Casey's Big Adventure

We got home last night after being gone for over 12 hours and Casey was nowhere to be found. We were very worried for several reasons, among them being that she has been slightly sickly lately. Not really ill, just lethargic and grumpy. We searched the apartment everywhere for Her Stripyness and, not finding a clue of her, not a warm spot, not a ring of stripey fur, not an indented laundry pile, we began the search outdoors.

Who can know what Ms. Striperson's version of the story is, but it undoubtedly begins with an unexpected boon - several hours outside in the sunshine - but then the dream turns to a nightmare when the rain starts and it gets dark and after many hours no one opened the door to bring her food. She eventually scraped a hole under the fence and escaped into the neighbor's courtyard, but who knows how long she was there.

We were the saddest looking couple in Brooklyn last night, roaming around the streets of Park Slope, clicking our tongues and crying out "Casey! Casey!" and peering into courtyards and down alleys. I even snuck into someones alley and skulked through their courtyard in my search for my little old lady cat. We were absolutely distraught with the thought of here being chased into the park by squirrels or kidnapped by someone who thought that such a skinny, scrawny, complainy cat was OBVIOUSLY being abused or neglected and needed a good home. But she had a good home! With us!

We finally found her, not blocks and blocks away but in the courtyard right next to ours, ten feet from the hole that she'd climbed through. Not much of an adventurer, that cat. She was spooked, though, and wouldn't come when we called, so we had to get a neighbor to let us into the courtyard to rescue her. She was safely returned home and she just cuddled and purred and ate and seemed to completely forgive her daddy for locking her outside.

It goes without saying that our liberal backyard policy has been revised and restored to the more closely monitored policies of last year. Tough, but necessary.

Welcome back home, Casey, The Bossy Boss Striperson!