Lassie Come Home

Yesterday at 4:30 am, M. woke me to tell me that he couldn't find Che$ter. Bleary-eyed, I got up, put on some clothes, went outside and started calling for him. I did a thorough search of the yard and roof but couldn't find him anywhere. I came back inside, poured some dry catfood into a plastic container, and walked up and down the block, shaking it and calling his name. Still no luck.

He'd gotten out twice before. There's a fence next to the front door/gate where he can get out, but hasn't figured out how to get back in. The past times he ended up in a sort of garage next door, and I figured he'd do the same this time.

I went back to bed and got up about once an hour to do a search up the block, but he still didn't show up.

The rest of the day was spent making flyers, putting them up on poles, walking the streets shaking a bowl of catfood, calling his name, talking to neighbors, and emailing V@allarta egroups to try to get the word out. I was ok until late in the afternoon when I broke down and cried, "I JUST WANT HIM TO COME HOME" and proceeded to cry for about 1/2 hour.

The search continued into the night, but it poured for awhile so we had to take a break. Around 1am I was out, very close to the apartment when I heard a familiar cat cry in response to my "Che$ter!". I kept calling to him, and he kept responding; I finally found him up the public stairs near my place, hiding under some bushes. He was wet and dirty and hungry, and I was never happier to see him.

But after he got back and he'd eaten a bit more and cleaned himself up, he was at the door wanting to go out again! He's been under "house arrest" today. I don't feel like I can keep him in indefinitely because it makes him so happy to go outside. But he shouldn't be let out at night.

The experience gave me a lot of empathy for parents of missing children. I can imagine the strain it puts on the couple's relationship. The feelings of the other children in the family who are still there but get less attention as it's focused on the missing child. The guilt of thinking you could have done something differently. The bad thoughts that enter your mind when you just don't know what's happened, and that feeling that no matter what, you want to know.

The positive thing is that people were very sympathetic and supportive. It was nice to have a little more interaction with my neighbors (ok, that was one of my New Year's Resolutions but this was not the way I pictured it happening!), and people in the egroups sent quite a few emails once I posted that he had returned.