Yesterday was a horrible day. Our family's cat disappeared around 10:30 Sunday night, not to be found til about 2:30 Monday afternoon. Pekoe is a member of our family and we were all distraught, thinking we would never see her again. She's an indoor cat and very gentle, so I don't think living outside would be easy for her, and I am not quite sure she would have the skills to find her way home again.

My brother Charles was doing some work on our house and we were both going in and out. Charles is very considerate about shutting doors because he knows we have a cat, but he didn't notice and I forgot that the windows were open on our sun porch. When she disappeared in an unfurnished apartment, we assumed she had jumped out one of them. Esme and I searched for a long time last night. Ethan searched when he got home from work. I woke up early and searched again, and hung up flyers all over our neighborhood. Charles, Ethan, and I all searched the empty apartment for her mulitiple times. There literally nothing in the apartment, so it should be difficult for a kitty to hide.

A long time ago I remember a discussion on the NSBR board at 2 Peas where someone said, after you have kids, your pets are no longer members of your family. I can say for us, this is not true. I spent many hours crying and walking and calling her name - if she was not a member of our family that wouldn't have happened.

Yesterday afternoon Ethan went over there to do some cleaning, and out walked Pekoe!! She was disgustingly dirty and had obviously been trapped somewhere for a long time. I suspect she had climbed into the back of a dryer that's not in use right now, and couldn't get out. We were all so happy to see her we didn't care. We hugged and kissed her anyway! We are sooo happy she is back!!