The cat came back

The cat came back the very next day
The cat came back, thought he was a goner
But the cat came back
Just couldn't stay away-ay-ay-ay

I've had that tune in my head since Friday night, when our cat, missing for NINE days, returned to us.

You would guess that perhaps he had been out in the woods, or picked up and taken to a shelter. Nine days is a long time for a basically indoor cat to be gone. Roger and I had said our good-byes and even began shopping for a new living room chair (since our current one looks like it had a run-in with a shredder.)

On Friday night, nine days after we found Malcolm missing, Rog was out behind our house when he heard a soft mewing. I heard him come running up the stairs saying, "I think I found Malcolm!" I jumped out of bed to the crawl-space vent and sure enough, Malcolm was crying. The only access to our crawl space is inside our house, so we opened the access door (which during the nine days we had opened two or three times thinking somehow he had gotten stuck down there) and there he was.

We have no idea why he didn't come out those other times we had opened that crawl-space door, or how we didn't hear him crying at any other point throughout the week. What we do know is that the cat came back ... a little dehydrated, a lot skinnier, but not too worse for the wear, considering.

Luke couldn't be happier. "Malcolm came HOOOME! Malcolm woke up!" he has told us many times since Friday night. Now if anyone has a fool-proof way to keep a cat from shredding a fabric chair, our ending would be even happier.

Malcolm at 8 weeks, clueless to the adventures that lie ahead of him! My sweet husband surprised me with him back in 2004. Now that is love!