Ross Ran Away

As you may know, I've been pretty sick over the last week. I'm finally starting to feel better, but did not manage to leave the house today. Working from home, this can happen sometimes and believe me, I had a lot of work to catch up on.

Because I work from home, I'm pretty used to having Betsey and Ross interrupt my day in various ways. They're usually pretty active cats, but sometimes they sleep a lot. Today was a pretty quiet day and about 4:00 I realized it had been hours since I'd seen either cat.

Betsey was asleep on the foot of my bed, but Ross wasn't. I checked all his usual spots: the heating vent in front of sliding glass door in the living room, the linen closet, underneath the bathroom vanity, inside any of the kitchen cabinets, under my bed, under the dining table, and in the rocking chair. He was no where to be found. Then I remembered I'd been in and out of both guest rooms a number of times, so I searched both rooms and the closets in them. Again, no Ross. Next I realized I'd tossed a bunch of recycling into the garage, but when I checked, Ross wasn't there either.

Panic started to set in. "Ross! Ross Gardner!" I yelled as I rechecked every location. Still no Ross.

I grabbed the container of catnip and started shaking it. Hearing it from the back of the house, Betsey came running and, fully believing she deserved a treat for her prompt response, begged until I gave her some. But no Ross.

I walked all through the house sprinkling catnip all over my freshly vacuumed floors, but Ross still didn't appear.

Finally, I remembered that about 1:30, I'd opened the front door to get the mail. Ross must have slipped out! And he wasn't wearing his collar (don't lecture me about this). I grabbed my jacket and Nike's and out the door I went still with the catnip in hand.

Before I headed out, I text messaged a friend "Amber Alert! Ross is missing! HELP!"

"Ross! Ross Gardner!" I continued to scream in a high-pitched panic as I walked all around my house and headed down the street.

I could hear the yappy dogs barking next week and fully prepared myself to find Ross's lifeless body firmly in the grips of their jaws. My eyes filled with tears at the thought of this. Again, however, no Ross.

Finally, I walked back in the house wondering how I was going to tell Betsey that her best friend was missing. And how would I sleep tonight without him? I tossed my jacket on my bed and started my search of the house again calling his name as I hurriedly searched each room.

By this point, Betsey was asleep in her favorite chair, completely unfazed or maybe simply unaware that Ross had apparently been kidnapped by aliens or run away. Me, on the other hand, I was in full hyperventilation mode and wondering if I had either enough Valium or vodka to get through the night knowing that Ross was lost out in the frigid November March weather.

Remembering that my cell phone was still in my jacket pocket, I headed back into my room to retrieve it. As I walked around the side of my bed, I noticed something wrong with the sleeping pillows directly behind the decorative pillows on my bed. And then I saw that the pillows were moving. They were moving because Ross was adjusting his position on top of them!

Yep, the entire time, Ross had been snuggled up in his new spot on my sleeping pillows. He'd heard my hour long panicked search for him. He'd heard me shaking the catnip. He'd smelled the catnip on the floor of the bedroom. And the bottom line was he didn't care. He was cozy all snuggled up in my pillows.

Ross hadn't run away or been abducted by aliens. He was taking a nap in a new hiding spot. I guess I'll add that to the list from now on.

I Lost Betsey.

About an hour or so ago, I realized that although I've been home all day, except for one 15-minute errand around 10:30, I hadn't seen Betsey since early this morning. Ross was napping in his favorite rocking chair (Honestly, no one else can ever sit in this chair. It should be renamed "Ross's chair."), but I didn't see Betsey.

I started looking in her favorite spots: any of the chairs under the dining room table; the loveseat in the living room; behind a chair in the family room; on my bed; under my bed; in the cushy chair in my bedroom; and under my night table. She wasn't in any of her usual spots.

Next, I explored Ross's spots: on a pile of clean linens in the linen closet; under the bathroom sink (he can actually open the door himself); under the kitchen sink (again, he can unlatch the door with ease); next to the HVAC vents in both the living room and family room; and in front of the sliding glass doors in the living room. Again, nothing.

Walking around my house calling out "Betsey! Betsey Gardner" felt stupid, but I had no choice. I even looked in the litter boxes to see if she'd fallen asleep in one. Still nothing. Betsey is very "talkative," so I was surprised that I wasn't hearing her chatting somewhere.

After about an hour of repeatedly searching in the same spots over and over again (isn't that the definition of insane: repeating the same activity over and over and expecting different results?) and calling her name and carrying around catnip, I was in a cold sweat. I had lost my girl. She was gone. The panic in my voice was palpable. My heart was in my throat. How could I lose Betsey? How could she have gotten out? How would I explain this to Ross? How would I live without her?

Finally, I remembered that very early this morning, I had gone into the guest room to put something away. I was there maybe 15 seconds and the door was closed, so I thought the odds were small. But I walked to the door anyway, took a deep breath, opened the door and there was my girl sitting on the bed! She got up, hopped off the bed without being asked (a first in 12 years) and ran right over to me. And then she wouldn't shut up. If I spoke cat, I'm sure she was yelling at me for locking her in the guest room for hours and even leaving the house to run an errand without noticing she was gone.

Now I have no problem locating Betsey. She's perched herself on my left wrist as I type this confession. She'll be glued to my side for the rest of the day. That's just the way she is and part of why I love her so much.

Note to Self: Always check to make sure cats don't follow me into the guest room before closing the door.