After nearly six months, Christine and Adam Ellis finally got the phone call they’d been waiting for: their missing cat, Moot, was alive and well.

Christine Ellis said she and her husband never lost hope throughout Moot’s gut-wrenching absence. Before her disappearance, Moot had already lived a storied life.

The Ellises first noticed a little calico near their Indianapolis house in March 2023. They began leaving out food for her. After about a month, they started calling her Moot. The couple set up a surveillance camera to make sure she was getting enough to eat. Once the Ellises finally managed to transport the cat to a vet appointment, they learned Moot was pregnant with five kittens.

The couple was about to travel to Czechia for their wedding, which would take place soon after Moot’s due date. They knew they couldn’t dedicate the time needed to newborn kitten care — a round-the-clock job — so the vet recommended a foster program with special expertise in neonatal feline care. But the Ellises already loved Moot.

“When we dropped her off for the foster care program, we wrote this multi-page letter saying how much we adored her and wanted to adopt her,” Christine Ellis said.

The kittens were adopted once they were old enough, and the Ellises officially adopted Moot in October 2023. She matured into a loving, happy cat who loves spending time around her people.

In May 2024, Christine and Adam Ellis traveled to Italy for a belated honeymoon, so Moot stayed with family members in Illinois. The couple had just flown back to Indianapolis when they learned Moot escaped her babysitters’ home by breaking through a screen door. The Ellises suspect she saw a squirrel.

The couple immediately drove to Illinois. They caught passing glances of her in the first few days of her disappearance, but they were never able to get close enough to catch her.

The Ellises were devastated. For the next six months, they put up flyers, made social media posts, and called shelters throughout Illinois. Christine Ellis estimated they heard about a potential sighting about once per month, but nothing ever panned out.

Right before Halloween, Christine Ellis’s mother posted laminated flyers throughout her neighborhood. The Ellises hoped that families might recognize Moot’s picture while out trick-or-treating.

Then, on Nov. 2, a man called about a stray calico visiting his porch. Christine Ellis asked him for a picture. She and her husband immediately recognized the distinctive freckle on the cat’s nose.

The man managed to lure Moot into his garage. His house sat only about one and a half miles from the site of her escape.

Christine and Adam Ellis drove three hours the next morning to pick up their beloved cat. Moot is now safely back at home, where she enjoys playing with her favorite blue string, cuddling and getting belly rubs.

Moot’s veterinarian gave her a clean bill of health, and she’s re-acclimating to the indoor lifestyle.

“It still feels like a shock,” Christine Ellis said. “She’s just such a little gem, and we’re so happy to have her back in our family.”

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man has died after he and another man were shot Monday night in the kitchen of an assisted living facility across the street from Community East Hospital, Indianapolis police say.

Medics and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called about 7:20 p.m. Monday to a report of a person shot at 1301 N. Ritter Ave., the Rosewalk at Lutherwoods assisted living facility. That’s about 2 miles southeast of the I-70 interchange for Emerson Avenue on the city’s east side.

An IMPD captain says medics and officers found the man who died with gunshot wounds in the kitchen. He was taken in critical condition to IU Health Methodist Hospital, where he died in surgery.

Police say the other man shot was found elsewhere and taken to Eskenazi Hospital. The boyfriend’s condition was not immediately available.

Investigators think a woman who works at the assisted living center had brought her boyfriend to the facility. He doesn’t work there, but was in the facility’s kitchen when he got into a fight and shots were fired.

The woman was arrested, although it was not immediately clear what charges she faced.

A representative for Rosewalk at Lutherwoods declined comment. American Senior Communities operates the facility that provides assisted living apartments, respite care, and outpatient therapy.

Way too often in the NFL, the quarterback receives too much credit for a win and too much of the blame for a loss.

But that is exactly the opposite of what we will be doing today. Anthony Richardson is not the reason the Indianapolis Colts lost to the Detroit Lions, 24-6. Richardson’s supporting cast failed him too many times to count as the offense repeatedly shot themselves in the foot against arguably the best team in the league.

“We lost, so it wasn’t good enough,” Richardson remarked about his performance. “Just got to get back to the drawing board. Like I said, focus on the details and just be better as a whole, not just individual.”

Richardson’s performance was, admittedly, not one to write home about. The quarterback was 11-of-28 (39%) for 172 yards with zero touchdowns or interceptions while adding 61 yards on the ground. But as has been the case for most of the season, the box score does not tell the whole story.

