"Ready to watch Creature Comforts?"
"Yeah! Oh I can't wait. New ones from the US. Fantastic!"
"Uh, hm, seems this screen door is open..."
"Oh uh really? GWEN! Here puss puss! Who wants brushin's?... She's not coming, let's search the house..."
And so it began. Rather than collapsing after moving a trunkload of books up two flights of stairs, I recruited Steve and we combed his wooded corner of the neighborhood looking for Gwen at 1am.
"She's a cat. And a good one at that. I'm sure she'll be fine."
"Hear that squeaking? She's got something and she's playing with it, but she's has to be in the woods..."
"Yeah, let's go to sleep at each end of the house, keep all the doors open so we'll hear her when she tries to get in."
"Sure, she'll probably be back in an hour."
Well folks, she wasn't back in an hour. Or two, or even three. I worried a little but tried to rely on logic to rationalize events. I screwed up and apparently left the screen door cracked when I was moving things in. Gwen is a cat for Pete's sake and can certainly be on her own. We made a cursory attempt to find her but everything was complicated by the fact that at night she had all the advantages over us... two bumbling bipedal diurnals crashing through the forest at 1am are easy to hide from, especially if you have a fresh mouse to play with and no interest in going back inside. And you know, she is a cat, probably somewhat feral, and she can take care of herself. I was only concerned about her fighting with another cat (although she does have her claws), finding poison, or getting hit by a car. She'd be fine.
That is until the pouring rains came. With the noise from the waterfall and the noise from the downpour hearing her was next to impossible unless she came right to the door and meowed. I dreampt we found her for the entire night, waking with every passing car... Did they stop? Did they slow down? Was that a thump I heard? Then a mosquito made its way into the room and divebombed me every two minutes. I seriously contemplated letting the little bugger have his meal and get on with it. A firefly also made it into the room, sending out his Morse Code for LUV on the ceiling.
Finally at 5:45 am I just woke up and said to hell with getting sleep. Steve was already checking under the car and the porches. The rain had cleared so hopefully she would make herself known. Steve went tromping through the woods; our color vision is finally of some use. I circled the house calling for her and at last I saw her walking along the wall near the neighbor's yard.
Bound bound bound right up to me with a pitiful "mew", then bound bound bound to the door of the house. She was okay, just wet and muddy and apparently very happy to be back in where it's DRY and COMFORTABLE and with FOOD and humans that scoop her poop. We are all exhausted, but happy to be back under one roof.
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