Just a warning: this is a looong story.
Yesterday morning an inspector came out to determine the size of the loan my landlady would be granted for home improvements (replacing siding, windows, some electrical). I was chatting with the landlady in the front hall with both my door and hers open. I saw Murray (little kitty) go out but I knew he'd come back; he always does. Just then, the inspector knocked on the back door. She and I both walked to the back of the house to let him in. I didn't realise that both doors were still open until the inspector made his way through my apartment and was on his way out. After the inspector was done with the building I went out to call Murray. He didn't come.....no big deal, he'd be back eventually. By the time I went to bed Murray still wasn't back. I thought I'd heard him cry several times throughout the day, but when I went outside, no kitty. My other cat, Freddie, kept trying to walk me to the back porch. Every time I went back there and opened the door, I found nothing. I started thinking Murray's cries were just wishful thinking and maybe he wasn't coming back at all. Before I went to bed, I took another walk around the neighborhood specifically checking the street for his remains; I was relieved to find nothing.
This morning still no Murray. I was about to go out a couple of hours ago when I thought maybe he had gone through the landlady's apartment and gotten himself locked on the back stairs to which I have no key. I went out to my back porch and peeked in the window to those stairs. He wasn't there, but I thought I heard him again. I called for him and defintely heard him cry so I called him again. His cries were coming from directly over my head. Apparently he had gone upstairs, through my landlady's apartment, and out to HER back porch without any of us noticing. Big smile:
I rang her doorbell and told her that Murray was on her back porch and would she unlock the back stairs so I could come up and get him. No problem....except that my landlady is slowly losing her faculties and her hearing and had no idea who I was. I waited for her to let me in for half an hour before I called her on the phone and asked her again. No problem....except that she thinks [Terry] is the third floor tenant and opens the wrong door. <slapping forehead>
I go out to the back porch
yet again, stand under Murray, and try to calm him down using the soothing Mommy voice. Finally, the landlady walks out onto her porch, realises someone is talking to this cat and says, "Do you know your cat's on my porch?"
"That's why I called you."
"Are you on the first floor or second?"
"The first."
"Oh, it's okay, he can stay here."
"No, it's not okay. He hasn't eaten
in two days!"
<Pause to go on another hunt, find a happy ending for this story, and treat my cat scratches with hydrogen peroxide...>
She finally let me upstairs. She was convinced that Murray ran past her into the apartment so I took a quick look on her porch, then under her bed and thought maybe he'd found his way out the front door when she opened it. I opened a can of tuna and set it on the front porch hoping to coax him back into the house from whatever hiding spot he'd found outside. I figured he must be hungry enough to go for it. I went back outside to find Guinness, the third floor neighbor's cat, eyeing the tuna. LMAO
At least the bait caught
someone's kitty!
I've been pacing for two hours not sure what to do, so I sat down here to get this all down and I'm convinced I keep hearing Murray. I went out to the porch
yet again and called to him. I definitely heard him cry. I was just about to call my landlady when she called me. I asked her to let me up the back stairs to check for him again. Now I just had to find where he was hiding. He wouldn't come when I called him and he wasn't making a sound. It was only luck that I saw his one eye peeking out at me from under a plastic tablecloth. I dug in and picked him up, brought him back downstairs. He fought me every step of the way so I'm pretty scratched up, but we're both doing fine now. My wounds have been treated and Murray's enjoying some tuna. <whew>
