Virginia is Missing
What a nightmare.
My Siamese-mix tortie cat… or familiar… Virginia never came inside Saturday evening or night or afternoon. It’s 2:40 am Sunday night, and she still isn’t home. I think she’s probably closed in someone’s house, and I was hoping they’d let her out Sunday, and so far no luck. If this is the situation, hopefully they’ll take her in to get scanned for a microchip and find out where she lives.
I did all the typical things: spread the word on lots of Facebook groups plus notified Home Again (the microchip company) and PawBoost. In my freaking out state, I forgot that PawBoost isn’t the same thing as Home Again — fortunately remembered and notified the Home Again website while it was still Sunday morning.
I also made fliers and had them printed and laminated at the UPS Store. I bought a stapler at Lowe’s (that was a mess — wrong type of staples, jammed the stapler with them, returned and got the correct kind of staples). I went around my neighborhood putting up fliers.
Around sunset, I was online reading about ways to go the extra mile. Looks like I’ll need to knock on doors and ask neighbors if it’s okay if I search their yards. You’re supposed to get on your knees with a flashlight and search under neighbors’ porches — and with indoor/outdoor cats, they could be up to 17 houses away.
I think it’s more likely — considering Virginia’s personality and appearance — that someone either let her into their house or took her into their house. (I hope that person sees a flier/ gets her scanned for a microchip if they’re not willing to just open the door and release her — she knows her way home and I’ve noticed that she wanders several doors down.)
But just because I think the above is the more likely scenario doesn’t mean I shouldn’t “bother” with the really proactive searching of neighbors’ yards. Despite my bad knees and despite not wanting to offend neighbors — but that’s why you’re supposed to knock on their doors and ask before trespassing. Though hiding under someone’s porch and being silent doesn’t sound like Virginia, the advice is to expect that even an outgoing cat can be spooked and temporarily be in this silent, hiding state — and after a couple days they might start meowing.
Virginia is so vocal. But even she can surely be spooked, as fearless as she generally is.
I think wandering the neighborhood and calling Virginia is a good idea, too.
I’ve sobbed a lot, but I need to stay positive and focus on getting Virginia back. And keep the cats indoors! I need to wander Bring for used window screens — because letting cats sit on a windowsill and enjoy the outdoor air would help immensely (judging by their behavior — Gabriel especially sometimes just wants to sit on a windowsill with the window open). But before I shop at Bring/buy a hacksaw so I can measure window screen frames to size/ hire a handyman to custom-made window screens, I need to have Virginia.
Sunday morning, I woke at 6:30 am after a difficult night waiting for Virginia to come home (despite the cold, I left the skylight open most of the night). After devoting the day to trying to get Virginia back — really, by 2 in the afternoon — I was exhausted and sleepy. On the way to Lowe’s, I stopped at the bubble tea place, and the caffeine helped for a while. But at home in the evening I was so sleepy and exhausted that I fell asleep I think by 8 pm. Last time I checked the time on my phone it was a little after 7 pm.
I woke up some time ago not considering hie early I fell asleep and assumed it must be about 5 am. Unable to fall asleep, I ended up lying in bed reading. When I finally checked the time, I was surprised it was only about 2:30 am (now it’s 3 am). So I must have woken between midnight and 1:30 am.
Aside from the boba in the bubble tea, I didn’t eat until I had Thanksgiving leftovers around 5 pm, before going upstairs, drinking a dose of herbal tonic and watching Trevor Noah… and dozing off.
I need to keep trying to keep the cats inside despite Vita’s very vocal begging. Distract her with toys and such. It sucks that the house didn’t come with window screens, but I need to rectify that (and should have sooner — I’ve been here 4 years).