Well, first off…we’re still missing a cat. Not one of the erstwhile kittens which got adopted almost a year ago–Rusty & Nipper. No, they seem to be doing just fine…but what do they know? However, we had two later additions–Rosie and Loonie (she’s the complainer) who were fleeing an unfortunate travel restriction; Airlines are so picky about felines having to travel either in first class and on laps or in a box in cargo like lost luggage. Not working for their original family, so they–the cats– got demoted from what must have been–in their little kitty brains –a palatial set of accommodations to second-class motel status here on Park Ave. I thought we were adjusting just fine; everybody found the food and water dishes and the litter boxes (always important) and there was even some playing going on occasionally but there were even co-operative projects going on. Somebody–no names, please–foud his/her way up to the attic and the open screened window there and decided to check out the screen there. Cheap stuff, apparently, because SOMEBODY put a cat-sized hole in the screen and ambled out onto the porch roof–several times to do a little sunbathing…several SOMEBODIES, I’d say, judging by the amount of fur stuck on the edges of the hole.
I belatedly discovered the escape route and put a sturdier screen across it, but the wanderlust must have gotten to Rosie because it wasn’t too long before I started to notice that I hadn’t been seeing her as much as usual. She was kinda aloof anyway, so I did not pay much attention until the litter boxes were not filling up as they had been and I finally cottoned on to the fact Rosie was actually gone.
Maybe she spotted another escape route, maybe a door didn’t close securely, maybe there’s a “catnapper” lurking in the neighborhood. I dunno. But if anyone spots a large-ish, fluffy, black-and-white cat in your vicinity,and you don’t want to adopt her yourself…lemme know. I’ll even come get her. I just want to kn ow that she’s not been a lunchtime treat for a coyote or some other predator. Keep an eye out.
A bright note–which we on’t hear enough of lately–Sounded the other day when I went to get sunflower seed. Forty pounds it was, a hefty amount to wrestle into the trunk, even with a hatchback. In the parking lot I’m puffing away trying to get it up and out of the cart, when a car stopped in back of me, a young man go out of the passenger seat, came over to me and said, “Could you use some help with that?” I did and I said so and he picked the bag up and put it in the back of the car…then he took the cart to the nearest cart corral See! They’re still out there. Thank goodness.
