a great cat. 

    About a year ago my son, who wanted him, was back in college after having served in the marines.  My son wanted me to take some pictures of Shadow so he could show them to his friends.  Shadow does not like to have his picture taken.  He's constantly on the move wanting to be petted or getting attention.  I took a bunch of pictures trying to get some to send to my son.  Here are some of the better pictures of him.  He was jet black but recently he was getting some white in it and it had definitely gotten lighter in color.

My Cat Shaddow

I am so grateful to have taken these pictures to remember him by. 
RIP Shadow.  You've been a great cat. You brought a lot of joy to our family and you will be missed a lot.


 

Red River Still Rising At 36.5 feet (June 7, 2015)

At first they were predicting the Red River to crest at 33 feet, then 34, but it kept on rising, and when it was over 36 feet they realized it still hasn't crested.  Now they are predicting it to crest at  37 feet with it currently being at 36.9
Here's a current chart.  I was surprised to see that the chart updates itself when there is a change.
also here's the link to it.  Red River Chart NOAA


Now I'm going to see if I can just get an image of it without it changing with time. Yes it's didn't change like the linked one did.

Needless to say this has been fascinating to me.  I want to check it out since its been 70 years since the last flood of this magnitude.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to get on Saturday.
 I chose this one because you could see how flat this area of town is. We were on LA 511 headed towards the Jimi Davis bridge.   But then as I looked at it I realized something else about this.

 Here's the same picture that I have cropped and enhanced.  You can see how close the water is getting to the road.  See that white stick with the orange top.  That's a TV Cable line.  Then if you look in the background you can see storage tanks for an oil/ gas well that is behind the wooden fence. So many things are going to be affected by this.  On the news they have reported that certain apartment complexes had to turn off the electricity.  That's been a real hardship because we've been having weather in the 90's.

This image was used because it shows how high the water has gotten in the exit and entrance ramps.

I was going over the Jimi Davis Bridge  511 (eastbound)  and was looking south and you can see the retaining wall working but just barely.  they've had to reinforce it at the end, as seen by the red looking dirt. 

We got off and was able to get onto the Aurthur Teague parkway.  We were only able to go a short distance before we had to turn around.  This image is looking at the Jimi Davis Bridge from the south bound lane of the Arthur Teague parkway.
 
My husband pulled over to the side.  We noticed some other people pulled over and one guy had a huge camera taking pictures.  I was looking in the direction of his camera to see what he was so focused on.  It looked like a log in the water.  Then I noticed that this log was going up current which it shouldn't be able to do since there were no eddies present. 

It then dawn upon me that that wasn't a log but an alligator.  I tried getting an image of it.  Its not the best.  I did crop it and enhanced but its still hard to see.  Look at the center bottom and see the reed, its right above that in the red waters.  If it hadn't been moving I would have missed it completely.  Makes me wonder how many other animals that were hiding that we weren't seeing.

We continued to drive down the southbound lane and could see how high the river has gotten.

I felt sorry for this land owner.  You could tell that the water had creep in from the side because the river would be behind towards the back of the image.  The house was isolated by the water. 

We turned around and headed back home.  We were now traveling north on Arthur Teague.  This was a good image of the levy for the area.  It looks like the houses in this subdivision will be okay.  I thought with the tree and fence post and roof tops, one could tell that that levy had to be at least 8-10 feet high. 

We headed west, back over the Jimi Davis bridge.  This is looking north at the Arthur Teague parkway.  The reddish water is where the alligator was and you can see how close its getting to the road.

This is what the Red River looks like.   Its easy to see why its called the Red River.

In this image, I was looking north onto Clyde Fant Parkway.  Notice all the workers and national guard working to shore up the retaining wall.  But even with all of this work water has still gone through the drainage pipes and have filled in the area around the exit ramps.

The Red River Rising on Clyde Fant Parkway as seen from the Jimi Davis Bridge LA511. (north)  6--6-2015around 1:30.

The rising Red on the northern exists of LA-511.

I thought these would be the last images I would be able to get but the next day I had a function to go to over in Bossier City.  The Jimi Davis bridge was the easiest way to get to it.  Everyone was really slowing down going over the bridge  but by the time I got my camera out it was too late to get an image so when I was coming back I had my cellphone handy and set in my camera mode so all I had to do was press the camera button.  .
These are the images I got.

 These are from the LA-511 Jimi Davis bridge looking north.  In this one you can see water has seep over the retaining wall and that they've had to build another wall in the medium of the parkway.

 Here's a slightly different angle where you can see how much work has been done in just one day.  Too bad the images weren't better.

There is one thing I would like to point out.  A lock and dam system had been built upon the Red River.  People were counting on this lock and dam system for keeping the Red river under control.  It just goes to show how much we don't know about mother nature and our ability to control things.  It reminds me so much of John McPhee's book 'The Control of Nature'.

