Still holding out hope the calico kitty will return.Nothing ruins a post-vacation buzz more than returning home to an empty house. My sister and I spent 18 days in Costa Rica, and my kitty decided to go an adventure of her own.
My gracious friend Thor endured a Chico heat wave to watch over my house while I was gone. I left him a color-coded map of plants to be watered, and he planned to play his guitar in between long, playful moments with the cat.
At my request, he sent comforting photos of the Feline Unit sleeping spread-eagle in front of the air conditioner.
But then something happened.
About three days before our return flight, Thor said the cat had stopped her hops through the cat door and had left her food bowl untouched.
The night I heard the potentially heart-breaking news, I was sleeping next to my sister at an AirBNB in Alejuela, Costa Rica. In my dream, the kitty jumped up on the bed to snuggle. I reached for her and grabbed my sister’s kneecap.
Why did she wander off just days before I returned?
The kitty was probably just hot and found a shady place to hang out until my return, friends said after I posted a worried lament on Facebook. I was certainly grungy enough after 14 hours of travel, wouldn’t she come running when she smelled my dirty socks and heard me whistling at the back door?
Apparently not.
GONE TO DUST
There were a few other losses during my absence. I should have moved the potted Japanese maple to the center of the shaded picnic table. The dogwood tree, a gift from Mark Carlson in April, looks like someone left it in the bed of a truck in Arizona. Yet, there are small shoots struggling for life at the base of the dried, dead trunk. People who live in Chico when its 108 degrees should expect a few plants to do a death dance when they’re take a long vacation.
I don’t have room in my heart to worry about a few dead plants. My mind was fixated on the more important thing that was not within view.
Feline Unit is not at the Chico Humane Society. I was there when they opened the gate at noon Tuesday. The website, (https://buttehumane.org), had a picture of a cat that I was certain was my undersized Manx calico. However, the beautiful cat in the cage was twice the size and has a tail.
I was mad at myself for lingering at the cuteness of the other confined critters. It felt disloyal to be looking at other cats when I am holding out so much hope that Feline Unit will find her way back home.
Angie, the wonderful woman who works at the shelter, wrote down all the local social media lost pet Facebook pages. Following her suggestion, I also moved the dirty cat box to the back porch, hoping the cat will recognize her personal stench from blocks away.
Meanwhile, my luggage remains unpacked and I’ve been wandering my neighborhood making the two-tone whistle that usually brings the Feline Unit running for a dollop of wet food.
If there is any upside, I’ve met several of my neighbors, a few who saw my post on the NextDoor neighborhood website. My new friend Lollie and her 3-year-old sidekick pointed to the empty lot in the avenues where many cats are known to kick it on lazy afternoons. Another woman, who lives in an alley, recognized the cat from the photo I showed her on my cell phone. She said it had been about three days since she last saw my scampering Feline Unit.
Needless to say, if someone sees my cat, please call the phone number attached to her collar.
For now, I’m trying to shake off terrible mental images of the sweet Feline whisked away by an angry mob of magpies or stuck at the bottom of a dry storm drain. Other times I’m angry that some wet-food endowed, soft-hearted family has decided my calico kitty is a perfect complement to their cream-colored furnishings. Or maybe she wasn’t really all that attached to me after all. She was the Handsome Woodsman’s companion before she knew me. Maybe she wandered away due to a broken heart.
For now, I’ll continue to hold onto hope and to wander the streets whistling.
Contact garden columnist Heather Hacking at sowtheregardencolumn@gmail.com or follow on Facebook.
