From time to time I see adds plastered onto supermarkets walls or lamp posts by desperate cats owners whose cats went missing. These ads usually include a mug shot of the missing cat and a plea of a heart-broken owner with a promise of reward.
The owners have my sympathy and I always wonder whether they will ever see their missing cats again.
The owners have my sympathy and I always wonder whether they will ever see their missing cats again.
There is something ambiguous about cat lovers. They love cats because cats are independent and adventurous, but lose their minds and suffer as soon as their darlings decide to have some adventure and disappear for a week or so.
Madame M. planning her escape
It has been almost eight months since our Madame M. went missing. She disappeared short before our other cat, the Agent Orange, got sick. She does not even know that her playful companion is not among the living anymore. She does not even know that he was desperately looking for her before he died. Back then I even thought that our little orange kitten might have recovered from his sickness if she only showed up. But she never did and he seemed to have given up any fight for his own life.
When Madame M. moved in with us a few years ago we thought that she was an alley cat. But now that she has been missing for such a long time I think that she might have had another owner before. She probably abandoned people who loved her and taking off in search of a new home.
She was a very capricious cat who managed to break our hearts more than once before. She would bid a farewell to James and disappear for days or weeks at a time. She would leave us worrying day and night because there were so many predators out there. Bad humans, dogs, cars, coyotes, snakes, falcons and owls...
Then, one day, she would show up on our porch as if nothing had ever happened. We could not even berate the wretched cat, so grateful were we that she made it back home unharmed.
However, the last time she bade farewell to James, it felt like it was for good. We hoped every day to see her again, but we shared a feeling that she would never come back.
Although heartbroken, we still hope that she found herself a new home because a thought of her being snatched by an owl or swallowed by a snake is simply even less bearable.
Although heartbroken, we still hope that she found herself a new home because a thought of her being snatched by an owl or swallowed by a snake is simply even less bearable.
By Dominique Allmon
Dominique Allmon©2013