Ugh. I've had a crappy day today. At about 3am, my husband woke me up to say that our door blew open (we forgot to lock it after bringing in groceries last night) and the cat was missing. Yikes!
So we got up and searched in the dark with flashlights. DH saw her briefly; a neighbor cat scared her and she ran past him but disappeared. We live in an apartment complex with lots of two-story buildings with exterior stairwells (like six for each building) and cars and bushes and trees everywhere. Tucha is STRICTLY an indoor-only cat, and we live near some very busy streets and a railroad track. Not good. She has a collar and ID tag for this kind of thing, but it doesn't protect her from cars and trains.
Of course, it's not easy to find a gray cat in the dark. So we looked for a while and then DH took a short nap. We set out stinky food for her so she could be lured back to the right doorway--they all look alike--and I waited for light. Then I went out again and met up with a couple of maintenance people who ride around the apartments in golf carts and explained about Tucha. They said they'd keep an eye out for her.
I don't know how many times I circled the complex, making silly noises and calling her name. Finally I go back to our apartment and DH says that he'll go search in the car but he needs to take another nap first. Just after he goes into the bedroom, the nice wonderful angelic maintenance lady arrives with my precious kitty! Turns out she was hiding in one of the stairwells on the second story. I'd been concentrating on the first floor part of the stairwells because we live on the first floor. I must have passed her at least six times.
Phew! So Tucha is safe from the big bad outside world. DH, Tucha and I are all very very very tired. I took a four-hour nap, and Tucha slept on my feet.
