Week 20: Open Topic
I'm out!
Cassie thought to herself, almost bursting with excitement, as she walked down the steps of her condo. She looked around at the outside world, and instantly regretted her escape. What did I do? She hid in the bushes, trying not to be noticed by humans or other animals.
After a couple minutes of cowering, she shook her head as if she were shaking off pets that messed up her fur. No, she thought. I've been trying for years to get out of that house, to see the outside. I'm not hiding in the bushes!
She removed herself from the bushes, and started walking. Being an indoor cat, she had no idea where she was going, but she wanted to explore. She would go home eventually for food, and for pets from her humans, but she first wanted to enjoy the Spring day.
***
"Put me in personal break," I instructed the new hire I was training. "I have to run to the bathroom." Kara clicked on the blue mug icon on the screen, putting me in a break so none of the calls coming into the call center would come through to my extension. "Thank you," I said as I grabbed my phone out of the top drawer of my little filing cabinet. Management started cracking down on cell phone use while working recently. So I was using my bathroom break to check to see if I had any texts.
I had one, from my husband, John. "Baby. Can you call me?"
Oh no. This wasn't going to be good. It has to be pretty bad for him to want me to call while I was at work. My first thought was that the housekeepers who had come that morning stole something.
I called him right away. I heard the tears in his voice as soon as he spoke. Our cat, Cassie was missing. The cleaning crew said there was no way she could have gotten out of the house. But John searched the house from top to bottom, and she was gone.
My stomach dropped when he told me the news. I told him I was coming home, and we'd find her. I hurried over to my manager. With a shaky voice, I explained what was going on, and she let me leave. My hands were shaking so violently, I could barely enter my password into my computer to shut it down. It took a couple tries. But within minutes of seeing John's text, I was driving home. I completely forgot about having to use the restroom.
***
Cassie walked down the street. Even though she was an indoor cat, she was smart enough to know to stay on the sidewalk. Away from the vibrations of the vehicles. (The noise didn't bother her. She lost her hearing some time ago.)
She was tempted to cross the road at one point though, her little heart shaped nose smelling the sweet smell of flowers from the nursery across the street. Mmm. Lunch, she thought. But when she stepped off the curb, she saw what was left of a squirrel that tried to venture across the street. Never mind. I'm sure I can find something on this side.
Cassie continued her walk, enjoying her day outside.
***
I sped home, in tears. I called my mom on speaker phone and told her what was going on. I told her to text my sister, Krissy to let her know what happened. (On my way to my car I had text Krissy with, "Cassie is missing," and didn't elaborate. I couldn't call her because she was working.)
After hanging up with my mom, I spoke aloud the prayer that was running in the back of my head. "Please let Cassie be okay. Please let us find her, safe, well, and alive." I repeated these words over and over like a chant.
When I got home, I parked and turned off my car, and ran out. I didn't even go inside. I started searching around our condo complex. Shaking bushes, and calling Cassie's name. (Calling her was just a natural instinct. She had gone deaf at some point during the last year.) I checked under decks, in flower beds, I even peeked in the dumpster. No Cassie.
***
Cassie did find pretty flowers to sniff and munch on on her side of the road. After eating her fill, she found a nice patch of grass to relax on, and felt the warm sun on her fur.
***
After searching the complex, and the yard of the abandoned house next door, I brought my search inside. I opened every little cupboard or closet she could get into. I even checked the basement, though we keep that door closed, and the housekeepers don't go down there. I still couldn't find Cassie.
Poor John was both heartbroken and angry. The cleaning crew said there was no way Cassie could have gotten out. But where was she? She wasn't in the house. Was it possible they dropped something on her, killed her, and got rid of her body? Those dark ideas seemed to thicken the air.
We went back outside to search. John in his car, me by foot.
***
Cassie couldn't enjoy her sunny spot for long. Two squirrels ran past her, startling her. Ugh. Fine. I guess I'll find another spot.
She walked into the backyard of a small white house. There was towel lying on the ground. Perfect, thought Cassie. She always liked laying on towels or shirts. On that towel, she executed the most perfect tuck ever, her little legs hidden under her body. She wished her humans were there to compliment her tuck.
***
While John drove down our street, I talked to a couple neighbors, who had not seen Cassie. I also checked the plant nursery across the street. Cassie always loved eating flowers, and I had hopes of finding her snacking on a flower, oblivious to everything around her. But sadly, she was not there.
I made a few phone calls while searching the flower shop. I called animal control, and the two local veterinary offices. I left a voicemail for animal control, but could barely finish it as my voice broke. No one brought Cassie into either of the vets to check for a microchip. But they did take a description of Cassie and my phone number.
I headed back home.
***
A small bird flew and landed near Cassie as she loafed on the towel. She didn't have the hunter instinct. She didn't want to kill or eat the bird. She wanted to make friends. Cassie slowly got up and tried to get closer to the bird. Of course, it flew away.
Cassie looked back at her towel, considering a nap. But, instead, she decided it was time to make her way back home.
