The Cat Came Back

The cat came back

We thought she was a goner

But the cat came back

About two and a half years ago, my brother’s business establishment acquired a cat. She was brought in by one of the employees after an office remodel revealed evidence of a rampant mouse problem. John doesn’t remember a discussion about whether this was a good idea. He only remembers seeing the cat one day, asking whose it was, and getting the answer, “Well, it’s ours”.

I’ve never met Gracie, but I do know that she and my brother have bonded. She lives at the shop from Monday to Friday, and goes home with him on weekends.  When I asked him once why he was the one  that had acquired a pet, he gave a list of excuses why no one else could take her. This one’s child had allergies, that one had a cat killing dog, another lived too far to make transporting it easy.  They all sounded lame, so I figured he really wanted to keep the cat.  No one else had an excuse as good as his, anyway, in that none of the eight families in his condo building was supposed to have a pet. Condominium restrictions! They gave him a pass on Gracie, because technically she lives at the office, and was only visiting on weekends. Right.

Gracie has become a fixture at the office, greeting people who come in the door, and making the rounds each day to visit everyone who works there. John is amused by her antics and talks about her a lot.  When he goes out of town on a weekend, he takes her to our mother, and she, too, has grown quite attached to the little gray cat.

When John called me several weeks ago to tell me that Gracie had gone out while a delivery door was propped open, and was now missing, I couldn’t believe it.  Gracie had never volunteered to go through an open door in over two years there.  What had possessed her?

The search was on. Flyers were posted in the nearby neighborhood, and John went over after work every evening to search for the missing Gracie, enlisting a sizable portion of the neighborhood to help  in the process.  Judging by the number of calls he got in response to his flyers, there must be an extraordinary number of unclaimed cats roaming around.  All the sightings were false alarms. One week passed. Hopes weren’t as high as week one, but still optimistic. Week two rolled over to week three.  Had she starved? Had an animal eaten her? Was she miles away, scared and hungry?

During week four John had planned a trip to Nashville to see us.  Still no Gracie, but he got several calls while he was here from people who were still on the lookout and thought they might have seen her. I heard him talk to the people and in my heart I gave no odds that Gracie was still alive. He returned home, and another week passed.  No sign of Gracie.

Then, after five weeks, one of the neighbors went to the door at 3AM to let her two cats in, and not two, but three cats came in the door!  One was called Gracie, but we all call it a miracle.  The good neighbor loaded Gracie in a cat carrier the next morning and took her home to the office.  She was emaciated, having lost 50% of her body weight, dehydrated, and had a huge tick on her, but she’s going to be OK. She is recuperating full time in the condominium where no pets are allowed. She was very traumatized.  After a few days of being home, she walked over to her toy basket, but only looked.  That’s a big step.

By the way, Gracie never caught a single mouse, but there hasn’t been a problem with Box Elder Bugs anywhere in the office or shop areas since she arrived.

The cat came back (not) the very next day,

The cat came back, we thought she was a goner

But the cat came back, it just couldn’t stay away.

Away, away, yea, yea, yea.