An adventure of the not-so-fun kind.
So last night at about 11:30 PM, I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth, getting ready for bed.
Suddenly, CJ bursts in, yelling, "Get on real clothes and grab a flashlight; the cat got out!!"
Eeep! Hi there, worst fear; how are you today? Grargh!
I dropped my toothbrush in place, turned off the water, snatched a sweatshirt and thrust my feet into my flipflops. Screw this "real clothing" thing; my poor instinct-less housecat is wandering in the dark and god knows what could happen!!!
I ran out and went to the right; CJ went to the left. I shined that light all over the place, calling "Kitty kitty! Come here, pretty kitty!"
Realizing that it wouldn't be quick, we both ran back in and put on jeans and sneakers, grabbed cell phones and keys, and I grabbed the kitty's favorite toy, in case I needed to entice him out.
Then back out into the dark of night.
As I walked around out there, trying to stay under control and not give in to all of the worst-case scenarios flitting through my skull, I almost physically felt the world expand out, getting bigger and bigger as I realized that my kitty could be anywhere by now...could be in the neighborhood near our condo complex, could be anywhere IN the condo complex (which isn't small!), could be (gulp) out on the road dodging traffic. Anywhere. And there was no way we could search it all. And if we couldn't find him, how could we leave on vacation Thursday? And what would I do if we lost my little boyo?? Anything could happen to him! There are wild animals and stray cats and I even saw a coyote in our parking lot once and what if he climbed into someone's car and they didn't know it and turned it on and oh my god my little kitty where are you?!?!?
Okay, so I didn't do a very GOOD job of staying under control. *eyeroll*
Finally, after what felt like hours but was only 20 minutes or so, I spotted him. He was sitting on the patio of the condo next to ours, right by the glass, pawing at it. He spotted me...I dangled the toy, trying to keep him from running away thinking he was in trouble, you know? Finally, when I was close enough, I scooped him up and RAN next door to our condo.
Then I had to fumble my keys out of my pocket one-handed while holding onto the cat with a death-grip, ha....and managed to set off my car alarm, which terrified the cat. He squirmed out of my arms and ran off about ten feet.
Panicky, I nevertheless managed to turn off the alarm, get the right key out, and open the glass door. I wanted to get the door OPEN before I tried to catch him again, so that wouldn't happen again!
As it turned out, though, I didn't have to catch him again. The instant he realized I was opening the door, he bolted for it like a lightning strike, ran through, and all the way to the other side of our place, all in one long streak of black fur.
I ran inside and closed the door, and instantly collapsed into a shaking, trembling, teary-eyed heap against the glass. All of that tension and adrenaline and fear and shock and relief hit me all at once. I was barely able to pull out my phone and tell CJ that I'd found him and to come home now, ha.
As SOON as we get home, we are MICROCHIPPING that little bastard. We couldn't afford it when we first got him, on top of all the fees for immunizations etc, and we've just been lazy since then. But by golly, we are not being lazy anymore! I shudder to think what could have happened if the cat hadn't decided that Outside is a scary, cold, dark place and tried to come home by himself.
Suddenly, CJ bursts in, yelling, "Get on real clothes and grab a flashlight; the cat got out!!"
Eeep! Hi there, worst fear; how are you today? Grargh!
I dropped my toothbrush in place, turned off the water, snatched a sweatshirt and thrust my feet into my flipflops. Screw this "real clothing" thing; my poor instinct-less housecat is wandering in the dark and god knows what could happen!!!
I ran out and went to the right; CJ went to the left. I shined that light all over the place, calling "Kitty kitty! Come here, pretty kitty!"
Realizing that it wouldn't be quick, we both ran back in and put on jeans and sneakers, grabbed cell phones and keys, and I grabbed the kitty's favorite toy, in case I needed to entice him out.
Then back out into the dark of night.
As I walked around out there, trying to stay under control and not give in to all of the worst-case scenarios flitting through my skull, I almost physically felt the world expand out, getting bigger and bigger as I realized that my kitty could be anywhere by now...could be in the neighborhood near our condo complex, could be anywhere IN the condo complex (which isn't small!), could be (gulp) out on the road dodging traffic. Anywhere. And there was no way we could search it all. And if we couldn't find him, how could we leave on vacation Thursday? And what would I do if we lost my little boyo?? Anything could happen to him! There are wild animals and stray cats and I even saw a coyote in our parking lot once and what if he climbed into someone's car and they didn't know it and turned it on and oh my god my little kitty where are you?!?!?
Okay, so I didn't do a very GOOD job of staying under control. *eyeroll*
Finally, after what felt like hours but was only 20 minutes or so, I spotted him. He was sitting on the patio of the condo next to ours, right by the glass, pawing at it. He spotted me...I dangled the toy, trying to keep him from running away thinking he was in trouble, you know? Finally, when I was close enough, I scooped him up and RAN next door to our condo.
Then I had to fumble my keys out of my pocket one-handed while holding onto the cat with a death-grip, ha....and managed to set off my car alarm, which terrified the cat. He squirmed out of my arms and ran off about ten feet.
Panicky, I nevertheless managed to turn off the alarm, get the right key out, and open the glass door. I wanted to get the door OPEN before I tried to catch him again, so that wouldn't happen again!
As it turned out, though, I didn't have to catch him again. The instant he realized I was opening the door, he bolted for it like a lightning strike, ran through, and all the way to the other side of our place, all in one long streak of black fur.
I ran inside and closed the door, and instantly collapsed into a shaking, trembling, teary-eyed heap against the glass. All of that tension and adrenaline and fear and shock and relief hit me all at once. I was barely able to pull out my phone and tell CJ that I'd found him and to come home now, ha.
As SOON as we get home, we are MICROCHIPPING that little bastard. We couldn't afford it when we first got him, on top of all the fees for immunizations etc, and we've just been lazy since then. But by golly, we are not being lazy anymore! I shudder to think what could have happened if the cat hadn't decided that Outside is a scary, cold, dark place and tried to come home by himself.