No Baby.

Still no Baby this morning. I was so hoping to wake up and find her in her usual perch on the recliner arm, looking out the window. I woke up all night long, and I dreamt about her too. :-(

She's always liked to jet outside into the fenced-in courtyard when I toss out a baggie of used litter or put something into the trash can. We have to be very careful and make sure to shut the sliding door right behind us for the 2-second trip so she doesn't get out. Even when she has, she just rolls on the concrete there for a minute or so, and then I scoop her up and bring her back inside. She's probably done this ten times or so.

Last week sometime, as I went out the front door to get something out of the car, she used that lag time that the screen door has to run out and roll on the step. Since I was only outside to grab something quick from the car, I saw her as soon as I turned around to head back in. I picked her up, admonished her and brought her back inside.

I'm so afraid that she went out the front door again as someone was leaving yesterday.

I laid down for a nap after 2pm, and as I was getting comfy in the bed, I asked Philip to bring me Baby - we like to nap together. He looked for a while and came back without her, asking me all her usual hiding places. I told him some, and he looked some more. He still couldn't find her, but since it's not ususual for cats to hide sometimes, I decided that she must want some time alone and she would come out later.

And we've not seen her since.

She HAS to be outside - just HAS to be. There's just no place else in this house to be. And since she's an indoor kitty, if she got out, she would be disoriented and wouldn't know how to find her way back home. She had a collar and bell on, yes, but not her tags (I don't remember why now, and I'm really kicking myself for this).

She's got some distinctive markings, she was wearing a collar, she's declawed... surely if anyone finds her, they'll assume that she's not just a stray and that she does have a home, right? I so hope they turn her in somewhere. :-(

Baby's back!

I made a 'Lost Cat' poster this morning for Baby, and we made copies at the grocery store this morning before church. All during the service, I couldn't quit thinking about Baby - where she might be, if we'd find her, if she'd find her way home, if we'd see her again. I felt bad too, because I know that you're supposed to keep focused on worship, and I was anything but. I just couldn't help it.

As soon as church was over, we came home, changed clothes, ate a bit of lunch and then went out to hang posters all over the neighborhood and surrounding area. We hung posters clear from 36th to 25th streets, and everywhere in between. The Shoppette wouldn't let us hang up a notice unless it was on a 3x5 card, so I had to shrink one down to that size before we could give it to them to put up on their bulletin board (the rest of the posters were 8.5x11, and we put them into clear sleeves before hanging them up).

Just as Philip was hanging a banner on Lockbourne, a man pulled up behind our van and told us that he'd seen Baby last night around 10pm. He described her pretty well, and the location was about four streets away from our house. He said he'd put a bowl of food out for her last night, and he promised that he'd keep an eye out for her again. Of course, we drove over to where he'd indicated, and we did find another stray (a gray kitty, but it ran off as we approached it), but no Baby.

We talked to more people and hung more posters. Out of posters and with kids tired of being in the car, we came home. This evening when it got cool again, we went back out and drove for a couple more hours. We thought we saw her at one point (pretty far from the house, actually), but after getting out of the car, it turned out to be a Siamese kitty with dark markings on her head and tail. We looked until long after it was dark, and we finally came on home around 8:30pm. Jack had fallen asleep in the car, even.

A.J. was finishing up some schoolwork that he missed while staying home on Thursday, and I was standing between the living room and the front entry when I heard a high-pitched mew. I looked up and saw Tuck lounging just outside A.J.'s bedroom door, and he mewed again. Just as I looked down to pass it off, Philip jumped up from the couch and said, "There's Baby! She's outside!"

Tuck's meow down the hallway had alerted Philip to look up, and in doing so, he spotted Baby standing just outside the sliding glass door in our fenced-in courtyard. Of course, we'd checked there a bazillion times already, plus there's nothing to hide behind or under out there, but she'd come from somewhere to be back at home. When Philip jumped up, she dashed under the fence into the neighbor's courtyard. I crawled on my knees and stuck my head under the gap in the fence and called to her, while Philip climbed on top of our yard waste bins to see her - she was hiding under their pool. After a minute or two of calling to her, she finally scuffled her way back under the fence, and I grabbed her as soon as there was enough of her to grab.

Much snuggling ensued. :-)

She was extremely talkative when we brought her in, and she didn't seem to know what she wanted to do first. Not eat, really, and that surprised me. It took her about 15 minutes to settle down (and for me to leave her alone!). When she walked into the office to eat something, I shut the door to keep the other kitties out and gave her a packet of special wet food just for herself. She ate that for a while, and then she needed to use the litterbox. I swear, she must've saved up all of her pee in the last 36 hours outside *just* to come inside and use the litterbox - she peed forever! We snuggled some more, and then she laid down in her spot on the kitchen floor for a little nap.

She's pretty dirty, but we can deal with dirt. ;-) I'm just so happy to have her back. I've always said that my kitties are just more members of the family, and I always knew I'd be really upset if something happened to them, but... man! You really find out how much you love a pet when it goes missing!

*reaches down to snuggle Baby, who's now laying beneath my feet here in the office*


Baby helps to make Daddy's 'Welcome Home' banner.
(Taken on Oct. 1st)

(You can see more pictures of Baby 'helping' that day HERE.)

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Baby under the desk while I'm at the computer.

Seriously! How could we have lived without this fluffy face?!

We couldn't have! I'm so glad Baby's home!