abbie is missing details

[spatch]

Well, here's the timeline:

Sunday
7:15. I leave for work. Cat is around somewhere. I know he was around somewhere because I heard him come in and out of the room while I was trying to wake up.

4:30. I come back from work, was let out early. Cat is nowhere to be seen. That's perfectly normal; he could be sleeping somewhere.

12:00 am. I make preparations to go to bed. Still have not seen cat, but again, he could be in the papasan or in the kitchen or bugging someone, so it's okay.

Monday

7:15. I leave for work. Have not seen cat at all. In the morning he usually wakes up with me and then sits outside the shower and meows and meows and meows until I'm done. Check my room, check downstairs, check all the closed doors he may have found himself behind. There is no trace of cat. The level of food in the food bowl has not changed since the previous night (and this honestly is the biggest clue to me that something's awry.)

7:20. Check the side yard, the back yard, under the porches, behind the garage, and a quick peek into the garage though the door is shut and he'd have to have found a different way in. Either way, he doesn't answer. One of our neighborhood regulars, an orange semi-feral who's mixed it up in the past, is hanging out in the backyard and he scampers as soon as he sees me. Am beginning to think Abbie may have gotten out yesterday when someone wasn't looking.

8:00 to 4:30: Sit at work and worry.

5:30. Return from work. I check my room to see if he's sick and under my bed, which is where he usually hides when he feels terrible, and I also check his litterbox room (the "suite"). He's not laying low anywhere. I check the basement, even the doors that were shut. Neither Tracy nor David said they went down to the basement, but you never know what a cat can do when it gets a crazy idea into its head. Tracy leaves a bowl of tuna out on the back porch. Within a half hour the tuna is gone. It was probably that orange cat.

On the advice of several websites (http://www.catsinthebag.org both has an amusing name and a wealth of advice, especially an entire section on the psychology of indoor cats getting lost outdoors) I placed some familiar clothes out on the porch last night, especially (ahem) unwashed laundry, in the hopes that he'd smell it and come running. It was odd trying to explain this to the downstairs neighbors in a note, and at one point when I went down to check, someone was on the front porch on a cellphone staring at the shirt, sweater and (er) dirty socks, and I was quite embarrassed. But hey. THIS IS A CAT WE'RE TRYING TO GET BACK HERE.

We briefly discussed the fact that the lease does say we can have two cats. I don't want to think about replacements so soon -- the guy's out there somewhere, we just have to figure out where and then how to bring him home -- but you sometimes have to prepare just in case. But no cat would ever replace my buddy.

Last night the neighbor's motion sensor light went on a few times, and I went out to check, but I only smelled skunk. If Abs tangles with a skunk by god he's gonna be miserable, but at least that's easily fixable. But every time I went outside to check, including this morning, I had hoped I'd see him curled up on my clothes. But I don't think it's going to happen. I'm worried and that takes a lot of energy out of a fellow. I'm losing it slowly, bit by bit, piece by piece. I have a flyer printed up but I can't get to my hosting provider from work to make it available for download. FUCKING PORT BLOCKERS. I can't hear "you're doing the best you can" because apparently I did the best I could with Martha and she's not around anymore. I don't want to lose the big guy so soon. This is killing me inside and I feel absolutely helpless from behind this desk. I've contacted animal control and nearby vets and agencies. Nobody's brought in a throw rug yet. It's rainy and shitty outside. He won't be going anywhere for a while if it's a safe space from that orange cat and his friends. I don't want ANYTHING right now except to have my buddy back. Come back, buddy. You're the best goddamn cat in the world and you don't deserve to be miserable right about now.

Comments

[rosalux.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry, Spatch. I hope Mr. Abbie comes back.

My stupid runaway thinks-hes-alpha-except-oh-no-it's-scary-out-here cat won't come if there's anything or anyone near the door. The only way to get him back in the house is to prop the door open and wait while he screws up his courage to run back inside.

[spatch]

That's one of the strategies mentioned in the indoor-cat-gone-out articles: the "house trap" where you leave the doors open and lure the cat back in. I could see how continually opening the big outer door of our house would unsettle him something fierce, especially if he's already scared. Unfortunately, since it's cold and shitty out, I don't know how comfortable I feel leaving the door open and unattended for too long a time. Unless I move my computer to the foyer...

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Add mine to the crossed fingers. I hope the next news is all good.

[stopword.livejournal.com]

To me there is no worse feeling than this one: someone you love is missing and you don't know where they are but fear the worst.

I hope everything is fine.

[hemlock-martini.livejournal.com]

I know the "helpless, hopeless" feeling of a missing pet all too well; it reaches inside you and just twists and twists until everything's in a gigantic knot.

