Conference misery::feline

763.0. "Sad Story with a Happy Ending" by MARLIN::AIKEY () Tue May 24 1994 07:53

    Last night when I arrived home from work I found my family outside.  I
    felt something strange about the way they were walking around the yard.
    
    I asked what they were up to and that is when the you know what hit the
    fan.  My daughter told me that Shilo had gotten out of the house. 
    Noone was quite sure when it happened.  They estimated that he must
    have escaped around noon.  I got home at 4:45 and they were still out
    looking for him..  Well I put my stuff in the house and went out to
    join them in the search. All of the time that we are out there calling
    his name it was thundering and lighting..  I thought for sure that he
    would come a running..  Well it got to be 7:00 and I hadn't started
    dinner yet so we all went in the house.   We were all very sad for the
    rest of the evening.   The house seemed very large and very empty.  It
    was very hard to go to bed.  As I layed there wondering if Shilo was
    okay there was more thunder.
    
    My daughter couldn't sleep (she is Shilo's mom).  She got up at
    3:00 a.m. and went down stairs.  Before we went to bed we propped open 
    the porch door just in case he decided to come home..  My daughter 
    checked on the porch.  There was not Shilo.  About 4:00 she opened the 
    sliding door that goes from the porch to the kitchen.  As she was doing 
    this she felt something staring at her. She looked up and there he was 
    as big as life.  He was wet and dirty but very glad to see my daughter.  
    She brought him up to my room and we just sat there watching him..
    
    Thanks for listening
    
    *joyce

    I can understand what you went thru.  I went thru the same thing
    when Chief would sometimes disappear and not come home until 4 or 5am.
    Sleep is not an option in large quantities.  And my cat is an indoor/
    outdoor, who is always home before I go to bed.
    
    Sandy

    I had the same sort of thing happen to one of my cats, Cricket.  This
    was a cat who never, ever liked to get her feet wet, and never, ever
    left the yard.  I let her out one night when I got home from work, it
    was in the winter and there was a couple of feet of snow on the ground. 
    She didn't come back, and I went out and called, and called, but no
    Cricket.  I really could go looking very far because of the snow.  I
    went to bed, but couldn't sleep.  Around 1:00 A.M. I got up and turned
    the outside lights on and I could see kitty paw prints on the porch. 
    As soon as I opened the door, Cricket literally shot into the house,
    into the bedroom and under the bed.  I couldn't get her to come out
    until morning.  When she did come out she was filthy, and Cricket never
    allowed a speck of dirt on her body.  Even the bottoms of her pure
    white feet were always sparkling clean.  I never found out what
    happened to her but it was weeks before she would leave the house
    again.  I guess some animal must have had her trapped somewhere and she
    just had to wait him out.  Poor Cricket,  she was always afraid of
    everyone in the world except me.  Even my husband had to hide behind
    the door to let her in.  She was born in my house, so I know she was
    never abused.  Poor baby must have been terrified.   But, happy ending 
    for everyone.