Ghost Cat
In my last post, I wrote about how we got a new kitten and promptly lost it in 12 hours. I'm still absolutely gutted, and feel like an abject failure. Since then, we've rung all the locL vets as well as the animal shelter for the area and made sure the cat's microchip is listed as 'missing'.
Hopefully, he turns up.
And yet, part of us aren't ready to believe that he has actually left the house. There is a slim (incredibly slim) chance he is scared and hiding.
It's hard to know for sure, as we have another cat and you can never be certain as to how they behave. Just because they don't usually behave in one way doesn't mean they never behave that way.
For instance, we have fairy lights slung up around the kids' beds (that the kids never sleep in). These have been there for about a year, and Pappadam, our existing cat. Has never shown much interest in them.
And yet, two days ago, these string lights were spread around the bedroom. Did Pappadam decide that, yes, he finally did want to play with them?
And at night there was a little meow, when Pappadam was asleep on a different bed. Was he actually asleep, or had he slipped off into a second room to make a nightly noise? Just the once, mind you.
And why is he scratching at a closed door? Is there something in there? Was there something in there?
Do we have a ghost cat?
We don't know. My gut says no. My hear says yes. Today we have locked Pappadam up in half the house where we know the ghost cat isn't, and we've measured the water and taken photos of the food in the rest of the house to see if anything happens.
The sad part is that the outcome would be obvious once we know for sure. If the cat turns up in a shelter, then of course it slipped out through the window. How could it not?
But it the cat turns up inside the house, then of course it couldn't fit through the window gap. How could it?
Are we looking for a cat that hasn't been home for half a week? Are we looking for a cat that is already dead? Are we looking for a cat that will turn up at the shelter next month? Next year? Next decade?
Will we always have a ghost cat?