Sunday, March 15, 2009

Try not to lose your neighbor's pets...

Wow - talk about a stressfull evening. My 9 year old was "hired" by the neighbors to feed their 3 cats while they went out of town for the night...seemingly simple enough task...
Well, the lock on the door sticks, so he needed my help to get in. We went over last night just before bed to take care of the evening feeding. All is well, or so it seems, at first. Our dog, Roxy, had followed us across the street and was waiting outside on the porch for us to finish. Of course, she's like me and Zach and doesn't like to be alone, so, being the smart dog that she is, she opens the door and comes on in...
The chaos that you might expect with 3 cats and one overly playful dog didn't transpire. It was quiet enough, no barking, no cat shrieks...but at the same time the front door had been left open (if only for a few seconds).
After shooing Roxy out, we finished the feeding and set off toward home, when I suddenly realized that I had only seen 2 cats after Roxy had been inside...
Now for the panic! Alex and I take Rox home and head back over, hoping against hope that Wuzzie had simply hidden from the dog and not darted out the door. After what seemed like hours of searching the house, we determined that she must have gotten out, so we set off by foot in the middle of the night in search of the cat.
Eventually it was too late for Alex to be up, so I sent him home and continued my search alone - to no avail...of course!
When I got home I woke Paul (in tears) thinking that I had lost my neighbor's pet and probably ruined the friendship of Alex and the neighbor kids. Paul, being the compassionate one from time to time, set out on his own search.
Finally near midnight we decided that we had better just wait it out until morning and hope that the cat knows her way home...
Morning rolls around and I head over first thing - sure that the cat will be happily licking her paws inside the front door as if to say "got ya!"
But again, NO...so the search continued.
Paul finally decided to try to lure the cat back to the yard with a bowl of food, sitting in wait to pounce on her when she tried to take a nibble, so he brought the paper and some coffee and headed over to the neighbor's yard.
After nearly an hour of sitting in the yard, Paul found himself daydreaming a bit, glancing in the general direction of the upstairs window...AND THAT'S WHEN HE SAW HER!! There she was sitting on her little indoor perch enjoying the sunshine through the glass mocking Paul as he sat shiverring below in her wait...So, I guess all's well that end's well, but the stress of the evening and lack of sleep is surely going to cause another cold sore...and I JUST got over one!
That damn cat!

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