Where’s the Cat?

The cat went missing this afternoon. The cat that is always underfoot and always talking, meowing in the loudest possible way whenever he’s irked or hungry, the same cat that sits on the window ledges to watch the birds outside, or lays curled up in my office chair, yeah, he disappeared.

We scoured the house from top to bottom. And then we looked in the yard and the bushes. Then we went online and posted his photo on Lost Cats of Wisconsin. And then we made forty copies of this flyer and went door to door in our neighborhood like we were trying to get an underdog candidate elected to office. When in doubt, outwork the opposition!

It was awful. Not just because the cat was missing, and we have grown to really love this cat but because the cat belongs to our son who trusted us with his beloved cat while he was between apartments. I had to text him that we had lost his cat and that we were doing everything we could to find him and to my son’s everlasting credit, he responded to this news with a heart, making me think that if the cat never turned up, forgiveness might be possible.

So, after dropping flyers at people’s houses and taping them to light poles, I came home to make more copies. While I sat at my desk, right where I am now, feeling as hopeless as can be about this foster cat of ours, I felt the shadow of tiny grey feet behind me. And it was Hercules!

I yelled louder than I have ever yelled. HE’S HERE! HE’S HERE. HERCULES IS HERE!

Lordy. The cat is found.