The Day My Black Kitten Went Missing

Saturday morning I woke up early with a ton of stuff to do. We were getting ready for vacation and I had to buy supplies for the fur babies, go and visit my mother in law at the assisted living village and I was planning to take her some lunch. I Also had to take garbage to the dump. My sister and niece are planning to be at our house while we are on vacation and I didn’t want the garbage piled in the garage for a week.

When I started gathering the garbage I started looking around the garage. It looked pretty ratty and dusty. One half of the garage is empty because we wanted to make sure the kitties had plenty of room there while we were gone and my sisters could get into the garage easily and feed the kitties and clean the litter box. I need to stop here and mention how much I love my family who always comes to help out when we take a vacation. Also the fact that we have just added five kitties to our fur family of three makes me love them even more. If you haven’t read my blog in the past I will let you know, a mama kitty came to our house about two months ago and then returned shortly after that with four kittens. We still have all of them along with an inside kitty and two inside dogs. We need to find homes for at least two of the kittens but I would love to have them go together.

So back to the story. As I was gathering the garbage my garage started looking really bad to me. I actually hated for my sisters and niece to see how crappy it looked. I decided to do a minor cleaning job. After all I had about four hours before being at the village. A couple of hours later I am looking at everything strewn out on the drive way, including all the kitties who were now looking at me rather curiously. I had been adding garbage to the back of the truck and it looked like the sled from Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Getting our cars out of the garage and the driveway is a challenge now because of all the kitties. They love to climb up inside and on top of the wheels and bumper and I even found Izzy on the engine once. I slowly backed up and then did a kitty check. Mama kitty and only three kittens. I did not see the black kitten. She is sort of the runt of the litter and always like to hide when anyone comes around. I continued to slowly back up the driveway. I thought surely it must have run out and gotten under one of the other cars.

When I got to the top of the driveway I got out of the truck and checked again. I felt certain it had gotten out. The convenience center is only about two miles from my house.

After I dumped all of the stuff I looked around the truck, no kitten. I drove slowly home knowing I would see black kitten when I got there. I did not. The entire time I was at the grocery store and at the village I was thinking about the kitten, praying it would be with the others when I got home. It was not. All the other kittens including mama was in the garage nestled together on their bed. However mama cat seemed very nervous and would walk to the garage and stare up the driveway. This….broke….my….heart. I had lost her baby. I don’t know why I insisted on blaming myself. I guess the fact that I was the last one to see black kitten made me feel responsible.

It started raining, I am talking like a monsoon. All I could think of was the kitten out in the rain. As soon as the rain and wind slowed to less than hurricane strength. I went out to search for the kitten. Maybe it had gotten in the woods and when the rain started it had taken cover. I even drove back to the dump. No kitten.

After a couple of hours I admitted that I could not find it. By this time I had cried so much my eyes were almost swollen shut. Poor Scruffy couldn’t stand it, he wanted to help make me feel better but didn’t know how.

I fed the other babies and tried not to look at them without the black kitten in the middle of them. Mark called on his way home from work and I told him she was missing. He, being the voice of reason, assured me it was not my fault. He said she probably wasn’t even in the truck when I went to the dump.

A sad night at our house. When I got up Sunday morning I took Scruffy out to use the bathroom. It was still dark but I thought I saw a black kitten sitting next to mama cat. I though it was probably the dark gray one. Then I saw the other two gray ones. One, two, three, four!!!! It was, the black kitten was back!!!!!! She even let me pick her up and snuggle her. I took the chance to peek at her behind and yes she is a she. I named her Sadie. I was ecstatic!!!! I cannot tell you the relief I felt.

I don’t know where Sadie had been. Mama cat may have gone out during the night and rescued her. Whatever, I am so happy she is home. I think being out all night may have scared her. She is not as skittish and she is much more loving. I can only imagine the adventure she had. Yes, worrying about these kitties may be the death of me. But I love them anyway.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!