What a Day!

Okay, so today, New Year's Eve, has been quite the day.

Let me first begin my story by telling you about my cat, Freckle. Freckle is a timid cat - very loving and loveable... She is a scabby, flabby, fat cat that I absolutely adore. The poor thing is afraid of her own shadow. She was always a scaredy cat. Her brother is quite the opposite. He's simply lazy and playful.

Now, some of my cats (I have three), like to go outside. I know some of you will scold me for this but with three kids, it is very difficult to keep them inside. Now there is Slug, the mother cat. She is sharp and resourceful. If we don't pull the door tightly shut, she can use her paws to open the front door and let herself out and in. It is amazing.

Anyhow, this morning I got up and made breakfast and while sitting there, Keira asks me if I had seen Freckle. It is not unusual not to see her around because she likes to keep to herself but I thought about it and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen her. So we begin to search the house. High and low we look. In cabinets and under beds, no Freckle. Oh, sadness.

We all pretty much knew that Freckle isn't that smart and might not find her way home if she were out. We all knew that we couldn't let Freckle out because of her disposition. She would have a heart attack, we were certain, if she encountered children or, heaven forbid, a dog or another cat. Our hearts sank at the thought of frightened Freckle out in the cold for how long we did not know. We had company over the other day and were afraid that they may have let our beloved Freckle out.

Then there is Kody. Six years old and quite active. He comes and goes in and out the door to go play with the ample number of children in the neighborhood. He could have let her out.

Anyway, we were sad.

Well, prior to our discovery of our lost cat, I had called my husband who was at work. See, he is a bill collector for a small loan company. Yippee. I'm not proud of that, by the way. He has a degree in Anthropology/Archaeology... I wish he could do something with that. Anyway, he went to collect money today from a young white debtor and was attacked verbally by the debtor and then on the way out physically by the debtor and his Dad. They punched him and knocked him to the ground and held him down with a stick. My husband managed to toss them off himself and get back to his feet with only minor injuries but there were no other witnesses which is probably why the shit heads attacked him thinking they would do more damage to him than they did. Now he has a cell phone but did not have a camera phone, which I wished that he had.

Though he doesn't recall, seems he got a punch on one of them. And his boss told him not to bother to come back in after that, though it isn't clear that they were even the slightest bit concerned about what happened. The whole industry is predatory, in my opinion, and his job is probably one of the most dangerous that a person can do or at least high on the list. No one likes to see a bill collector when they've got drugs to buy or beer to buy...

Anyway, I've encouraged him to seek employment in another industry or trade though this is about the only thing he has done since college.

So, on with the day....

This evening, after lamenting the loss of my cat all day and worrying about the safety and sanity of my husband, I decided I would just step out onto the porch to see if I could call my Freckle. Well, to my delight, a figure emerged from the darkness out by the trees. Was it my beloved cat? Yes! It was!

Now, this cat is not the smartest in the world and she is scared of her own shadow so I had to convince her that she knew me and that I wanted to help her. I began calling her gently by name and calling her by her favorite nick name "pretty girl"... she seems to respond really well to that in the house. Slowly she creeped toward me until her brother ran out of the house, down the stairs and toward her. I see her figure disappear into the night and hear hissing and ran down the stairs with as much care as to not make too much noise as possible and scare her away even more.

Slowly I tried to approach her as she ran away toward the fence in the back of our complex that separates this deep trench between a nearby neighborhood and the complex. And through the fence she went. Oh, I was so frustrated. Stupid cat. I stood there, calling for her in as gentle and calm a voice as possible by her name and her nick name. Trying to be as reassuring as possible until I was frigid. I grabbed her brother and took him back into the apartment and told my daughter Kaitlyn to come give me a hand. She grabbed the flashlight and off we went.

Back into the cold night we went. Though I couldn't see her in the darkness, when I turned the flashlight on, I saw her eyes reflecting the light. Then I was able to get her in the light. Again, I stand there calling her, shining the flashlight on myself in the hope that she would recognize me. She sat in the middle of the deep trench just staring at me. Frightened, I'm sure but what could be more comforting when you've been alone and cold for hours, if not days, than to be in the warm embrace of someone you know? Stupid cat.

So, it was determined that the only way I was going to get her was to climb the fence. Kaitlyn went and got a stool for me to climb over the "taller than my crotch" fence. Slowly I made my way towards her while Kaitlyn stood in the cold night air with flashlight aimed on Freckle and slowly she crept away but I seemed to be gaining ground.

We got near the fence of the nearby neighborhood and I was able to get down on the ground and actually touch her and let her smell me. She liked my touch but when I tried to grab her, she bolted. Tangled up in thorn bushes, I tried to run after her and decided that would only make her run farther and possibly jump the fence, though we are certain that she is too fat to jump the fence. From the bushes, she emerged and ran toward Kaitlyn who was on the other side of the fence that I jumped. She paused, looked up and saw Kaitlyn and ran away... Stupid cat. She ran up to another area of the fence where a hole was and crawled through the hole to the other side. The side that Kaitlyn was on. Kaitlyn took off to catch her.

I was left there to climb back over the fence. The fence that was "taller than my crotch". The wires of the fence were not wide enough to get good footing and I did not have my survival gear with me. Though I could get my leg up on the fence, I was unable to get enough footing to hoist myself over. For whatever reason, I figured I could get my bare foot wedged into the wire and hoist myself up and tossed one of my shoes on the other side and tried to do this. Too painful! So I stood there in the darkness and cold no longer lamenting my lost cat but the fact that she was so stupid. I hoped that Kaitlyn would be more lucky than I in catching her. I would wait for her return.

Within about ten minutes, she returned with the great news that she had caught her. She gave me my shoe and helped me back across the fence.

Sweaty, bloody and cold, I returned to the house feeling much happier than I had the whole day. Though my cat is rather stupid, we love her dearly and are so glad to have her back at home. Though now I am certain that my cat Baby has an evil plan to rid himself of her existence. Seems everytime we came back to the house for something we needed, he was dashing out the door to go pounce and scare Freckle away. We had to lock him up in one of the bedrooms because he was growling to get out!