Best of positive mojo for you and Abbie. Hope he gets back from wherever he's been soon (with luggage stamps all over--ABU DHABI and CAIRO and PARIS and MACCHU PICCHU)

[sdn.livejournal.com]

please keep us posted. there is nothing worse than a missing beloved cat.

[loree-borealis.livejournal.com]

Oh, Abbie's gonna have some tales to tell when he comes home.

Kitty mojo galore and hugs.

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

Of all the cats I've never met, Abbie is my favorite.

He WILL come home. It is required.

[del-the-psycho.livejournal.com]

The house trap is a good strategy and I think you should use it the first chance you get. My baby back home, Mihoshiroshamboshi, went missing for several weeks when I had left for fishing over the summer.

But one day, when the door was left open due to it being a hot summer day, she came hurtling back into the house and huddled under a blanket. And around her neck was a ribbon and a laminated tag that said, 'Do I have a home?' and included a phone number and a child's drawing of a house. When I called it, it turns out Mihoshi ran away to some people that lived through the woods and up the hill from us. And while their two daughters fell in love with her, they noticed she left everynight to go somewhere and figured she must belong to someone else. Thusly, the ribbon and tag.

With that said, I really hope Abbie comes home.

[moneypenny.livejournal.com]

Emmanuel's a Harvard person and let me know if I can spread the word or give him one of your flyers to post around the campus, since I'm sure many of his classmates live in your 'hood. Send me a link or a copy to moneypenny at livejournal dot com if that's helpful. Good thoughts for a good cat and his good owner. I'm sorry.

[katre50.livejournal.com]

Good luck, and I hope Abbie comes home soon.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

In-person visits to shelters might be a good idea, as they don't always have the manpower to go out and correlate with the lost-cat ads (when a given cat is not collared, tattooed, or microchipped).

If all else fails, you might even try renting a live trap. Stressful for him, briefly, but putting your laundry and his food in it might attract him and deter other critters, and hold him until you get there.

*hugs*

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Big hugs. Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Sending mental GPS maps to Abbie.

[gilana]

Can you email the poster? If so, I'd be more than happy to put it up somewhere for download. Wish there were more I could do...

[tikva.livejournal.com]

*cries at work* Come home, Abbie!

tacotortoise will look for him when he goes to the Diesel tonight. And I told my cow orker to look for him too.

[luckimunki.livejournal.com]

*Hugs and mojo*

I know just what you're going through, only you have got to be 10x more worried than I was because my cat was gone for an hour and I was freaking out like a crazy person. Odds are he shows up at the door and acts like nothing even happened.

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

Oh, Bobby. *hugs*

[mybadhairlife.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Also: lots and lots of general *kitty mojo* from me and all of my brood. Capone's is extra strong because of everything she went through in the fall.

I do know exactly how you feel. I felt that way about four months ago. I hope that the big guy makes it home very soon and that he's okay.

[minkrose]

::hugs::

though with all the prayer and positive thoughts you're getting, hopefully that will do the trick.

[clawdia.livejournal.com]

*good mojo and hugs*

Come home Abbie!

[hyperina.livejournal.com]

Interesting info about indoor cats on that site, but:

...this complete cover instinct tells it to STAY PUT and HIDDEN rather than venture AWAY from its new safe spot — even if home is only a few yards away, even if the animal is starving.

Agh! Poor Abbie!

[spatch]

If this is the case then I hope his stomach overrules his brain, as it's often done in the past.

Unfortunately we have so many neighborhood strays I don't know if he'd get to the tuna first if we put it out on the front porch.

Compounded to this is the fact that there's been a rash of break-ins nearby which make me REALLY want to leave my door open unattended, even while I'm in the house.

[annenayne.livejournal.com]

I'm sending out good cat mojo. Go home, Abbie! Go home!

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Oh, you poor thing. I hope he comes home quickly.

[markm.livejournal.com]

:-(

[ubiquity75.livejournal.com]

Hey, bud, I'm really sorry. My connection is for shit, so if this has already been discussed, I'm sorry. But I once lost a kitty for a day, and he had been shut inside a dresser drawer. So check all drawers. We also found a cat in the kitchen drawer in with the silverware once (!!!!).

Just places to check. I scoured the neighborhood for the cat in question, and we found him in with the wool sweaters.

Good luck. We're all pulling for you.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

*nod* We found one in with the sheets once, the day before we were going on a trip. We found another one under a trampoline when we hadn't seen her for two days (it was impossible to tell whether anyone was eating food, because there was more than one cat in the house).

We also once assumed that a three-days-missing rat had been eaten by cats, but then we found her snuggled up in some couch cushions.

[genarti]

Oh, no.

All fingers crossed here, and I'm hoping.