Fred Watch: Day 5
STILL MISSING, BUT THERE'S HOPE
Fred loves to sit on the tower and watch his dad.
Last night, I was passing flyers out when I got a call from someone down the street saying he just saw a cat matching Fred's description, but the cat just ran into the bushes. I ran over there, and we spent the next 20 minutes or so calling his name and searching for him. No luck. There is another cat (stray or outdoor cat) who looks like Fred, but is wearing a collar, and this neighbor could not be sure if the cat he saw was wearing a collar or not. Still, it was hopeful - the neighbor offered to put food out for him in his open garage, and I gave him two of Fred's milk rings to put out for him. I passed out the rest of the flyers (60-70 just last night) and talked to neighbors and people walking their dogs.
Around 3 in the morning, Erik woke up and glanced out the window just in time to catch a silhouette of a tabby cat - shorthaired, short tail, big floppy belly (a sure sign of a well-fed and neutered male cat) walking along the street. He rushed out and saw him in the road, and crept closer to him. Erik called his name out, and the cat dashed away. He rushed out after him, seeing him by a dumpster across the street and then bolting to the bushes. Fearing he had scared the cat, Erik woke me up and we went creeping around the dumpster and our neighbors' bushes, shaking a bag of food and calling out his name in a way that was loud enough for a cat to respond to but quiet enough to not wake everyone. I was worried someone would call the cops, and rightly so: "There are two people stumbling outside my window with a flashlight!" But the cops were not called, and we never saw the cat. I'm confident it was Fred, and it gives me hope. This means he is alive and sticking close to home. I put food out by that dumpster in case he was hanging out there. This morning, that food had not been touched - but the food on our porch had definitely been eaten. Hopefully by Fred, and not his collar-wearing doppleganger.
Holly is still only eating her half of the food, and has become very affectionate to the point of being clingy. She follows us if we move more than 3 feet away from her. While it's very evident how much she misses him, E & I know that when he comes back, she'll smell him all over, sniff "Where the hell have you been?" and then go sulk in the corner.