Stupid Cat

This morning I woke with a start because I slowly realized, between the alarm going off and hitting snooze, that I had not seen my cat since sometime Tuesday night. I checked her bed in our bedroom, I checked her bed in the dining room, and I checked the various places she beds in in the basement. Nothing. I was the crazy cat lady neighbor standing outside this morning in my red flannel pjs meowing for her. Stupid Cat.

We have let her outside with us in the past. She'll venture onto the front porch, but it's loud and she wants to be back in the house just as the door closes. She's come out the side door if we're working in the side yard. And she loves to chill on the back porch and deck. She will find the smallest patch of sunlight and absorb the shit out of it. Stupid Cat.


(Yeah, I know it's not a great pic...she's rolled over with her belly absorbing the sun.)

I searched the basement, five times, poking everything she's normally nesting in. No movement at all. I circled the house, twice, in my red flannel pjs, meowing my head off, avoiding stares from neighbors behind their curtains. I'm wracking my brain at this point; she must have gotten out Tuesday night while I was putting the trash out. I did leave the door open, but she's not dumb enough to wander far enough away that I can't see her before I close the door - is she? Stupid Cat.

Finally I decide to check out back once more. This time from the porch. I opened the door and her little black and white head popped out from the coconut husk potting basket she nested in. "Meooooow?" She ran right to me, poor thing. She was out all day yesterday in the rain. I wonder if she just slept the whole time in that basket. Stupid Cat.

So, she's home, inside, fed, watered, loved. I even let her sit on the sofa with me a bit this morning while I checked email and twitter. That'll bite me later, but whatever. She needed it or maybe, more likely, I needed it. Stupid Cat.