Lost Kitty...

Cats like an adventure once in awhile, at the expense of the ones they own. Just last Saturday, my brother's gf's beloved Shih Tzu came over for a sleep over. Much as the dog, hereby known as ST(to protect his identity) is fascinated with the pussy, hereby know as FF, the admiration doesn't travel both ways. Plus, we were quite sure that FF is jealous of ST. I had to give her a lashing down when she tried to claw ST in his approach. Wasn't sure if she had taken it to heart, but she probably did.

Woke up on Sunday morning to find something amiss when I open my door to see ST on fours, staring right back at me. It was always FF's job to guard my door, she couldn't have allowed ST the honour. One loop round the house and it was official. The bedroom door was slightly ajar, as was the window to the balcony.

A search warrant was issued as we comb the first lap around the house. No luck. Being optimistic, we assumed that she would appear soon after, as per the last time she did a Houdini. It did not work out to be sooner than expected. We had the entire family, in a dull mood, upon the news of his latest venture. In particular, my dad, who despite his harsh words on the troubles of having a cat, appeared to be the most worried.

After some interviews with my neighbours, it seems that the pussy has been sighted in the area. Either enjoying life in the sun, or still lost.

What happened was another night passing without her appearance and the next day, it was decided that something had to be done. Dog whistle was bought(was that desperate), a LED-touch light was invested into.

An intensive search was carried out in the evening and it was finally decided that a search would be performed as follow:

1) Search during wee hours like 2a.m. to 3a.m. as lost domestic(in-house) cats are usually panicky and would stay extremely still in daytime, when they are lotsa sound going around them. They could identify these sound as "danger" signals and would over-ride any "familiar sound" calling out for them. Its a defensive mechanism for cats to concentrate on dangers over any other things at hand.
2) Lost cats are rarely more than 3 house radius from their house.
3) Cats are norturnal. Higher chance of them to moving around at night in search of food.

It did not help that showers had to pour at 2a.m., just before I set off. It had me worried and relieved for the same reason.

1) If she was hiding in the sewage, the rising water level would force her out.
2) Being afraid of water(as per most cats), she'll probably stay hidden in some sheltered corners, rendering my search futile.

Regardless, the search had to go on. It was that night or never, least she venture further from home. I undertook the search, in a slow pace, courtesy of tips from the neighbourfood cat feeder, a nice lady who had 2 dogs and a legion of cat fans in the area. Rather go slow, then give her time to come out, than to go fast and have her coming out to miss you.

Barely ten minutes later, my search was rewarded by a familiar bell ring behind the plants. Moving to the side, and there was my baby, all frightened and still. Took awhile to coo her to get out of the bush, but she did. We were amazed as to how we had missed her throughout our search when she was in fact, so near. But then again, she probably wasn't at that exact spot while we were searching earlier.

Which brings me to the last point.

1) ALWAYS tag your pet with a name, your contact number and BELLS.

Thank God for Bells.