Escape!

Well, we had a bit of excitement at my house this evening.

Here we are, getting ready to go onto Daylight Savings Time, and another winter storm is moving through tonight and tomorrow. After a mild and sunny day yesterday, it was overcast and misty today. During the afternoon we had a brief spate of hail, not unusual in the springtime here.

Around 6:30 PM, the teenaged neighbor who mows my lawn during the summer knocked on my front door for a chat. Right after that, I decided to run out to the little grocery store on the highway. By the time I got back, the sun had fully set and the rain had started, mixed with a few flakes of snow. As I drove up the steep driveway, I noticed that my front door was ajar. Apparently, it hadn't latched completely, and when I'd gone out the back door to the garage, the change in air pressure pulled the front door open.

I immediately took a head count ... 1, 2, 3 ... and oops, where's No. 4? Ms. Tink, the plump and sturdy brown Mama cat who came with me from the Gulf Coast and will be ten this summer, was unaccounted for. (Her story can be found here, here and here.) I don't let my cats go outside, because between the coyotes, bobcats, geese, moles and assorted neighborhood pets, they could get into some serious trouble. So I picked up a flashlight and went out into the cold and rainy night to look for her.

Tink's gotten out only once before, a long time ago when we lived in Mississippi. I knew from experience that she wouldn't have gone far and would probably be disoriented when she "came to" in the midst of her big adventure. I also knew that because she was confused (or maybe just being ornery), she might try to run if I approached her. My house is surrounded by wooden decks, so I figured she might be in the crawlspace underneath one of them. But she's brown, and the crawlspace floor is bare earth (brown), and it was dark out besides. I searched and called, looking for a cat's eyes reflecting the flashlight, but ... nothing.

I put some dry cat food in a dish and took it out to the front deck, shaking it to make that wonderful "chow time" noise, hoping to lure her out. Then I got my walking stick and prepared to search the neighborhood. As I headed down the driveway, I looked toward the front deck steps, and there was a familiar little brown critter, looking just a tad lost, not to mention wet.

*phew*

And here's the sweet miscreant now, warming up after her escapade, in her favorite spot next to the wall heater.

Comments

[Joanne]

Oh, her pictures are the perfect proof, there's no place like home! Looks like she's already catching up on the lost hour of sleep she'll get from turning the clocks ahead!

[Cindy L.]

I'm a major cat fan, so I truly enjoyed this post and loved the sweet photos of the wanderer! I know how hard it is to keep cats indoors. Glad your story had a happy ending.

[Sharon]

Doesn't she look innocent? I was relieved to read she was so close to home. You just never know when they take off like that.

[Kitty]

Yeah, she looks innocent, all right. *laughing* :D

I do pretty well at keeping them safe, but every now and then they get the better of me. My cats are so well-fed and pampered, they look rather out-of-place in the great outdoors. It's like a cognitive dissonance or something, to see them there.