ROSIE IS LOST (AND FOUND)

Our cat, Rosie, escaped from the house on 12/14/08.

Black and tan

12 pounds

front declaw

spayed

18 months

Please call 219-464-3815 or 219-765-8401

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We had a really scary morning. We woke up and could not find Rosie anywhere! Brian and I searched the whole house shaking her can of treats hoping she would appear. She didn't show up, didn't poke her head out , didn't make a noise...

It's important to understand that Rosie has always had "issues" with being an indoor cat. Every time the door is opened, she makes a mad dash for freedom. I can't even count how many times she has flown passed me or Brian (or the kids) out the door and into the bushes. I have had to chase her through the yard in my jammies way too many times. Her favorite hiding place is behind our thorny bushes. She sits there, laughing at me because she knows that I cannot reach her without causing bodily harm to myself. That said, though, I love her anyway...

So back to this morning. We thought she may have gotten out while the whole bringing in the tree fiasco was taking place on Saturday evening. Brian said he locked her in the mudroom so she wouldn't dash out he door, but you never know... Also, during the night, Brian let Sophie, the dog, out at 1:00am and 6:00am. Either time would have been optimal for an escape (Brian was groggy).

We really searched the house. In every closet, underneath every piece of furniture - every table, chair, sofa, and bed. Looked in her litter box. Scoured the basement, including the clothes washer. She was missing. Brian called our next door neighbors and let them know to keep an eye out for her, then took to the streets to start searching. He crisscrossed the neighborhood, going in every direction at least a block or two.......down streets and alleys, calling out Rosie's name the whole time and shaking her can of Pounces........following up every sound of a barking dog, thinking the dog may be barking at poor Rosie.......unfortunately, no sign of Rosie.

Meawnwhile I began work on a flyer. Of course, Murphy's Law reared it's head. Since our printer isn't working properly, I knew we would have to go to FedEx/Kinko's or somewhere to print......of course they didn't open until noon (it was only 9am). I tried creating a flyer in WordPerfect, but for some reason couldn't save it to a disk. Brian created one on his work account in Microsoft Word and e-mailed it to our home address, but it still didn't work.

I put an ad on Craig's List as well as ads in the local newspaper, both printed and on line, and added a link to the ad from my blog. I asked Brian to go down to our neighbor Kendra's house to ask for her assistance. Kendra walks her Yorkie, Grits, at least 23 times a day (God bless her!) so Brian asked her to keep an eye open for Rosie. She and her boyfriend Mark said they were just getting ready for a walk and they would do that. Brian then continued to search the neighborhood......he ran into Kendra, Mark and Grits later, and told them about the flyer snafu.....Kendra graciously offered to print the flyers if we emailed it to her, then she would drop them off at our house......we tried to do that, but she couldn't open the email attachment (which she told us by phone, after she called our neighbors Jeff and Lori's house to get our phone #!)........Brian re-sent the flier to her from his work e-mail and we waited for Kendra to come by.

After many tears on my part, I decided to turn to St. Anthony (he is especially invoked for the recovery of things lost).... May sound silly to some of you, but I was desperate. I stood up and said, "Tony, Tony turn around. Some thing's lost and can't be found" while spinning in a circle. Then I began to search the house.....one last time. I checked in our guest room under the bed, under a chair in my bedroom and then finally under my bed.

AND THERE SHE WAS!!!! I HAD FOUND HER!!! Under my bed in a little ball. But she wouldn't come out, even after Brian shook the can of treats.......finally she crept out and ate the treats that Brian had spread on the floor, but she immediately returned to her "hiding place". Brian and I thought maybe she was sick... maybe she ingested pine needles from the tree...who knows.........

We then called the neighbors and Brian ran down to Kendra's house....she and Mark were backing out of the driveway with the fliers, ready to deliver them! They agreed that we better keep them for future use (hope we never need them!).

We then went to look for Rosie again......she was under the bed again......after being coaxed out (with more treats again), she ran downstairs where she continued to slink (walking low to the ground) around the house. She was obviously scared, which is very unusual - she's a brave cat! We pet her for a few minutes before she jumped out of our arms and skittishly tiptoed into the library (actually the kids' playroom)...... She took one look at the Christmas tree, dropped low to the ground and bolted out of the room. She was scared of THE TREE! She had been hiding the whole time because of the tree!

Thank God for St. Anthony and his ability to find missplaced cats! We are so relieved that Rosie did not spend the night outside in the freezing rain. I'll take a scaredy cat over a lost cat any day!