The next time I thought I lost my cat was after I graduated. I lived with my ex (when we were still together then) and another roommate, who was not home at the time. My cat, Cassie, loves the occasional leashed walk. She's not exactly an adventurous cat, but she loves exploring the area near every house she's lived in so far.
On that day, Cassie really wanted to go out, which is all fine, but we were busy working from home. I told my ex, “I'll finish my things and walk her later”, to which she answered, “I'll let Cassie out, she'll just explore the garden and come back”, and with that, she opened the door, and Cassie dashed out. I was livid. But there was no time to get angry - I had my cat on the run. I followed her through bushes, backyards, mini-forest, and street stairs… until I lost sight of her. This was devastating.
I returned home, grabbed treats and meat from the fridge, and went right back out to call her name until I will have found her. An hour passed. Then two. I sat next to the entrance door, defeated. Safe to say, I had a very stern conversation with my ex. She said she's sorry, told me she won't ever do it again, and suggested I go inside. I refused, “I need to wait for Cassie here”.
Some more time has passed, and I decided to do another round. Armed with yummy treats, I went out again, went everywhere… until I saw a pair of green eyes stuck inside a huge hedge in our backyard. I was so relieved. I got her out with treats and some manual help, and took her inside again.
The third time I almost lost my cat happened in the apartment I live in now, with my wife and kid (before we had the kid). A few years ago, my wife discovered I never watched Forrest Gump. Attrocity, I know. She made a point that we do a movie night and watch it. And that we did - all 2 and a half hours of it. Now, I'm a sensitive soul. I was absolutely bawling my eyes out the entire movie. My face was red, my eyes were puffy, the whole shabang.
After the movie ended, my wife and I agreed it was very weird that for such a long time Cassie didn't come to sit on any of our laps to purr and be petted. It's usually a recurring situation once we sit in the living room to watch something. So we searched, and searched, and searched… and I saw her nowhere inside. I started replaying the previous scenarios in my head, remembering the first time it happened. So I started to think - where could she have fallen from?
There was only one answer - the balcony. Now, you have to understand - I live in a hilly city, and the buildings that are built on the face of each hill look like giant stairs, with each apartment's balcony extended below the one above it. We're on the top floor of that kind of building. I turned on my phone's flashlight, climbed on our balcony metal fence, and lo and behold - Cassie sits on the roof of the balcony two floors down. Looking directly at me. Letting out the smallest meow, like “Mama. Halp, plees.”
We knocked on the door of the neighbors downstairs, who saw my face while I explained to them that my cat is right outside their window. They let me in, of course, and I got Cassie back up (she was actually kind of smart to come right to me, so I'll lift her… after she was stupid for so many other occasions). But at this point I was just, “Oh, this cat”, and had to explain I'm crying because of Forrest Gump. At least the neighbors had a good laugh.
Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.