Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Kitty's Night Out

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My three cats are indoor cats. Smalls was originally an outdoor cat who came with your first house, but now she only goes out occasionally and not in winter.

Well, last night I was bringing in groceries. I locked Chaos in the backyard. Both Spirit and Rocket came downstairs. I shooed them away from the door. The last time I saw Spirit she was walking back to the stairs.

I haven't been feeling all that great since yesterday so I decided to go to bed early. I asked hubby to feed the cats and crawled into bed. Smalls jumped up with me for a little while as did Rocket. I never saw Spirit, but thought nothing of it since she's been hanging out under the Christmas tree for the last couple of weeks. But it was weird that she wasn't sleeping on my feet when Chaos wanted out this morning.

I stayed in bed this morning. Hubby had an early PT appointment. Guess what he heard as he was unlocking the front door when he got home? Meowing. Lots and lots of meowing, coming from our backyard.

He went out there and found Spirit under a bush. It had been raining most of the night. Luckily we have been having warmer temperatures.

Poor kitty.

She must have been terrified. I held her close and dried her with a towel. She's right next to me grooming herself now.

I feel bad that I didn't realize she was missing. If I had been the one to feed them, I would have known right away since they have a pecking order and she's the one who has to take a bite first before the other three. But luckily all turned out well, and maybe this will keep her inside the next time she sees an open door. Of course, she did it when she was a year old on Fourth of July. We found her under our front deck, but that was in 1998. Maybe it's a once every ten years kind of thing.

Has something like this ever happened to you and one of your pets?