This is the story of Clyde, a tan-nosed tabby who’s lucky to be alive.

He was thrown from a car, recently, near Oakland’s Mormon Temple. No-one knows who did it, but the kitten was found screaming in the middle of the night — with broken teeth and an umbilical hernia.

Thank goodness for volunteers with the Feral Cat Foundation, who took Clyde in and nursed him back to health. He’s fine, now, and ready for adoption.

Won’t somebody take Clyde in and give him love and affection? His early life was a nightmare, but he’s ready to purr again, with a bowl of warm milk and a loving lap. And he still has eight lives.

If you’d like to find out more about Clyde or the Feral Cat Foundation, call volunteer Corene Carpenter Martin at 925-376-6937 or log on to an amazing Web site with information and pictures on dozens of rescue animals — www.feralcatfoundation.org. This Web site has helped pet lovers adopt almost 14,000 cats, dogs, bunnies and birds over the last three years!

Flying high

A group of Oakland passengers got a treat on United Airlines, recently.

Montclarion reader Steven Fuerch says he shared a flight with Oakland’s Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward. The celebrity boxer was flying home through Denver and had just said goodbye to a family member when he took his seat on the plane — in coach class. Upon landing, the crew made an announcement, and Ward personally greeted everyone as they got off the plane.

For a guy who must be flying high, he sure is “grounded.”

E-mail bag

Thanks to reader Catherine Brady for sharing an item that is music to her ears. Literally.

She says every morning she walks from Montclair to Shepherd Canyon and back, and lately she’s been hearing music from the parking garage on La Salle.

“At first, as it was a Sunday, I figured a saxophonist was enjoying the echo, and I thought ‘how wonderful for someone to share their music,'” she writes. But Brady says now she’s hearing it on weekdays and is wondering about the source.

She says it’s just another thing that makes Montclair such a unique and wonderful place to live!

Green tips

Illegal dumping is always a problem in Oakland, but this is dumping of a different kind.

Councilwoman Jean Quan says unsuspecting homeowners are hiring workers to clear brush from their yards, only to find that it’s not being disposed of properly.

In some cases, the tree limbs, stumps and mounds of tinder-dry brush end up in empty lots or canyons, where they are once again a fire hazard. She says the way to avoid this is to pay your contractor only after he’s presented a receipt from the Davis Street Transfer Station.

Getting hitched

Wedding bells, not bike bells, are ringing at Montclair’s local cyclery shop. That’s because Wheels of Justice owner Justice Baxter and business partner Dan Watson are both getting married this fall.

Justice is tying the knot to Rain Johnson in a partly Scottish ceremony, which means he’ll be showing off his “Scottish calves” in a kilt. Scottish calves, by the way, are big beefy leg muscles sculpted by long hours of pedaling.

Watson is no slouch on a bike, either. He won the heart of his gal, Gaby Raymond, when he showed up in Munich riding a unicycle.