Husband and I are recovering from massive heart attacks.
After a wonderful evening, I looked around and said “Where’s Fuzz?”
Never have more fateful words been said. But to properly set the story up, we need to go back almost 10 years…
It’s February 2000 and I’m sobbing on my bed. Crying harder than I’ve ever cried before in my life.
“Why?” you might ask. Well, I have just lost my boyfriend’s cat. He fell out the window. (According to Husband, he was pushed.) When I poked my head out the window at him, he looked up at me, lifted his little kitty paws and shot me double birds. And that was the last I saw of him. I spend hours outside searching. Husband flew from Michigan and searched for days. After 8 days, we had pretty much given up hope. But then, the maintenance guy at my apartment complex called and thought he saw Caymus. I broke all land speed records getting back and diving under the building. I almost broke down when I didn’t see him. It was only as I was climbing out that I caught sight of his little fuzzy butt. Ten days later, we had found the prodigal son. I was already booked on a flight over to Michigan and it wasn’t hard to make an extra reservation for the wayward son. (The trip to MI is another story for another day.)
Fast forward ten years but this time, we didn’t see him escape. It could have been when Husband was ferrying steaks or vegetables in from the grill. It could have been a quantum anomaly and he just tunneled through the wall. Who knows, who cares, Fuzz was gone. After a thorough search of the house, Husband and I spent turns wandering around outside, waving flashlights and shaking the food container.
We were both inside, Husband in the basement, giving it one last try. Surely 13 pounds is a little too large for quantum effects to be relevant and the cat is in the house. I had just decided that I would spend the night outside, shaking the food to lure Fuzz back, when I open the door to the back patio and who the hell is waiting to come inside?
That’s right; we have our full complement of three cats again.
All that is running through my head right now is “Thank god I didn’t lose the cat this time.” I tried to come up with a second idea but really, that’s about it. That and “Fuzz is home.”
If you want to hear about my adventures, wait for the book.
Moral of the story? It’s really important to have a recall for your pets. That’s why we haven’t let Max outside, even on a string. I know that if Indi got out, I could get her back, no problem. Maybe not right away, but she’d eventually come back. Caymus will come running for food. But Max? Not sure about him yet.