I don't know if I'll get by the River again but if I do I'll be sure to include any photo's I may get.  I must admit I just love my cellphone and being able to get pictures just by having someone drive me in the car.
The New NOAA on 6-8-2015 @4:00  its at 37.02

June 4, 2015 Red River Flooding Clyde Fant

I had a fund raiser event to go to at the El Dorado casino resort.  The event is sponsored by The Northwest Louisiana Food Bank and is called Empty Bowls.  It is an enjoyable fund raiser to go to and  I've made it for a few years.  They've been doing it for 10  years.
    Going to the event I thought for sure Clyde Fant Parkway would be closed since I was there at 1 and the water was starting to go into the road.  Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to travel the road to see how the water was doing with it.  As I drove down it the water was definitely up.  They had closed off the Stoner exit and I couldn't stop there.  I got to the Riverfront district and was surprised they were letting people drive through the rising waters.  Most people were not doing that but driving around it by turning onto the side street.  I got to the event right at 6:00 when it started but the whole lobby was full of people waiting to get in.  I decided to go ahead and walk by the river park one more time.  These were the pictures I was able to get on my cellphone.

I thought this light post would be a good reference if I got there again. 

 I could tell that the water was very close to the edge of the River park waterworks feature.

 I guess I liked this one the best because you can see how deep the water had already gotten, plus you can see the railroad bridge and SciPort in the background. 

 This one you can actually see where its coming up from the river.  I never realized this area was so low.

 This one because you have the railroad bridge base as a reference point.

 This I just thought was pretty and you can see how red the water gets.

 This is the Texas street bridge and the I thought it would be another good one to use as a reference point.

I was at the event from 6-8 and when I left I was pleased to see that they had indeed closed the road.  Going back I got onto Clyde Fant at another location and did drive it some.  When I went to exit at the Jimi Davis Bridge I did notice that the water was within inches of the road.  I figured it wouldn't take much before this section of the road would be closed soon too.

June 4, 2015 Red River Flooding

Yesterday I had to do a post on the Red River and it being at flood stage at 30 feet. Today it was 34.23 ft at 2:00 pm.
 
Here's NOAA diagram of the area and the link to it. http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=shv&gage=svpl1   Since its changing all the time I've included the image I'm been looking at.
. 

And some more of the information associated with it.

Upstream Gauge

Downstream Gauge

Flood Categories (in feet) Major Flood Stage: 33 Moderate Flood Stage: 31.5 Flood Stage: 30 Action Stage: 26 Historic Crests (1) 45.90 ft on 08/10/1849 (2) 45.70 ft on 05/28/1892 (3) 45.10 ft on 06/15/1908 (4) 44.70 ft on 02/08/1890 (5) 44.40 ft on 04/02/1894 Show More Historic Crests (P): Preliminary values subject to further review. Recent Crests (1) 29.45 ft on 11/01/2009 (2) 29.40 ft on 03/15/2001 (3) 29.80 ft on 03/05/2001 (4) 29.30 ft on 02/20/2001 (5) 27.50 ft on 11/29/1996 Show More Recent Crests (P): Preliminary values subject to further review. Low Water Records (1) 0.20 ft on 11/08/1939 (2) 1.12 ft on 01/17/1940 (3) 1.70 ft on 09/13/1936 Show More Low Water Records For more information on your flood risk go to www.floodsmart.gov. Show FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layers

Zoom Level: 15

Esri, HERE, DeLorme, Intermap, USGS, METI/NASA, USDA, EPA

Gauge Location Disclaimer Latitude/Longitude Disclaimer: The gauge location shown in the above map is the approximate location based on the latitude/longitude coordinates provided to the NWS by the gauge owner.

