May 31 2005 at 9:50pm
Tabby lost, Tabby found
Last night, I lost my cat. She loves playing outside, especially at night, so I have a long leash for her outside my patio door. We live in a busy neighbourhood so I don’t want her running around loose. Not safe. Last night, when I went to bring her in to go to bed, she was nowhere to be found. No cat, no leash, no nothing! Now, sometimes the leash end comes loose from the stake, but she never goes far. Usually I find her on the neighbour’s picnic table. Not this time.
In all my excitement over my new bike I hadn’t been paying much attention to the poor cat. Now she was missing. I frantically rushed around the building looking for signs of her. I searched everywhere (so I thought!). High and low, and in the bushes where she would be likely to hide. I searched the parking lot, the neighbouring buildings and their parking lots, and down the street. No cat. I spent almost two hours looking for her and couldn’t find anything.
What would I do without my baby? People say that pets are like part of the family – not for me. Tabby is my family! I finally made myself go to sleep at about 3 AM so I would have some energy to keep searching in the morning. Of course, all the dooms day scenarios were going through my head. She was kidnapped and murdered! (This happens actually – when I lived in Toronto there were some teens going around murdering the neighbourhood pets 
) She is trapped somewhere and can’t get out! It’s somewhere deep in the bushes where nobody will find her!
I woke up at around 6:00 and did another hour and a half of searching. This time I did the restaurant parking lots and furhter up and down the street. I went around the building again, looking into the deep bushes. Still no cat, and I had to go to work. I even called the humane society to see if she turned up there. I managed to make it through work – I even came home at lunch to see if she had wandered back. All the while I was planning what I could do after work – posting signs, extensive searches… anything to get my little girl back.
After work, I set out again. This time up to the hiking trails nearby and through the forest (where I accidentally spotted a pair of half naked teenagers!!). After half an hour of that, I was at the end of my rope. I had looked everywhere within reason. I thought I may never see my cat again.
But really, to be rational, tabby wouldn’t be brave enough to cross the street. Even when she roams free at mom & dad’s trailer she never goes further than a few lots over. She must be around the building somewhere. So I did one more tour around. And there, behind a tree, in a corner near the front entrance, was my cat! She had wrapped her leash around the tree a few times and couldn’t move. Poor kid spent the night and almost a whole day sitting in the dirt I was so happy to see her, I couldn’t believe it. 
