Oh, what a night...

What a night I've had. I got three hours of sleep. At the most. And I've cried buckets.

Skorpan got under the fence to the neighbour's garden yesterday evening. And refused to come back. I was out for an hour trying to find him and getting him back indoors. I did the food trick (shaking food in one of their metal bowls), which works nine times out of ten, but he was nowhere to be found. Or heard.



At 11pm I had to go to bed. I placed the cat carrier outside the porch door, put in a big towel and one of my t-shirts, in hope that he would come back when hungry and decide to curl up in the warmth of the towel and the security of my t-shirt to wait for me to get up in the morning and let him back in.

I spent the night tossing and turning. And crying. I was so worried about him. It was raining quite a lot during the night and the wind was chilly. Skorpan is not used to being outside when it rains. He usually comes running in as soon as rain drops start hitting the ground. I lay there wondering if he was scared. If he was hiding somewhere dry. If he was lost. If he was hungry. Or thirsty. If he'd gotten in a fight with some of the other cats around. If he'd accidentially been locked in somewhere. If he had hurt himself. If he desperatly wanted to come home but couldn't make it. If he'd been hit by a car.



At 4am I gave up my attempts to sleep and went out looking for him. I had the metal bowl with some food in it and a torch light. And then I walked around our neighbourhood for an hour and a half ('til 5.45am) calling his name and shaking that bowl while I directed my torch light to every bush and tree I saw. And believe me, we live in a green area. I checked under every car I passed and spied into everyone's drive ways. No Skorpan.

(Do I have to mention that I was crying my eyes out when getting inside?)

I got myself ready for work. As I was about to get my shoes on I remembered that I had forgotten to give the cat(s) fresh water this morning. I got the bowls and as I was standing by the kitchen sink I saw, out of the corner of my eye, something black and white running across our lawn. Running in panic. I dropped the bowls in the sink and hurried outside.

It was Skorpan!



I found him in the bushes next to our garage. His tail was huge and standing straight up and he curled his back at me when I approached him. I sat down, called his name and looked away as I tried to find a nice stick or long grass straw I could use to trick him to come close. (Skorpan is very simple and can play with a piece of string or a grass straw for a loooong time without getting bored...) I didn't even lift anything off of the ground before he came running to me. I grabbed hold of him and he totally relaxed in my arms on the way to the front door.

When we got in, I dropped to the floor and then I sat there crying happy tears (and tears out of relief) while Skorpan drank, took a pee and ate. And inbetween these actions gave me some cuddles.

I'm tired as hell. My eyes are puffy. My skin is still blotched. My nose is reddish. But I'm happier than I can say. My Skorpan is home. And he's alright.





(The pictures are all from my archive and they don't have anything to do with last night's drama. I just put them in there to break up the words and to show you what a cute cat Skorpan is.)