Amazing Things Do Happen

Eight months ago we were a household with two cats. Peanut was mine from before we got married and Cleo was my husband's cat from before we got married. Cleo was a one-man cat. It took me years, I kid you not, to get her to let me pet her. But she adored my husband and the feeling was mutual. He had brought her home from a local animal shelter when she was tiny.

Over six months ago Cleo slipped out of the door and was lost. We searched the neighborhood, let the neighbors know she was missing, posted a few signs, and brought a flyer to the local vet's office to join a sadly crowded bulletin board of similar flyers. We knew the fact that she was people shy was not going to help a lost kitty.

The date on the flyer is the date the vet's office intended to pull it down. They will typically only leave the flyers up for six weeks or so. They called us and asked if we had found her and we asked them to please leave it up.

As days, then weeks, then months passed by we gave up hope. When Michael asked what had happened to Cleo we told him that she had accidentally slipped out the door and got lost. She couldn't find her way home, but another family found her and was taking good care of her for us. We didn't really believe it though.

Several months later we decided to get kittens. Peanut was lonely and too old to want to be involved with the kids much. The kids were starting to get interested in pets. We got the kittens from the same animal shelter my husband had brought Cleo home from all those years ago. When I took the kittens to the vet I saw the flyer and almost told them to take it down, but I didn't.

A few days ago Michael said, "I love our kittens! I hope they never, never slip out the door Mama." He hadn't forgotten Cleo.

Yesterday, out of the blue, we got a call. Someone had Cleo. Apparently she had found her way two subdivisions over. A man who we are told looks something like my husband, saw a stray kitty and slowly began to win her over. They fed her and took care of her as best they could, but they traveled a lot and weren't interested in adopting an indoor cat. They began to think that she had been an indoor pet and after several months found a home for her with a neighbor of theirs. That woman took her cat to our local vet for her annual checkup yesterday and saw our flyer. She called us and Cleo came home that day.

She's so happy to be home. We are happy to have her. Right now she's sequestered in our bedroom just getting used to being home again before we introduce her to two preschoolers who are 6 months older than she remembers and two kittens that weren't here before.

We got her back. After being missing for more than six months, we got her back. It is absolutely amazing.