Kitty Search, the Disappointment Continues

Yesterday afternoon, I was preparing dinner when the phone rang. The caller mentioned that her neighbor had told her that I was looking for a calico cat and a female calico had been hanging around their house for the past week or so.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

Turned out they lived next door to the very first person I had given a flier to when I began distributing them April 12. This was a location only a block away from our friends' house, from which Avie had disappeared. Instantly, I knew it had to be her.

"Can you catch her?" I asked.

"Well... she's on the back porch right now."

"Can I come over right now?" I asked. They said sure.

I immediately tried calling the wife, but she didn't answer.

On my way across town, I was elated. At last our search for Avie "Kissy" Kitty was finished. There was no doubt in my mind that this wasn't our cat. I envisioned bringing her home, feeding her and then allowing the wife to come home to find Avie curled up on the back of the chair where she likes to sleep and just watching the wife's face when she saw her. That would be magic! Crap! Did we even have cat food in the house? We'd left Avie's bag with our friend. Maybe I could pop by and pick it up from her and give her the good news too.

My surprise was ruined then when, a few blocks from the house, the wife called to tell me she was done with work. I told her of my mission. Excited, she said she'd meet me at a nearby grocery store and then we drove over together, still in separate cars.

I pulled into the driveway of the house to find the neighbor lady I'd given the flier to there as well as the man whose wife had phoned me earlier. He was crouched by the bushes surrounding his house, trying to coax a cat from within them. And then my eyes fell upon the cat's face and I knew it wasn't Avie. There was nearly black fur on top of its head. I put the car in park and got out.

"Aww, no," I said.

"It's not her?" the neighbor lady said.

"Nope."

We chatted until the wife could park. She had pretty much the same reaction as I did upon seeing the cat.

Once again, the home owner tried to convince us that we should take this cat off their hands, as it was very nice. And, as tempting as that has been, we just cant' do it. After watching our kitten Milo Soulpatch die from panleukopenia, we can't risk bringing another cat into the house unless it is vaccinated in advance--and that's an 8 week process. The only reason we were able to bring in Avie is because my mother-in-law kept her in North Carolina for those 8 weeks.

The neighbor lady said she hoped we eventually found Avie and noted that sometimes pets do find their way home. The house owner also said that he thought there were two calicos that had been visiting and hoped the other turned out to be Avie. We do too.