Kitty

About 3 weeks ago there was a flyer in my neighborhood about a missing Manx. The rain came and the flyers disintegrated but I kept an eye out.

Then about 2 weeks ago I stepped out onto my front porch and heard what I thought was someone in the bushes poorly imitating a cat. I heard MEOW very distinctly and truly I thought it was English. There was nothing cat-like about it. No trailing off into throaty purring, no squeaking pre Meow or post. No rustling about. Just silence. One meow then silence. Honestly, I thought it might be my neighbor, Bruce, who is very funny and likes to tease. But he's not one to trample into the blackberries even for a laugh so dismissed it. I put out food and no one but flies touched it. ick.

A few days went by and I heard it again. One MEOW. Then silence. Hmmm...while it is totally in character for Bruce to beat a joke to death somehow the odds of his being in my bushes when I step onto the front porch seemed slim especially since he's often on a $250,000 safari to Tanzania or up in the Arctic killing giant bears (no kindred soul here).

So I put more food out and went to dad's to visit. Food untouched when Lew and I returned. However there were more MEOWS this time. I looked into the space under my porch and saw 2 little eyes glowing in the dark. How dumb am I?!!! I had wasted all this time!!!

So I coaxed kitty out--MANX!!!-- fed kitty tuna, thought that might be too rich a diet after nothing so went to the grocery and got senior kitty food and now can't get kitty to come out!! Kitty will NOT come out. Kitty is not even meowing now. Kitty is just under there, miserable. I change out food several times a day, have left water under there as well, laminated signs that say FOUND MANX with my phone number and posted them all around the neighborhood plus on the freeway on and off ramps. But no one has called me. When I was putting up my signs a woman drove by and said that she had heard that someone had lost a kitty from our neighborhood but didn't know where. I am sick about this! I called the Humane Society, no report of missing kitty. If I can get him out I will take him to the doctor. He must be in seriously bad shape now.

Today Courtney and Arnie are coming over to rip apart the porch so we can get kitty out but I have to say kitty has gone back to being really quiet. Mea culpa. Why didn't I figure this out sooner? I should have ripped the porch apart day one.

I am so sorry kitty. I am a horrible person. I am so sorry kitty.