Richardson was under constant duress as the offensive line produced their worst game of the season. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Richardson was pressured on 46.7% of his dropbacks yesterday. Despite taking zero sacks due to Richardson getting rid of the football or evading the rush, he hardly had any time to deliver the football to his receivers.

The offensive line also had killer penalties that negated big plays or stalled drives. Quenton Nelson, who may have played the worst game of his career, was called for three penalties. Holding calls on Braden Smith and Dalton Tucker eliminated plays of 21 and 19 yards, respectively.

Altogether, the Colts had eight offensive penalties on plays that totaled 98 yards. 79 of those 98 were passing yards on four completions by Richardson. That is a lot of yardage and big plays erased by self-inflicted wounds.

“As a team, it hurts us,” Richardson admitted. “Whenever you’re out there playing a good team like that, you can’t beat yourself and try to beat the other team at the same time. So, the penalties definitely hurt us, but that’s just getting back to the drawing board, just understanding the minor details and discipline between each and every play. Just want to make it work.”

It was not just the offensive line that failed to provide any help. The tight end group was abysmal as Drew Ogletree and Kylen Granson continued to waste opportunities.

Ogletree was called for a hold that negated a 21-yard gain by Granson and then proceeded to drop a wide-open touchdown pass. Granson failed to look for the ball when he was a wide-open hot read and then cut off his route when he was not supposed to, causing two more incompletions.

While the play of the tight ends was as bad as it has been all season, causing the position to become the top need this offseason amongst fans, Richardson tried to take some heat off of Ogletree after the game.

“Just stick with it,” Richardson said when asked what he told Ogletree after the drop. “He’s not going to catch every pass. I’m not going to throw a great ball every time. So, like I said, it’s the nature of the game. Whatever the game throws at you, you’ve got to just adjust and just play ball. He dropped the ball – so what. I don’t throw great passes all the time, so it is what it is. We’re going to get the next one.”

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Combine the disappointments from the offensive line and tight ends with a failure to get Jonathan Taylor going, not getting two feet inbounds on a dime from Richardson to Ashton Dulin, and continued miscommunication from AD Mitchell, the offense was a brutal mess.

Richardson did his best to take the blame after the game and not single anyone out, but the film does not lie. Michael Pittman Jr. (six catches for 96 yards) and Josh Downs (three catches for 27 yards) showed up to help their quarterback, but that was about it. The supporting cast has to be better.

“Just execution, dropped passes, delivery,” Richardson explained. “I could’ve thrown some better passes, especially the one to the left, to JD (Josh Downs) right there. But just execution, no penalties in the red zone and just finishing. We didn’t finish play calls that we did have. We just didn’t execute.”

The failure to execute and undisciplined penalties also falls on the coaching staff. Offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. and tight ends coach Tom Manning did not have their groups ready to play on Sunday. But the buck stops with head coach Shane Steichen, who must get his unit better prepared and ready to execute.

“Penalties hurt us. Starts with myself,” Steichen stated. “We’ve got to get those cleaned up. We had a season-high 10 penalties I believe for 75 yards – that’s on me. We can’t have that. We’ve got to play clean football going forward.”

Those who only look at the box score, did not watch the game, or are trying to push a narrative, will say that Richardson’s accuracy issues reared their ugly head yet again and it doomed the Colts. It is the same lazy analysis that the FOX halftime crew, particularly Michael Strahan, put forth at the break.

Those who know ball and watched the game know the group around Richardson failed him. They failed their quarterback by taking away opportunities or failing to convert plays that legitimately could have changed the course of the game. And when playing a team like the Lions, that cannot happen if you hope to win.

“We’ve just got to execute,” Richardson proclaimed. “We knew that was a great team right there, but they didn’t really do anything spectacular to beat us. They played that game the right way and we didn’t go out and execute the way we knew that we were supposed to.

“We let them throw a few penalties on us because (of) our discipline and our details. We’ve just got to keep playing, play complimentary football, keep the details the details, and keep trusting the process and just going out there and trying to find a way to win.”

The difference between a good team like the Lions and a lesser team like the Colts was evident yesterday. One was disciplined, executed, and took advantage of their opportunities. The other could not stop tripping over themselves.

The Colts are now 5-7 and seeing their playoff hopes dwindle by the week as they look more and more like a mediocre team yet again. Since Richardson’s return, he has been one of the few players contributing at a high enough level to win games. But football is a team sport, and one player cannot do it alone when his teammates are failing to hold up their end of the bargain.

Maybe it is time for accountability to be enforced at other positions too, not just the quarterback position.

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