It’s a special kind of panic, that feeling when you can’t find your cat despite them being in an enclosed room. You check all the usual hiding places and they are in none of them, and you begin to wonder if they suddenly sprouted opposable thumbs and let themselves out the front door.
I had that panic a couple of days ago. We’d shut Lola out in the hallway/kitchen area to eat her food in peace. Normally we’d shut Sampson out and Lola in the living room with us, because she eats better when she has company, but as Sampson was sleeping up in the cat tree this way made more sense.
Anyway. For a while we could hear Lola yelling on the other side of the door – “I can’t eat. There’s nobody to sit next to me and make sure I remember how!” I was making a card at the time but being almost finished was getting ready to go through to her when I realised she’d gone awfully quiet…
With the card finished I went out to remind Lola how to eat, and she was nowhere in sight. I walked up the hallway and checked the shoe rack. Not there. I went around to the kitchen and checked the cubby hole beside the dishwasher. Not there. I checked under the table and on the kitchen chairs. Nope.
I went back to the living room and asked husband if Lola had come in without me noticing. She hadn’t. Okay… Where could she be?
I remembered she’s once or twice got up on the hat shelf. It’s a bit cluttered up there at the moment so I didn’t expect her to be there, but it was the last place I could think of. But no, she wasn’t there either.
At this point I was starting to get really worried. Was there a hole somewhere? Had she spontaneously combusted? Okay, I didn’t really think that had happened but I was really out of ideas.
And then… I found her. I’m not even sure why I went there, but as I knelt down in front of the cupboard by the front door I spotted a white ball of fluff in the glove basket. Yeah, it was Lola. She blinked up at me sleepily as if asking why I was disturbing her. I of course immediately went and grabbed the camera.
As far as I am aware she has never slept there before. I’m not sure she ever will again either – the hat shelf didn’t last long as a sleeping place. But after I’d found her she stayed there for a good couple of hours, curled up amongst the gloves and the mittens, lovely and warm.
Love,
Lady Joyful
This is panic and love rolled up in a beautiful post. Lovely read.
Thanks!
My cats did this to me on a regular basis. I wonder if they are trying to get back at us for our behavior?
Ha, maybe! Sampson used to do it a lot when he and I still lived in England. We lived in a big old house (my mum’s), and any time strangers came to the house he would disappear. If ever I worked out where his hidey hole was he’d find another! Thanks for commenting 🙂
That is funny! 🙂
Ohhh…panic stricken and relief!!! Couldn’t find Lily once to go to the vets…looked everywhere nearly in tears…looked in the cat carrier and there she was fast asleep!
Oh wow, what a story! Awfully convenient of her to be in the carrier ready though 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Lol! She wasn’t very pleased when she woke up to find the door shut…!
I can imagine!
What a beautiful girl Lola is! This reminds me of the time I was staying with a friend. She went to work, and I was left with her cat for company. He has access to a well-fenced courtyard garden for fresh air and sun. I was reading, while he wandered in and out. He spent some time trying to convince me to open the courtyard gate so he could go out into the road, but I wasn’t fooled. Then the little devil disappeared. I hunted high and low, calling him. No luck. I was convinced he’d somehow managed to get out of the courtyard and I would get the blame.
Then I remembered his lunchtime snack, left in a bowl in the fridge. I opened and shut the fridge door very noisily, and scraped his bowl on the floor when I put it down. The little devil appeared from nowhere. I’m sure he did his disappearing act to punish me for not letting him out of the courtyard.
Both myself and hubby loved this post and know that special panic. I mean if you add that we have had moments of total panic when we suddenly realise that the cat could be up the chimney (but wasn’t) or that often panic with hands in the dark, because the black cat is sitting on the black chair right in front of us.
Oh yes, I’ve had those panics too! Especially when I was living in a big, old house (back in England) with so many hidey holes and places the cats really shouldn’t get into! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Where do you live now then?