***
John was already home when I got there. He made the decision that he was going to go down to the home office of the cleaning crew and throw a fit. How dare they let our cat get out, and then deny it. I tried to calm him down a little. I didn't want him doing anything stupid out of anger.
While John was in his car, fuming, I did some more searching. I checked to two adjacent condo complexes. I talked to people, searched in bushes in trees. No Cassie.
Not knowing what else to do, I turned to Facebook. I made a post asking for people in my area to help me find Cassie. I posted a few pictures, and my phone number. I hoped it would lead to something.
John had a change of heart half way to the office. He realized that yelling at these people was not going to get Cassie back. So he came back home.
***
While on her way home, Cassie looked around at this world she never saw. The cars, the strange humans, the flowers, the animals.
The last two (flowers and animals) were her favorite. She rarely saw these things at home. Her humans stopped bringing flowers into the house, even though they were her favorite snack. As for animals, she had a brother, Peep, but he had been gone for a couple years. Cassie missed him, but she did like that she could eat her food without Peep trying to steal it.
Cassie stopped and watched a dog lying on his back in the grass. He was kicking his legs in the air, body twisting, tongue hanging out of its mouth. But the dog didn't seem to be in any pain. It seemed to be having fun.
Ooh. I wonder if he has cat nip? Cassie thought. Maybe if I roll around with him, he'll share. She got on her back and started rolling around.
Instead of offering her nip, the dog jumped up and started barking at Cassie. Of course she couldn't hear him, but his sudden movement frightened her, and she jumped up. Well that was a waste, she thought as she shook her head.
***
I checked Facebook a few times. So many people shared my post, even people I didn't know. I was touched by the support. A few people suggested putting Cassie's litter box outside. The scent will lead her back home. So, we set up her litter box on our back deck, and waited.
I felt so helpless, I didn't know what to do. I found lost and found pet pages online, and emailed them about Cassie. At one point my sister came by and we searched again. But we still could not find her.
When I got back home, I could barely sit still. I kept checking the deck, hoping to see Cassie on the deck either using her litter box, or at the back door waiting to be let in.
John and I both had plans that night. For John, it was his weekly game night with a few friends. I had a dinner with some people from work, a goodbye dinner for a coworker who was moving away. I was emotionally exhausted, but John thought I should go out. He said it would keep my mind off things. In the end, we both kept our plans, and hoped Cassie would be waiting for us when we got home.
***
Cassie wanted to head back home, but she wasn't sure which way to go. Again, she put her little heart shaped nose in the air and sniffed. She smelled something familiar. I know that smell, Cassie thought. She walked in the direction of the scent of her litter box.
***
It was hard to enjoy my night out. Pretty much all I could think about or talk about was my pretty girl, Cassie. I wished we had a camera on the deck that I could watch on my phone. I almost sent my sister to check the deck.
If I wasn't so upset about Cassie, I probably would have had a good time. But I kept thinking of all these horrible things that could happen to her: she got hit by a car, someone took her, she hid somewhere to die. After about two hours, I couldn't sit there any more. I had to go home in case she came back.
***
Cassie found her litter box on the deck behind her house. It had the faint scent of her humans on it. She rubbed her face against the box. Mine, she thought. After using her litter box, she looked up at the back door, and let out a cry to summon her humans.
A few minutes later, she realized that theyweren't coming out. She got up, twitched her tail in annoyance, and took off again.
***
I got home and didn't see Cassie on the front steps. I sighed miserably. I opened the front door hoping to see Cassie on the recliner, her recliner. And of course, she wasn't there.
Maybe she's in the back, I thought, hurrying to the back door. No signs of Cassie. I started crying all over again.
***
How dare my humans not come when I call, thought Cassie. Don't they know I'm out here waiting for them?
Cassie stayed in the backyard of the condo complex, playing Goldilocks with the neighbors' decks. One deck was too hard. Another too cold. Another too bright. And yet another that felt fine, but smelled weird. She wasn't able to find one that was just right.
Tiring of deck testing, Cassie made her way to the front of the complex. The front was much better than the back. There were flowers and bushes to sniff and snack on. And the plants provided good hiding places for Cassie when an unfamiliar human walked by.
***
"Ugh, the bake sale," I groaned. Up until I found out Cassie was missing, that was the biggest thing on my mind. I had to bake for my fundraising event. I was supposed to start making the dough for sugar cookies (it had to be refrigerated over night). The next day I was supposed to spend baking, and the day after that was the sale. How would I handle any of that without knowing where Cassie was? It always a harsh reminder that life will go on when it feels like your world is falling apart.
I heaved a sigh, and headed to the kitchen to start the dough.
***
Cassie left no store unturned. Or, more accurately, she left no flower unsniffed. Her tail no longer had the agitated flip. Now, she moved it slowly, back and forth. She squeezed her eyes shut a few times, completely content.
There were two spots that Cassie found in the front yard and loved. The first was next to a unit a couple down from home. It had a little car under a plastic blanket. This is much better than the car my humans have put me in, Cassie thought. Plus I don't have to be in a carrier.
