On Tuesday, I lost the cats.
Sometime after midnight Monday night, Lefty was sitting on the rug in the bathroom upstairs, and Dusty was sitting just outside in the hall. That was the last time we saw them.
Around 2:30 am, Greg went out into the garage to get batteries.
Around 10:00 am, the guy came for our annual termite inspection and needed me to open the garage door.
Around 11:00 am, I noticed that the cats' water bowl was nearly dry and refilled it.
Around 1:00 pm, Mom said, "I haven't seen Dusty or Lefty in a while."
We tore the house apart looking for them. Multiple times. We looked in closets, under beds, behind furniture. I looked inside of boxes of diapers under the crib.
We looked everywhere. Ev. ery. where.
And that's when I just knew that they were gone. I called Greg at work, sobbing. He came home, and he and my mom canvassed the neighborhood, leaving notes with neighbors and knocking on doors, while I was at home, pacing. And crying.
I could not figure out how they could have gotten out. It didn't make sense. Lefty had been more and more curious about the garage lately, but the door would have to have been open for a good little while for Dusty to decide to follow her.
No sign of the cats. I put out some cat food on the front porch and cried some more.
It got really cold here on Monday night, around freezing, and was really windy and blustery on Tuesday. Projected to get even colder on Tuesday night. Horrible, horrible pictures in my head. These cats have NEVER been outside. They do still have their claws.
Greg rounded up some cardboard boxes to put outside for the cats. Neither of us could admit to each other that things did not look good.
As he was coming in from the garage, he saw Dusty.
In the dining room.
And then Lefty came down the stairs.
And I cried some more.
With all that has been going on here lately, these poor cats have certainly been getting less attention. And probably taken for granted. But they have been so good with the girls. A little curious, sniffing around here and there. But generally taking it really well. Dusty spends lots of time in the nursery with us, mostly because she likes to be around people. She seems a bit more curious about the babies than Lefty is, which is an interesting personality change for her. Lefty is usually the more social. Dusty has been really skittish (sp?) lately, though. It must just be all of the changes, but she is constantly walking around tapping at things (baby clothes, baby toys) to see if they move or are going to attack. The other day she swatted at some plastic keys and must have caught them with her paw, because she flung them half way across the room.
We still have no idea where they are hiding. It had to have been big enough for the two of them, and somewhere where they wouldn't have heard the treat can shaking.