I live in Finland 🙂
Finland? Blinkin Nora! Finland? Wowzers! Finland. (Goes to Google map to look at where that actually is, maybe in Europe). 😀
I found Finland now and of course it’s there next to the other slices of Nordic cake.
It certainly is! 🙂 We’re up toward the north at the moment (near where it joins with Sweden) but are going to be moving down to the capital in the next few months.
Oh then you can say this in your mind in a posh english accent: “Top notch, that’s capital!” 😀
Cut?
Thanks!
Love it! Sometimes only cat people understand and appreciate what intrigues us about cats. They will seek out the strangest places to rest and sleep. Sometimes they don’t seem at all comfortable. Jamima must be getting older now. I often have to check my bed for lumps before sitting down to change. Anytime a wardrobe door is opened Ms Super-Sonic hearing will arrive in the bedroom no matter where she was seconds earlier. Then I struggle to get her out. If she gets in there without me being aware she will happily go to sleep and I’ll lock her in there oblivious to her sleeping snuggled up on my woollens. How can we resist them? Oh, why bother. Bless them.
Oh, your Jamima sounds so much like Lola! Our current cats don’t tend to get in the bed, but Belle (who now lives with my older brother back in England) sometimes would. And a cat we used to have, Smudge, would (as a kitten) get behind the cushion at the back of the sofa, so we always had to check in case he was in there before sitting down! (He also managed to get behind the fridge once, and into a little cubby opening in the back of the fridge which we had no idea existed!) Thanks for commenting 🙂
Absolutely know that feeling and those nerve-wracking searches. When the cleaners come everyone hides and since they are not always conscientous about the front door, I never rest easy until I have a full headcount. .
I am exactly the same like that! It’s not such a problem here as we rarely have people coming in, but where I lived back in England it was definitely an issue! Thanks for commenting 🙂
That’s the worst feeling in the world…!
Certainly is!
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Thanks 🙂
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This happens at my place all the time. Did I accidentally shut one in the closet? Leave a drawer open inadvertently and close it without noticing a bit of fur? Is there a portal to another dimension? And even though I know they are here somewhere it doesn’t stop the little bit of panic from forming. Then they appear, as if magically, looking for all the world as if they were there all the time.
Oh yes, exactly! Ha, we have an ongoing joke that there must be portals to other dimensions around the place. It not only explains the cats randomly disappearing, but also the times that we see them, for example, sleeping in the kitchen, but find them in the living room when we get there! Thanks for commenting 🙂
I’ve had that happen too! My Mousekitty (Nezumi when she’s speaking Japanese) does that sometimes and finds the most improbably hidey holes.
They’re so good at finding them, aren’t they? 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
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I had this in the past week. 18 pound Mystery (hard to lose you would think) eluded me for 25 minutes that I didn’t have trying to leave the house. He was in a grocery bag that I hadn’t folded yet. Stinker!
Mystery sounds like quite a cheeky monkey! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Aw such a sweet kitty. 😀
She can be 😉 Thanks for commenting!
That was my Lita. Years ago I used to put my three cats in my very big laundry room at night to sleep in while we humans slept. Lita was in my study sleeping. I went to get her to put her up for the night and she was no where to be found. My children and I searched upstairs and down, under beds, in closets, and that darn study numerous times. I finally gave up and realized she had found a better hiding place than I could think of, put the other two cats in bed for the night, and for whatever reason, closed the door to the study, in case she was in there. Keep in mind my study had two computer desks, two office chairs, two bookshelves, and one comfy chair, as well as a closet that was empty. The next morning I open the study door and there sits Lita just as happy as could be. I have no clue where she was hiding as we searched very inch of that room at least four times! I’m convinced she could make herself invisible. 🙂
Invisibility would do it! Lola has a knack for getting behind my desk, and then inside the back of it. There’s a convenient Lola-sized gap where the drawers don’t go all the way down to the floor. Thanks for sharing your story 🙂
I know that kind of panic well…
It’s a distinct feeling! Thanks for commenting 🙂