The Day Leah Went Missing

On Thursday, I didn’t even think to take any pictures. I was in a fairly deep depression all day because our house cat, Leah, went missing. Because she’s fat and cannot jump higher than a foot and a half in the air if she musters all her energy, we let her outside in the backyard regularly. Sometimes she doesn’t want to come back in with us, so we just let her do her thing out there and she scratches to be let in. Well, Wednesday night Mark and I went outside to take some pictures and chat. It was a beautiful night! When we were done, Leah wasn’t ready to come in, so as usual, we left her out there. We went to bed shortly after that and completely forgot about her! By the time morning came, she had escaped from the backyard.

Since she’s been a house cat for all her 10 years and because there’s a major highway and train tracks very close to our home, we just had no idea if she’d be capable of surviving. We’d been calling for her all day and we took turns walking around the block to see if we could find her, but it turned up nothing.

By evening, I was just sick with worry so I decided to take Boa on a walk around the neighborhood to see if we could find her. Mark had already driven all around the neighborhood and turned up nothing except for a kid who said he saw her at his bus stop at the very edge of the development that morning. I had no idea until we started walking around how huge our development is! We live in the very front and I’ve never been exploring before. I thought to snap this photo to fulfill my Project 365 requirements since I knew I wouldn’t feel like taking any photos that night.

Most of the time, the cat annoys the hell out of me. I had no clue I would be so emotionally affected by her disappearance! I had a big long cry that night and accepted the fact that she was gone. I made Facebook page for her so people in the area could be on the lookout and planned to put up fliers all over the neighborhood and call shelters in the morning.

I stayed up late and Mark stayed up with me. I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to and secretly I was hoping that she would show up. We left the back gate open and her food dish out on the porch even though I knew rabbits would eat from it. We left the porch light on. It was a windy night and the back door creaked several times, as if she were scratching to be let in. Each time I would get up and go look outside, sometimes opening the door to call for her, only to be disappointed.

Close to 1am the door creaked again, a little stronger. I sprang up with hope in my heart and Mark said, “It’s just the wind.” I heard a meow coming from the other side of the door and thought it might just be my imagination. When I opened the door, she was right on the other side and meowing her lungs off! She walked in and we scooped her up and loved on her. Again, she is an annoying furball and I am shocked that I was SO happy to see her return. She didn’t stop meowing for 10 or 15 minutes. Her ears were visibly sunburned and the pads of her feet were super pink. Other than that, she made herself at home like she never left!

The next day she didn’t even go outside and wasn’t demanding to be let out. Since then, she has stepped out and we’ve been careful to check on her frequently if she wants to stay outside a little longer than we want to. We need to get a collar for her with identifying information in case something like this ever happens again, but I pray it never will!