The Return

I haven’t mentioned this before because I was holding out hope, but Jem ran away over four weeks ago. This cat really wanted to be an outside cat, so he was always trying to get out of opened doors. When all of our family was in town, I made it a point to describe the house rule: never leave a door open because the cat will get out.

And he did. But not because of my family. It was me.

You see, the Sunday that Miles was blessed, I was in a bit of a hurry. Chris and I had been rushing around trying to get ourselves and the baby ready for church early enough that we could arrive at the building about 20 minutes before the meeting started.

That clearly wasn’t going to happen. Frustrations were high. Words were said. Chris left without me.

My mom sent him to church in her car so that he could meet his family there. I was to come with baby and grandparents in our car. By the time we were leaving,  I was really rushing. So much so that I think I left the garage door open just a few seconds too long.

When we got home from church, I couldn’t find the cat anywhere. We all looked in every possible location. My mom even tried calling to him outside, not realizing that this cat liked to run.

There were a few incidents when we all thought we heard the cat meowing. As it turns out, when kids scream at the pool across the street, it sounds strikingly similar to cats.

After about a week, I didn’t think we would see him again. I gave him as much time to turn up as I did Chris’s phone.

(Side note: Chris was convinced he had lost his phone. After a week, we went to Verizon and dropped some good money to get Chris a new droid and an additional line to make it complicated, but cheaper. The NEXT day, I was vacuuming in the bedroom and found the old phone on the floor under the bed. Next to the nightstand where it charged every night. You’re kidding me? He never thought to check there???)

Anyway, after a week or so, we packed up all of our cat stuff.

But today, I received a call from a vet’s office in town. They said that someone had brought in our cat today.

And as it turns out, Jem had been living up the street. One of our neighbors from one street over brought the cat back. He said that the cat had been living on their street for a while. All of the neighbors were feeding him. This guy took him in a couple of days ago.

Chris wasn’t thrilled to have the cat back. He may have even tried to convince this guy to keep it. It was nice to be able to leave doors open. It was nice to not change litter, etc.

But the cat has returned. More mellow, but he is back.