Kitten on the lam

We have two cats, one sweet and scaredy, one fearless and evil. Kitten is the sweet and scaredy one. She hides when people come over. In fact, a friend who's been to our house many times over the past five years just told me that he never even knew we had TWO cats.

Lulu, on the other hand, is brave and seemingly friendly (it's an act -- don't be fooled -- once she's gotten what she wants from you, she'll turn into a demon). She jumps into the lap of every visitor and demands pets. She's especially fond of people who are allergic to cats. And any time we open the door, Lulu makes a break for freedom. (We don't let the cats out because of all the wildlife in our neighborhood. I had a dream shortly after we moved into this house that I looked out the dining room window just in time to see a fox dive under the hedge with Lulu in his mouth. Plus, the truth is that neither one of them is smart enough to find their way back home.)

Not Kitten though. She always stays inside where it's safe, and she stays away from people. Even we can't catch her. Getting her into a crate for a visit to the vet is a huge drama involving cornering her in a room with a shut door and disassembling furniture so she can't hide under it. Seriously, that has really happened. But at night, when we're in bed, she always shows up for some affection, then sleeps on top of my feet all night. Apparently we're much less threatening when we're horizontal.

Saturday night, she didn't show up. Around 10pm, M asked me if I'd seen Kitten. I was relatively sure I'd seen her briefly when we first came home from our trip to my parents', but I definitely hadn't seen her since then. We'd gone in and out of the house a lot, bringing in the loads of stuff you have to take when you do an overnight with two kids, but we're always pretty careful about shutting doors behind us (see the fox dream...).

We went all over the house, searching everywhere we could think of. We even got out a flashlight to look in dark corners and under furniture. No Kitten. After we'd given up, M mentioned that he'd thought he heard her in the garage, but he couldn't remember what he'd heard -- a jingle of tags, a meow, skittering paws? I went out to the garage to search it again, but no sign of kitten.

I was devastated. I adore that dumb little cat. Thinking maybe she'd gotten out and would eventually come home and meow at the door, I laid down on the couch in front of the open living room window and tried to read, my ears constantly perked for little kitty meows. After a couple hours went by with no sign of Kitten, I gave up and went to bed a very sad woman.

The next morning, we both took turns walking around the neighborhood, calling her & asking all the neighbors who were out if they'd seen her, but still there was no sign of Kitten. I went home with a very heavy heart, and tried to hide my tears from the kids.

M was getting ready to head up to the mountains for a bike ride, so I went out to move the carseats from his car to mine. When I pushed the button & the garage door started to go up, I saw a grey blur shoot out from under the tool bench and disappear under the shelves at the back of the garage. "Kitten's here! She's in the garage!" I practically danced with joy. I shut the garage door again and willed it to go down more quickly, before she could make a break in that direction and get outside, where we'd definitely never catch her. I moved a bunch of junk and stuck my hand under the shelves to grab her, and she hissed at me and took off again toward the front of the garage. I found her jammed into a 3" space between the bottom of a shelf and the top of my gardening cart. I grabbed her tense, hissy, growly little body, and brought her inside.

I hope that Kitten's night in the garage taught her to stay away from open doors! My heart will break if we ever lose one of those cats, even the evil Lulu.