The other spot Cassie loved was behind the bushes a little farther down than the one with the small car. When Cassie first sniffed around the bushes here, she didn't see anything special about this spot. But, upon further investigation, she found a small hole in the dirt that led under the cement steps. The perfect hiding place!
Cassie spent most of her time at either of those two places.
***
I was able to hold back my tears while preparing the cookie dough. I distracted myself by listening to the Yankee game and a podcast when the game was over. I was looking for plastic wrap to cover the cookie dough when my phone rang.
It was John on the other line. I didn't think anything of it. It was not uncommon for him to call using blue tooth when he drove home from his game night.
"Baby, Cassie is out here. Come outside."
Tears of joy sprang to my eyes. "Is she okay?" I asked. I barely waited for an answer. I dropped the phone and ran outside. I didn't bother to disconnect the call.
John was searching in the bushes a few units down, and I hurried over. "Where is she? Is she okay?"
"She looked fine," John answered. "But in the time it took to call you, she ran off."
We searched the nearby bushes again, wondering how she could just disappear in a matter of seconds. We both started to wonder if there was a hole she could have gone through. There was. Time to call in reinforcements.
***
Cassie saw one of her humans talking to a neighbor. Then, her human saw her. She ran to her favorite spot and hid in her little hole. You didn't let me in when I asked, I'm not going in when you ask, thought Cassie, bitterly.
***
My sister Krissy, my niece Ayla, and my brother-in-law Bobby were over within minutes after I text Krissy. I already had a plan for Ayla. Being ten, she was the smallest of the group. I wanted her to look into that hole, find Cassie, and pull her out.
Ayla got down in the dirt. "I see her," she called. I was so excited, and repeated the same question I asked John twice already. "Is she okay?"
Ayla believed she was and reached into the hole. I reassured her that Cassie doesn't bite, and was declawed many years ago, before she was even mine. (Cassie was John's cat before we met. She belonged to John's grandmother, and he took Cassie in when his grandmother passed. She was declawed at that point, too.)
I thought maybe food would lure her out, so I ran inside to her treats and a can of her food. Krissy and Ayla continued to reach in the hole.
***
Well this was a good hiding spot. Cassie was annoyed as she dodged human hands reaching for her.
***
"Ayla, are you sure you saw her?" Krissy asked her daughter after all of us put an arm through that hole and felt around.
"Yes. I swear to God I saw her."
Despite Ayla's conviction, we spread out and searched the complex again.
***
Finally, they're gone. Cassie peeked out of the hole, and watched the search party for a few minutes before going back.
***
We weren't having any luck. We thanked my sister and family, and they left.
John set up a little "trap" as he called it. Next to her litter box, he put a blanket that Cassie always slept on, her food dish and her water bowl. He sat by the back door, just waiting for her to fall into this trap.
Unfortunately for me, I had taken a sleeping pill before John called me to say he spotted Cassie, and it was kicking in. John reassured me that it was okay if I went to bed. I opened our bedroom window, in case Cassie cried in the middle of the night.
***
Cassie's human thought he had her cornered.
I'm still mad, Cassie thought as she went to hide again. I bet he didn't know I could get into my hiding spot from this side, too. Again, she disappeared from her human.
***
I don't know what time it was when John came to bed. I do know I was somewhere between awake and asleep. "Is Cassie home?" I asked.
"No. But I saw her again."
I sat up. "What happened?"
"I went outside to look for her again, and I saw her shadow. Her little stub tail. She went on the other side of those steps. That narrow opening. I thought I had her cornered, but there was a hole on that side too, that she slipped into."
I groaned. So close, yet so far away.
***
With her favorite hiding spot being discovered, Cassie went to her second favorite hiding place. The little car. She snuck in under the plastic blanket, and went to sleep.
***
I woke up the next morning with a plan. Actually, John and I both woke up with a plan, and it happened to be the same one. We were going to take a broom, and shove the stick into her hiding hole. It would scare her out, she would run into our waiting arms.
I went outside. Hair wasn't brush. Teeth weren't brushed. I did not care I was getting my cat back.
But of course, as is tradition, things did not go according to plan. The broom would only go so far into that hole, before getting stuck.
John and I scratched our heads, trying to figure out what to do next.
While contemplating our next move, one of our neighbors came out. We explained why we were outside with a broom, a few units down from our own condo.
She was talking about how she had a cat that ran off years ago. I was barely paying attention. All I could think was that her talking was wasting time that we could be searching for Cassie.
I looked at our unit. And I SAW HER!!! Cassie, Ca-Sass-a-Fras, my pretty girl was just a couple yards away, and only steps from our house.
I told John I saw her, and we walked slowly over. When I saw the bush shake, I practically jumped for joy. I went around one side to get her, but she ran out the other...right into John's waiting arms.
I cried tears of joy as we brought her inside.
***
I'm inside now. My great adventure is over. At first, I was mad, and hid behind the couches, not wanting to see my humans. But, I realized I missed them. And they missed me. Since I've been back inside, I've gotten all the pets and treats that I want. I guess it's not too bad on the inside.