Missing.

One of the most dreaded words of my life... 'missing'.

Coal kitty usually goes on farm vacation when I am out of town, but last weekend when I returned on Sunday, he did not. I wasn't worried the first day, but Tuesday morning when he wasn't back I got really worried.

I wrote out some make shift missing signs that morning before I left for school. I stopped in the neighborhood that backs up to the east side of our farm and taped the signs on the two stop signs at each entrance. "MISSING Black Cat- Coal Kitty" was in bold black letters with my name and phone number on the bottom.

I wish I could have written a whole paragraph for everyone to read, but that is just unreasonable. "Black cat" is an insult to Coal kitty... he is more than just any black cat. He is my black cat, my study partner, my Auburn travel buddy, and my cuddle buddy at night. As far as I'm concerned, he has a pre-veterinary degree and a bachelors in nursing! Smartest kitty I know.
I got Coal Kitty on May 23, 2008. He was a little itty bitty kitty that an older lady brought into the vet that I was working for that summer along with his two siblings and mother. "Euthanize them", she said. I begged my vet to let me take them. He called the lady and she said that was fine if they were found homes and she ended up coming back for the mother cat. I gave the other two kittens away after picking out which one I wanted to keep for myself. I chose Coal because he licked my ear, just like my old cat Zorro use to do.

 

Coal Kitty and Lola Belle

Coal is special to me for many many reasons, but one of the main reasons is that I got Coal the week I met Josh. May 19th was my first day working that summer. I had worked many summers before that, but I had never worked with the new guy. Coal Kitty has been around the same amount of time that Josh has and that is just special to me. Coal was our first child. Josh tries to claim him because "he's the best cat in the world", but he knows he is mine!

After Coal went missing, I was heartbroken that I couldn't look for my Coal Kitty. I was in my last week of nursing school and I was supposed to be at school Mon-Thurs from 9-4 for our Kaplan review for the NCLEX. What a great week to go missing, Coal kitty. Not only did I have to be there at 9, remember I live one hour away from school. 8-5.

I had some WONDERFUL neighbors text me, message me on FB, and call me telling me that they were looking for Coal kitty, keeping an eye out for him, and calling him. No one ever called regarding seeing Coal Kitty in the neighborhood.

On Tuesday when I got home from school I saddled up Flint and went out to look for Coal. I had come across him before while riding and I was sure I was going to be able to find him. I started on our farm and moved into the neighborhood. I talked to a few of the residents and they had not seen him. I looked for 2 hours and saw no signs of Coal Kitty. I don't know how many times in one hour I walked to the front door to look for Coal. I would check all three rocking chairs and the swing, jiggle the door handle to see if he would come when he heard that... but no Coal kitty.

On Wednesday after school I saddled up SoBe and headed out again. I went from looking for a black cat running across fields or roads to looking for remains of a black cat. Then I thought, maybe he got in a tree, he always climbs trees in a second if he feels threatened. Coal kitty is very savvy when he comes to being outside... So I started looking in the trees. I checked every tree in the horse pasture where I know a fox has taken up residence. No kitty. I rode through the neighborhood and talked to the same man about Coal. He hadn't seen him... thank goodness because his house was the absolute farthest away from mine. I concluded after this day that something got Coal and drug him off into the woods. It wasn't looking promising with this being the second cat to have gone missing in 6 weeks. Poor Cookie has been missing for a while, but we think someone has her. She has gone missing before and came back smelling like someone's house... I think she has someone that lets her in their house!

On Thursday after school, I walked out to the horse pasture and called him. At this point I could hardly call him without starting to cry. I was so angry that my kitty was gone. I just prayed and prayed that he would come back to life and come home. I was sure he had been eaten by a coyote or a fox.

On Thursday night around 10:45 I was sitting on the couch with my mom watching TV. I heard a bang on one of the windows in our den and jumped up to check on Jeffrey. (That's another story... next blog!). I was afraid that Tug or Latch may have run into the window chasing Jeffrey so I jumped up to check on him and flipped on the light... there was Coal Kitty sitting on the back deck. I scooped that cat up so fast. I was SO happy to have my kitty back. It was almost like a hallucination. I couldn't believe he was back after being gone 6 days.

Coal kitty must have had a traumatic week, because he refuses to go outside. If he does, I can hardly get him to move from one spot. He just meows and meows and begs to go back inside pretty quickly. I guess I will never know what happened to my Coal kitty, but I'm glad he is home! I was able to enjoy graduation from nursing school and not worry about Coal!