My Cats

My dear friend Kathy Nikolaidis gave me this adorable Zooby cat, and its purring in my arms atm.  I'm so excited tonight.  To make a short story long I am getting a long lost beloved cat back tomorrow RL

About a years ago around this time a tiny grey black striped cat walked into the yard.  The neighbors said, "Don't keep it, as it's too young to be away from it's mom".  There are a lot of cats in the neighborhood, but none that looked like the kitten and I did try to find an owner and left it alone but put food out.  For 2 weeks the kitten hung around at the door eating my food and playing with me or following around outside.  Then suddenly it was gone.  I had to accept that and hoped it found it's mama.  After all, for all I know, that kitten was mooching off other neighbors too with  it's puss 'n boots big eyes. It was gone almost 2 weeks to the day when he came back walking across the yard with another tiny twin kitten in tow, but one that was about half his size and female.  Now THIS new kitten seemed way too young to be away from mama cat and had to be the runt if from the same litter as big brother. They were adorable and as friendly as could be.  They knew I'd be a sucker and feed them both.  I felt like big brother realized baby sis was failure to thrive in whatever setting she had come from and brought her to me.  I had lost a 16 year old cat the prior winter that looked just like these babies and in my mind it was like she had sent them to me.  Come winter they got let into the house and by spring the tiny runt had surpassed big brother in size in spite of his male status. She was smart as a whip, fetched objects, put every hair band she could get her paws on in the water bowl, slept on my bed and talked to me constantly.  He on the other hand was the one who would let anyone hold him any which way all the while purring and loving every minute of any torture anyone could bestow. She went into heat and me, not really knowing too much about feral cats, immediately took them both in to get them fixed, micro chipped and a checkup.  They stayed in the house throughout the rest of the winter and by late spring I started letting them in and out of the house.  They'd come and go and the female mostly liked to stay inside but the male would go out most days for a while.  Both would paw the door like a dog if they wanted back in or if he roamed far he'd at the least come  running home in the evenings when I called for him.

Late June I took the cats for shots to a vet that is in the middle of the city.  It's about a 20 minn drive from my home and across a huge river that has only 2 bridges to get there over.  Their 2nd ever car ride in to the vet was traumatic for them but they were in a carrier.  I took them in, got the standard/required shots and flea/tic/worm treatment and headed out the door.  The darn carrier shifted with the weight of two cat and broke one of the corner connection tabs causing it to come about half open with the bottom half and cats crashing to the ground.  This spooked the already stressed cats who each shot off running in two different directions like wild beasts set free to the wild. The problem is they were no longer wild and I felt they should have come back when I called.   Initially I was in shock for a second because this is something one thinks about in their minds eye, like what would happen if you drove off a bridge or something like that, that you rehearse a response to some horrible thing like that in order to be prepared if the worst should happen.  Well it really happened and I was off and running chasing and calling the cats but about the same time both cats jumped different 6 ft wooden fences, the female in one flying leap and the male sort of scrabbling his way up and over.  There was no way I could climb over into a private yard like that.. but yeah, I did try for one.  I'm no spring chicken any more and the fences were both the same design although in different yards and I was about half over one when i realized if the cats were going to run they were going to run and I could not just ally oop into someone's private yard, especially if I was not sure I could get out without getting arrested, plus the cats were in two differen't directions.  I also really mistakenly believed they'd come when I call once they settled down.  

I ran around one of the houses and a man let me search his yard with a fine tooth comb, even putting out a bowl of water and saying I could come back and put out food and look more any time.  The cats were nowhere and neither cat came when I called.  It was so upsetting.  At home they would come when called every time. I walked the streets calling for hours.  I took a break to make lost signs and posted about 15 laminated signs in the neighborhood, in the DQ and Kwik Shop windows and various posts.  I drove around asking walkers and joggers, of which there were plenty, to keep an eye out for them.  After most the day was gone I reluctantly went home empty handed.  I had been out of SL for almost a month.  I was sad.  I thought maybe I'd peek into SL to see how things were going.. and I have been back in SL full force ever since.  I  believe I would have taken a longer SL break this summer or maybe after time would have quit  altogether like I had planned, if not for this incident. Now I was double sad about things in SL that had been going on and the RL cat loss. But SL  mostly welcomed me back where I have stayed.

 I went back to the vet neighborhood just about every day for a month, putting food and water in the back of the vet area, and talking with neighbors about them.  Still no sign whatsoever from anyone.   I began to get a few very false lead phone calls from people trying to help in various ways, and of course followed up on them all.  After about a month I went to the area less and less often and at some point decided the two cats were together taking care of themselves having an adventure.

Today the call came.  The vet has the male cat!  I am so excited.  They said he appears to be in good shape.  A neighbor lady said he'd been hanging around for a while and she decided to turn him in.  He has that micro chip and its my little guy!  The vet was about to close and I could not make it to them in time from where I live  but I will pick him up tomorrow.  Now I have to worry about the little girl, but I'm again hopeful maybe the same lady will get her too to turn in.  What a miracle.  3 1/2 months later we will be reunited!