Rape on the Lake Wobegon Trail: Good News/Bad News

This may not make the news, at least for a while, but yesterday a 14-year-old girl was raped on the Lake Wobegon Trail. She made identification of her assailant easier, by giving him a bloody nose.

Subsequent to the assault, she flagged down a local priest, who had a cell phone. Her cell phone was inoperable. The local priest called law enforcement, and police apprehended the alleged assailant (I trust that's cautious enough for American usage).

My wife called a family conference a few minutes ago, updated all of us on the events, and outlined changes in routines and procedures which are now necessary. We live within a block of the Lake Wobegon Trail.

Good news: The alleged assailant was apprehended, and may be discouraged from committing assaults in the future. And, the 14-year-old girl was able to get assistance in a timely fashion.

Bad news: This is 'small town America,' but we've got the same issues that the rest of America faces. Being on the Interstate and having a bike trail connection to larger population centers probably doesn't help.

I'm not one bit happy about this situation. I could maunder on about 'loss of innocence' and 'the good old days' - but the first is beyond recall, and I've got too good a memory to fall for the idea that 'Things Were Better When I Was Young.' They were different: but I'm not at all convinced that, for example, sniffing paint was better than burning out on meth.

Finally, I've redacted some details.

Found: One Affectionate, Rather Hungry, Cat

Update: 3:53 p.m. July 24, 2009

That didn't take long: Those are photos of Max, who was lost three months ago, up in Alexandria. That's 20 miles away, but Max's family lived near the Lake Wobegon Trail's rail line - and so do we. It's not hard to imagine a cat making his way down that trail.

Max will be returning to a household of three dogs and two (now three) cats: and a lot of attention. They'll have quite a lot of catching up to do.

We connected with Max's owners through a poster in Pets Galore, on Nokomis, in Alexandra: a new-since-last-year (I think) pet store.

- - - - -

Here's what this post said, before we contacted Max's owners:

A cat showed up in our yard today: quite obviously someone's pet, and quite unfamiliar to us. He's a neutered male, quite affectionate - and/or realized that we'd provide a meal and attention, if properly approached.

He's in good shape: if he's lost he's either very good at finding food on his own, or hasn't been gone for very long. At this moment, he's sharing the garage with my oldest daughter's rabbit, Giol. Giol has been trying to sniff the cat, through the chicken wire of his enclosure. I'm not sure how the cat's been reacting to Giol.

We're hoping that we can re-connect this fellow with his family. There's someone in Alexandria, who lost a cat that looks a great deal like this one: but that's 20 miles away, a rather long walk for a cat.

If you recognize our foundling, please leave a comment on this post. We'll work out a way of making contact.

You Know it's Hectic When - - -

There's a set of programs the family likes to watch, Monday evenings: "Phineas and Ferb," and "Aaron Stone," both on a Disney channel.

For the last two - make that three - weeks, we've remembered the shows: on Tuesday or Wednesday.

There's a reasonable explanation for these memory lapses, I think: More about that in an earlier post: "Wednesday: Hectic, But a Good Sort of Hectic."

Ah: I see there's a cousin here. #3 daughter's 'identical cousin,' specifically.