Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Jelly

Yes, jelly. This is what my whole body feels like right now. No, it is not because I have not exercised in eons, nor is it because I just moved seven tons of furniture this weekend.

This morning, we couldn't find Shadow. Since the move, Boo took a couple hours and has happily been exploring the house ever since. He tears through the house, racing up both sets of stairs and down the hall, then reversing his course back downstairs. He loves it. He found a petrified gummy bear from the previous owners, and carries it around in his mouth, then sets it down and kicks it all over the smooth laminate floor for a while, then picks it up and takes it somewhere else. I don't have the heart to take it away from him, since he is having so much fun, and obviously does not want to eat it.

Shadow, on the other hand, it not doing so good. In the condo, Boo was a mere peasant, and Shadow was the king. In the house, Boo figures that he is just a peasant in a new kingdom, but Shadow thinks he may have been overthrown. He is terrified. He stays mostly in the bathroom we had them confined to, holed up in the teeny cat carrier, or in the little 'house' on one of our cat trees. He is freaked out. He finally will come out on his own and explore the downstairs just a little, then goes back to his cubby hole. He went upstairs maybe once--he is just not ready for that yet.

Last night, at 2am, we were awakened by our doorbell ringing several times. Turns out it was someone going to visit a friend who lives next door to us (in a similar house), and got the wrong house. Don't even get me started on how WE just moved in and are not familiar with the neighborhood, yet SHE got the WRONG house. We went back to bed. Ethan gave me a ride to work, and we were a bit late since we couldn't find Shadow. We figured that he was just hiding somewhere, and didn't think much of it.

Well, I called Ethan at 1100, since he was supposed to be at the condo taking all the doors off so I can paint them. He said he had bad news. He had terrible news. Shadow was missing. He must have gotten outside when we opened the front door at 2am, scared by the noise of the doorbell (he has never heard one before). Ethan looked for over 3 hours, scoured every inch of the house, closed doors to each room once it was searched. He was not in the house. He went outside and walked through the neighborhood, yelling for Shadow. He knocked on our neighbor's door, asking them if their friend who came to our house had seen a cat come through the door as she left. He looked and looked. I called the Seattle Animal Shelter to update my phone number with them in case someone found Shadow.

I am totally freaked out. He has nail caps on, and can't defend himself. Shadow is really freaked out already, and has never been outside before. The wind scares him. He doesn't know cars or trees or dogs or any of that stuff.

Finally, Ethan called me. He gave up searching, was upset and frustrated and sat down and turned on the stereo to play some music to calm himself down. And heard some frantic scratching noises. Turns out, Shadow can JUST squeeze himself through the hole in the back of our big speakers. He did this when he was a tiny kitten, and apparently remembered and squashed his way back in. He was there for HOURS. Ethan had to really pry things apart to get him back out. The holes are now covered with packing tape, and Ethan is NOT going to the condo any more today. He is also jelly, sitting on the couch holding onto Shadow tightly. I don't know what we would do if something happened to him. He is not our cat, he is a part of our family. We don't have kids--we have cats. They ARE our babies. We spend our entire time at home interacting with them. We love them. And we thought we lost one today.

So, jelly.


But all is well now, so we are okay.....

3 comments:

Sabrina said...

Oh!! How aweful for you! So glad he is safe and sound.. it takes them a long time, sometimes. I remember when I moved Rasin up to Washington he spent the first 10 days or so hiding behind the water heater... eating very little... very sad. Your boys will get used to it.

Davinie Fiero said...

And when I first took Tigger to Crane, he spent three days up inside the box spring mattress on the bed in the backroom. When you go the part where I thought you still hadn't found him, I almost wasn't worried, because I just KNEW he had gotten himself into a safe, small space. Glad he's okay, and so are mom and dad. :)

Sabrina said...

So.... how goes life in the Big House??