Kitty Come Home

cutekitty, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We had a scare this weekend. Jon reminded me on the way home from work on Friday that he was going to take Brenden with him to the drop zone. A night to myself, o joy! After they left as I was preparing dinner, I noticed that Big Fat Kitty did not come into the kitchen to annoy me until I fed him kitty treats.

I searched everywhere for him in the house, including the attic, but he was gone. I tried to think back to the last time I saw him. I realized, to my shame, it was Thursday night. Our kitchen door doesn't close completely unless you pull the knob hard. That door leads to the garage, and kitty is adept at opening the door and sneaking in the garage.

I figure he must have snuck out, then left through a garage door and was locked out when we closed the garage doors for the night. I can't remember kitty trying to sleep on my face Thursday night nor trying to trip me the next morning when I was getting breakfast ready so it must have been Thursday.

I had planned to work through a six-pack while playing BioShock again but instead I walked through the neighborhood asking my neighbors if they had spotted a really big black and grey kitty. No luck. I did finally go in, drank a few beers and played a little but my heart wasn't in it. Poor kitty. I left a garage door open and I kept going into the kitchen to see if he was there.

I did some more searching in the neighborhood on Saturday and as the day wore on I got sadder and sadder. You have to understand, Big Fat Kitty is sweet but stupid and has lived his entire life indoors. I imagined him getting squished, or running away in terror at something and diving down in a storm drain and not able to find his way out. Saturday sucked, in other words.

But around 10 P.M. that night, Brenden asked for some water so I went in the kitchen to get him a sippy-cup. After filling it I did what I had been doing at least 5-10 times and hour which was open the kitchen and yell "Kitty!" and listen for a meow. I didn't have to yell; he was sitting right there with an expression on his face like "Hey, how you doin?"

Of course I yelled "KITTY!" which brought Brenden out of his room. He yelled "KITTY!" too and scared the crap out of BFK. I did manage to coax him into the house with kitty treats. Other than being a little dusty he seemed ok. I didn't find any ticks, fleas, bites, scrapes, or other problems.

There's a Spongebob episode where his pet snail Gary runs away because Spongebob is neglecting him. When Spongebob realizes what's happened he is totally miserable, crying into his Krabby patties, and he and Patrick scour Bikini Bottom looking for Gary. About in the middle of the cartoon there's a montage with a pretty sad song:

Gary can’t you see I was blind?
I’ll do anything to change your mind
More than a pet you’re my best friend
Too cool to forget
Come back because we are family and
Forgive me for making you want to roam
And now my heart is beating like the saddest metronome
Somewhere I hope you’re reading
My latest three word poem
Gary come home

As you can imagine this freaking song wouldn't get out of my head all day Saturday! All's well that ends well, however.