Flood Impacts & Photos

If you notice any errors in the below information, please contact our Webmaster
50	Disastrous flooding of Bossier City and Shreveport area. Water will overtop the levee on the Bossier City side. Also expect disastrous backwater flooding of Cross and Caddo lakes with their pool stages rising to near 180.0 ft msl. Disastrous backwater flooding will affect Caddo Lake and the Big Cypress Bayou to near Karnack, Texas.
39.5	Severe flooding will take place in parts of downtown Shreveport in the riverfront area. Area casinos are in danger of being flooded. Severe backwater flooding will worsen on Cross and Caddo lakes and will result in their pool stages rising to near 171.0 feet. Also parts of the levee between downtown Shreveport and the Jimmie Davis bridge will be topped without sandbagging efforts.
38	Water will overflow the flood wall at the Jimmie Davis bridge next to the Fant Parkway and flood several establishments both north and south of East 70th Street in Shreveport on the riverside of the levee system.
37.5	Flooding will close the the Shreveport and Blanchard, Interstate 220 approach to Blanchard Highway to both the exit and entrance. Severe backwater flooding of Cross and Twelve Mile Bayous with backwater flooding into Caddo Lake.
36.5	Clyde Fant Parkway is flooded and closed as well as the Teague Parkway in Bossier City. Extensive backwater flooding of Cross and Twelve Mile bayous will take place. Backwater flooding will take place all the way to the concrete sill at the Cross Lake dam. Backwater flooding will approach the pool height of Caddo Lake Dam near Mooringsport, Louisiana.
36	Water rises to within one and one half feet of Interstate 220 eastbound of the Red River bridge at the low point in the levee system.
34	Old Blanchard Highway just north of the Cross Lake spillway is flooded and closed. Extensive backwater flooding of Cross Bayou and Twelve Mile Bayou begins.
33.5	Portions of Wells Island Road in north Shreveport is flooded and closed. Highway 3349 is flooded and closed that branches off the Wells Island Road.
33	Martin Luther King Drive at McCain Creek in north Shreveport flooded and closed.
32.5	The area south of Interstate 20 and Traffic street exit and also near Hamilton Road area in Bossier City floods. Also the south part of Martin Luther King drive in north Shreveport is flooded and closed.
31	Russel Road will be overflowed and closed between Blanchard highway and Interstate 220 in north Shreveport. Also expect backwater flooding up Cross Bayou, Twelve Mile Bayou, and lower McCain Creek. High water will creep up to near southern Fant Parkway and near the Teague Parkway.
30.5	Water flows into Traffic Street underneath the Kansas City Southern railroad bridge between Horseshoe Casino and Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier City.
30	Russel Road will be overflowed between Blanchard Highway and Interstate 220 in north Shreveport.
27	Several hundred acres inundate in the C. Bickham Dixon park area. Also expect moderate to severe bank erosion. Flooding closes the Hamels Memorial Park upstream from Jimmie Davis Bridge.
25	C. Bickham Dixon park is floods and closes to the general public. Moderate bank erosion begins to damage riverbanks in both Shreveport and Bossier City especially next to the bike and walking path alongside the river in Shreveport.
23	Low land areas inundate next to C. Bickham Dixon park. Bank erosion problems begin as well.

About This Location

Latitude: 32.515278° N, Longitude: 93.740278° W, Horizontal Datum: NAD83/WGS84

River Stage Reference Frame	Gauge Height	Flood Stage	Uses
NWS stage	0 ft	30 ft	Interpreting hydrographs and NWS watch, warnings, and forecasts, and inundation maps
Vertical Datum	Elevation (gauge height = 0)	Elevation (gauge height = flood stage)	Elevation information source
NAVD88	Not Available	Not Available	Survey grade GPS equipment, FEMA flood plain maps, newer USGS topographic maps
NGVD 29	131.48 ft	161.48 ft	Older USGS topographic maps, NGVD29 benchmarks
MSL	Not Available	Not Available	Older USGS topographic maps, MSL benchmarks
Other	Not Available	Not Available

Current/Historical Observations:

• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Data and Site Info for Shreveport

_____________

For a person who has taken Hydrology in college this stuff is pretty exciting.  I know I haven't seen anything like this before on the Red River.  I just had to get some pictures.
Some of the pictures I tried to take at the same spot or close to it.  I've gone to these spots 3 times.  Yesterday at about noon,  6-3-2015 from about 7-8 and today 6-4-2015 at about noon.
        I liked this picture also because you can get a feel of how red the Red River can get at times

 In the one above you can see the sign at noon. Now its barely visible at 7:15.

 This is noon on June 4th. 

  I almost didn't take this one but decided to since they had the sand bags going.

But I did take it again in the evening.  You couldn't notice a difference.

But this time you could see the water getting close to the sand bags.

This is a image that I wished I took every time because you can see the water rising so well.  I did get some but from different angles

                    6-3- noon

 Here the other angle and you can see that its gone over the wall.

And here it's way up the next day

 Here were some steps at noon time on the 3rd


I realized that these weren't very good reference points so I picked a couple of others.
The water was up over the sidewalk in the evening. 

w

 This is how they were on June 4th

This was another point of reference.  This was taken in the evening.  I didn't even pay attention to this area at noon.

Just look how much its gone up

This was another area I didn't look at at noon on the 3rd and wished I had.  I was surprised to see it past the fence already.



And now the water is flooding the street at this point.


I was so happy I got there when I did because I knew it was just a matter of moments before they close the street down at this location.



It wasn't long before I went to the Stoner boat launch .  I like these because we had the electric poles for references.  I was looking at the base.
Noon


Evening


Noon on the 4th of June.  The cement bases are completely covered.

 And here's a road that's been closed to the boat launch. 

 You have to look at the signs to see how its rised up.

Here's a couple of other images I took today of the Red.  I was amazed at how many people were fishing in it.

 This sidewalk is barely there.

 Just look at how Red the Red River is .

 The skate park and how its barely above it.

 And finally I have to thank all the policemen and emergency people who have been working overtime to make sure everyone is being protected.  I could tell with the river going on the road from where I had just come it was going to be closed soon and this was the next exit so to detour the traffic.  They were  getting into position to start the process. 

I am glad I went at noon and got these images because I sincerely doubt the road will be open tomorrow and I doubt I'll be able to get more images.