One morning not long ago, I woke up at 3:00 AM. Since I couldn't go back to sleep, I decided to get up and make a pot of coffee.
I was sitting in the den, sipping my coffee and staring at the walls, when I heard a "thump" behind me on the screened porch. I say I heard a "thump," but it actually took about 10 minutes for the sound to penetrate my consciousness. When I finally realized what I had heard, I went to check the porch. No one was out there, but I found a fairly large hole in the screening. I wasn't particularly worried, but I decided to do a cat locate to make sure everyone was present and accounted for.
Two was in her throne.
Linus, the newest addition to my family, was easy to find. He was upstairs in his kitty condo. He had parked himself there the month before and hadn't ventured from his safe spot since then.
I checked all of Katie's favorite hiding places. I checked her "occasional" places. I searched from the attic to the basement, checking cupboards, beds, drawers, bookshelves, etc. Katie was nowhere to be found.
Although I was a little concerned, I was still relatively calm. Katie had never been outside, so I was sure that, even if she had gotten out through the hole in the screen, she would not have gone far.
I found a flashlight and searched the deck. Then I searched under the deck. I checked under all of the bushes in the back yard, then I checked the front.
I expanded my search to my neighbors' yards. There I was at 4:00 AM, barefooted, in my nightshirt, flashlight in hand, crawling around in my neighbors' shrubbery. I'm lucky no one called the police.
When I didn't find Katie in the yard, I checked the house again. I was getting worried. By now, my next door neighbors were getting up, so I enlisted their help. I stopped strangers who were walking their dogs and described Katie. One man told me that he had seen a cat under a bush in my front yard. That was it! Katie was outside and in danger!
Around 7 AM, I called my friend, Sandy, in Virginia for moral support. She emailed a friend in California. Messages flew back and forth on the internet. Did you check here? Put up posters. Call the shelters. Stay calm.
I searched one square block around my house. I invaded garages, poked in boxes, checked under lawn mowers. People leaving for work found me on my hands and knees, crawling under their bushes calling, "Little Kate." There are a lot of holly and barberry bushes in my neighborhood and, the longer I searched, the less careful I was. My face, hands, and legs were scratched and bleeding. My hair was wild, and my eyes were beginning to reflect my desperation. Every pile of dried leaves looked like a calico cat to me. People were starting to wonder if I was all there.
I cruised the neighborhood in my car, afraid at every turn that I would find my Katie squashed in the road.
At 10:00 AM, I called my friend, David, at work and asked him to come home to help me search. He arrived in suit and tie, and started crawling under bushes with me.
By noon, I was trying very hard to control my hysteria. Little Kate was gone. Someone must have stolen her. She would be sold to a lab.
I was standing in the back yard, fighting back tears. David was on the deck, his eyes darting here and there, looking, I'm sure, for some means of escape from what was sure to be an ugly, hysterical scene.
His eyes focused on the screened porch. He took a step closer. He said, "Linda, what does Katie look like?"
Now, this really annoyed me. David is not a cat person, but Katie adored her "Uncle David," and fawned over him every time he came to visit. He could at least remember what she looked like!
I described my tiny calico baby in loving detail.
David said, "I think this is Katie on the porch."
I bounded up the stairs and looked on the screened porch. There was Katie, sitting there looking nonchalant.
I have never figured out where Katie was hiding. I had checked every spot in the house that was larger than 3 square inches. However, I know she never got out of the house. She probably watched my 8 hour ordeal from some cozy spot right under my nose. She is really good at this game.
For two days, neighbors and strangers called or stopped by to ask about Katie. I thanked everyone for their help and told them that Katie was found. However, I was too embarrassed to tell them where she was found, and, thankfully, no one asked.
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