Sooo....
My cat Sabine went missing Thursday night :/ She's not been home since. She's never been away for more then six or seven hours at the most, so I'm... fairly certain that she's gone.
I'm really having a hard time with this. In the 20+ years we've owned cats, we've only lost maybe two to the environment, and she and Samson both disappeared despite being very savvy with the outdoors. We've had the other outdoor cat, Elle, for eons and at this point I really think her hatred and feral-ness is going to keep her alive forever. But no, my affectionate, cuddly little poofcat got herself into something she couldn't get out of.
The not knowing kills me. Also, as with Samson, some part of me is agonizing that she wasn't an indoor cat. I really hate how vitriolic people get over the indoor vs. outdoor debate, and I believe it's kind of a case by case basis. She had been an outdoor cat before we adopted her from the shelter, and lord knows we tried to change that having just lost Samson a year earlier. She hated it, of course :| Aaand before long other folks in the house were letting her out, and acting surprised when she was so thrilled with the outdoors that she'd not come back for hours at a time. Go figure.
But she did always come back. Even if it took me calling for her stupid ass every half hour on the dot, I got her stupid fluffy ass in every night. At first she was good about it, but eventually, being a cat, she decided that she was only going to come in and come to be called when she felt like it. Not to say that she wasn't always her loving, stupid self, but she could be sitting in the field just out of sight when I called and not deign to come over until she was done.
So, I dunno. I know she's a cat, but I'm so mad at her :/ Don't come when I call? Only saunter back when you feel like it? Well, surprise surprise...
In that respect, the likelihood of this happening was... high. Unlike Samson or Elle, she seemed to get stupider about the environment as time went on. I caught her crossing 12-A, the main road, while driving to work the other day, which is a HUGE range far outside what our other cats have been comfortable sustaining. So really, despite spending the past two days circling around looking for her, or looking for a body, it's no shocker that we may never know.
Of course we've been calling folks left and right, the whole neighborhood knows. I keep running searches for her microchip number just on the off-chance that somebody did pick her up and brought her in. But no luck.
Sooo yeah. Pretty depressed over this. We'd barely had her for two years, not even, but I was really attached to her. She was undeniably my baby, and I find it sort of bitterly ironic that I had just sort of 'memorialized' her a few days before she went missing when I made a needlefelt portrait of her.
Hell, I'd happily take her home limping, banged up, and with a $5k vet bill, but I need to be realistic. Hopeful, but... realistic.
I think I'm done with cats, after her and Samson. I love them to bits, but indoor cats just kill me, and losing them to the outdoors is too disturbing when I don't even know what happened to them. Dogs for me, I'm so thankful to have Meg and once she goes, it's greyhounds for me for the rest of my life 8|
Hnngh.
I'm really having a hard time with this. In the 20+ years we've owned cats, we've only lost maybe two to the environment, and she and Samson both disappeared despite being very savvy with the outdoors. We've had the other outdoor cat, Elle, for eons and at this point I really think her hatred and feral-ness is going to keep her alive forever. But no, my affectionate, cuddly little poofcat got herself into something she couldn't get out of.
The not knowing kills me. Also, as with Samson, some part of me is agonizing that she wasn't an indoor cat. I really hate how vitriolic people get over the indoor vs. outdoor debate, and I believe it's kind of a case by case basis. She had been an outdoor cat before we adopted her from the shelter, and lord knows we tried to change that having just lost Samson a year earlier. She hated it, of course :| Aaand before long other folks in the house were letting her out, and acting surprised when she was so thrilled with the outdoors that she'd not come back for hours at a time. Go figure.
But she did always come back. Even if it took me calling for her stupid ass every half hour on the dot, I got her stupid fluffy ass in every night. At first she was good about it, but eventually, being a cat, she decided that she was only going to come in and come to be called when she felt like it. Not to say that she wasn't always her loving, stupid self, but she could be sitting in the field just out of sight when I called and not deign to come over until she was done.
So, I dunno. I know she's a cat, but I'm so mad at her :/ Don't come when I call? Only saunter back when you feel like it? Well, surprise surprise...
In that respect, the likelihood of this happening was... high. Unlike Samson or Elle, she seemed to get stupider about the environment as time went on. I caught her crossing 12-A, the main road, while driving to work the other day, which is a HUGE range far outside what our other cats have been comfortable sustaining. So really, despite spending the past two days circling around looking for her, or looking for a body, it's no shocker that we may never know.
Of course we've been calling folks left and right, the whole neighborhood knows. I keep running searches for her microchip number just on the off-chance that somebody did pick her up and brought her in. But no luck.
Sooo yeah. Pretty depressed over this. We'd barely had her for two years, not even, but I was really attached to her. She was undeniably my baby, and I find it sort of bitterly ironic that I had just sort of 'memorialized' her a few days before she went missing when I made a needlefelt portrait of her.
Hell, I'd happily take her home limping, banged up, and with a $5k vet bill, but I need to be realistic. Hopeful, but... realistic.
I think I'm done with cats, after her and Samson. I love them to bits, but indoor cats just kill me, and losing them to the outdoors is too disturbing when I don't even know what happened to them. Dogs for me, I'm so thankful to have Meg and once she goes, it's greyhounds for me for the rest of my life 8|
Hnngh.