My baby is home

[Chazzie]

My goodness, I have had the worst week ever.

First off, my baby Yin Yang disappeared over a week ago. My beautiful alter-ego just up and poofed on me. It didn't help that recently we were hearing coyotes around the house and I've been sure that she was killed by them.

I have a very active imagination. So every time I thought about her being gone, running from Coyotes, hiding somewhere wishing I was there for her before getting torn apart, I would start sobbing. Which led to the nightmares every night. Nightmares that she came home and all was well, or just other nightmares in general. I'm the type of person who almost never has a nightmare, and when I do, it comes in chains- as in I'll have one every night for an extended period of time, then suddenly they'll go dormant again.

Which meant I've had very little sleep lately, and on top of that, I kept getting called into work because of my co-irkers. I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday when I was only scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday.

Also stress was building up because tomorrow I go back to college. My boss wants to keep me on a weekday or two plus weekends, I don't know how I'm going to manage both my job and my schoolwork. Hopefully she'll be understanding that school will be coming first.

All this stress building up- mostly me crying over my cat every night came to a peak last night where I was just sobbing all night (Thank goodness my SO was over to comfort me ). I ended up getting no sleep whatsoever when I had to get up for work at 3 AM. I ended up calling in and my coworkers are pretty angry with me. (They call in all the time, why can't I call in once?) So I ended up feeling like a criminal for having a breakdown and needing a mental health day.

But today, Yin-Yang came home after her week-long disappearing act, and that just made all of this week worth the pain. She's SO skinny now, which shows that she wasn't picked off the street or something. I'm wondering if she went hiding from the coyotes, and lost her way, or what. But when I stepped in the door with my school supplies, my mom took them out of my hands, and dragged me toward the kitchen where she was waiting for me. Apparently Yin was happy to see my mom but according to her "Was definitely keeping an eye out and waiting for you." I picked her up and instantly knew she had lost weight, but she was just purring up a storm.

We really are two peas in a pod. I'm so glad that she's home safe and sound.

[XCashier]

I'm glad your cat is back home safe and sound. I hope everything else gets better, too.

[Chazzie]

Well, her having been the main source of my stress, the relief of her coming back makes me feel like I can handle it all again.

[MaggieTheCat]

I know just how you feel...when I moved from Wisconsin to Texas a few months ago, I had to leave my kitty, Puck, with my parents because the apartment that my husband and I live in only allows 2 animals, and he already had 2 cats. My parents live pretty far out of town and in the woods and get lots of wildlife in the area. We used to have a dog who would keep most things out of the yard, but he died last fall. And since then, my parents have been seeing a lot more wildlife in their yard, including foxes, raccoons, and in the last couple of weeks, a coyote. My Puck was out one night and wouldn't come home, which is very unusual, and my mom was up almost all night worrying and waiting for him. She was worried the coyote or the fox got him. She finally fell asleep and my dad got up early the next morning and didn't see Puck, but did see the coyote in the yard. He chased it off, and Puck appeared a few moments later at the door, so they think he was holed up in a tree or something somewhere hiding from the coyote all night. Ever since then, they won't let him outside anymore in the afternoon or evening, and Puck himself even seems more shaky and scared than he used to when he's outside.

I'm so glad your kitty is okay! Keep her nice and safe with you!

[protege]

Glad the kitty is OK!

...and things like that are *exactly* why I don't let my cats outside. Too many big dogs, idiot drivers, etc. to deal with. That's not to say that the kitties haven't scared me by disappearing...

Last year, I'd lost two cats in about 6 months. Trust me, it sucked So last April, I went to the shelter and got Baxter (a very large and fluffy Maine Coon) and Sally (not sure what she is...other than a short-haired kitty.) They spent most of the first day home hiding in the basement. When it started to get dark outside, they came upstairs. Sally came upstairs, then Baxter about an hour or so later. They spent the next few hours playing in the living room.

I left the room to clean up the office. When I returned...Baxter was nowhere to be found I literally tore the house apart looking for him! I checked the bedroom, kitchen, living room, basement, garage, and anywhere else I thought he'd go hide.

Then, as I'm standing in the living room...I see a dark grey paw emerge from under the couch A couch, with a base about 2 inches off the floor! That fat bastard had somehow crawled under there to hide

[Chazzie]

Haha, yeah, cats can hide in some surprising places.

But I can't really be too untrusting of my cats. My cat Tiger is my oldest- he's 16 years old. Always is and was an outdoor cat and he's never disappeared ever. The worst problems we've had with him are when he fought with the neighbor cat (though that seems to have stopped).

Though two years ago my youngest at the time, Einstein was hit by a car (we took that as a lesson to keep our male cats neutered. He was surprisingly far from home so we figure he was chasing a girl). That cat was the happiest cat I'd ever met in my life and that loss crushed me.

I don't think Yin will be straying from home too much anymore. But I'm probably going to get address tags for all of them.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My Stripes got out once and stayed out all night. My dad got up around 5 am and looked out, and there was Stripes on the porch, with a little kitty friend. He tried to get him but they ran off when he opened the door. He went back to bed and got up a few hours later, and Stripes was waiting on the porch again, alone, and made a beeline for the food bowl as soon as he was let in. Guess he realized with no front claws he can't get much to eat out there on his own. We also "lost" him under the couch once.

Stars disappeared once in the house, but she's terrified of the outdoors so we knew she had to be somewhere in the house. She was in the back room of the basement under the work bench, which has a bottom shelf about 5 inches off the floor, and she was all the way back against the wall under there.

[protege]

Speaking of outdoor kitties...the first one I had, Kitty, was originally an outdoor cat. Grandma had him at the farm, but since she didn't walk very well, kept him outside. She was afraid she'd trip over him. Well, that and she didn't want to risk him breaking her antiques...

Oddly enough, after I'd moved into my house, Kitty came home with me. When he arrived, he was terrified of being outside. In fact, he hated it! Even if I had him on his kitty leash, he wanted nothing more than to go inside...and curl up on the recliner. He didn't like the porch swing, the porch chairs (most of which originally were at the farm...and were considered "his chairs" )

He gave me a scare when I got home from work one night. Usually, he'd be at the top of the basement stairs waiting. Not one night. I tore the house apart looking for him...until I heard meowing downstairs. Seems that he'd leaned on one of the sliding cabinet doors, went inside...and then couldn't get back out