#1 Cat – Where are You?

Mickey is gone! Where could he be. He was at home when I left for work on Thursday morning, but he was not in the house when I arrived home Thursday night. There are only a few options that can explain his disappearance:

1. He is still in the house somewhere (Very Unlikely)
2. He got out when I left for work (a possibility…but improbable)
3. He got out when Joanne came home from work (very probable)
4. He hopped over to one of the other infinite parallel universes (probably not)
5. Aliens captured him and are using him to repopulate cats on a far away world (ding…ding)

All kidding aside…I miss Mickey. I miss him sleeping under the covers. I miss him patting my cheek with his paw to get me to move. I miss him sitting on my chest at the end of a long day. I miss carrying him around the house like he is the King. I miss him spilling my drinks. I miss him greeting me when I come home. I miss his mischievous. I miss his cursing.

I have enjoyed his company for 16 great years. He has been with me through many important aspects of my life. I stole him when from a friend when I was 20 years old and as soon as I saw him, I loved him. I have never felt that affinity toward any other animal. I have loved other cats, but it has never been the same.

He has been gone since last Thursday and I just don’t believe that he will come home. I think if he has been outside for this long he would have frozen to death. I just don’t have any more hope left in me. Joanne has hope…I don’t. As a eulogy, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my favorite Mickey stories with you.

Acquisition

I acquired Mickey in the fall of 1993. I was friends with this girl and it was her cat. I would hang out at her place on the nights that I didn’t work and he would always sit on my thigh and purr. He was such a tiny and cute little thing. Sometime that fall, my friends husband kicked her out for being a whore (I am not exaggerating) and I let her come and stay with me. She was untrustworthy so I had to kick her out about a month later. I placed all of her things outside my apartment door except for her Cats. She had brought four of them with her and I kept all of them. I eventually gave all of them, except for Mickey, to a friend to live outside on her farm. From then on Mickey was my cat and she never asked for him back.

Rabbits

A good portion of Mickey’s life he was an indoor and outdoor cat and on occasion he would bring me his kills. One day when I came home I found three little baby rabbits on the front porch. My heart was broken as they were still wiggling around and not quite dead. You could see the teeth marks Mickey left in them. I understand that Cats are prey animals but the little bunnies were so cute. I was unwilling to finish killing the bunnies myself, so I decided to call the Humane Society and get their advise. I still cannot believe what they told me to do…it is astounding. They said that I should put them behind the tire of my car and run them over. Really! Their second idea was to drown them in a bucket of water. There was ZERO chance that I would be willing to do either of those things so I enlisted some help from my neighbor. She scooped them up in some cardboard and placed them in the yard behind our shed. They disappeared by the time I was awake that afternoon. I am fairly sure some other animal ate them, but at least I didn’t have to do the killing. Such is the circle of life!

Ear

You may have noticed that one of Mickey’s ears had a bit of character to it. It was bent and folded over. Unfortunately, this problem was caused by me. I had noticed that Mickey had black stuff in his ears for a long time, but I just thought it was dirt. I really didn’t know much about pet ownership when I first got him so I was unaware of common cat ailments. About a year after I stole Mickey, I took him to the vet to get neutered and de-clawed. When he came back from the Vet his ear was disfigured. The Vet told me that he had to fold his ear due to the large infection in the top portion that was caused by Ear Mites. Ear What? I had never heard of Ear Mites before that day.

9 Lives

When I lived in Port Clinton, OH I worked the night shift and Mickey would commonly stay outside while I was at work. When I would arrive at home in the morning he would be waiting for me on the front porch and he would come in and sleep with me during the day. One day I came home and he was not in his usual place. I looked all over for him and I called his name. I finally heard a faint Meow but I couldn’t tell the location. At first I thought he was trapped underneath the trailer and I began to remove parts of the skirting. That didn’t work out so I kept my ears wide open and I tried to follow his pitiful Meow’s. Meow…Meow…Meow… I walked around to the other side of the common building next to our trailer and I found him locked in an animal cage. I was extremely distraught at finding him there. I quickly disengaged the lock and ran away with him. I knew that if I hadn’t just found him I would never have seen him again.

Window Diving

When I lived in Toledo I had an apartment on the second floor of the building. I would often leave my living room window open and after occupying the apartment for a year, I think Mickey managed to push the screen out. I came home from work one day to find him hiding under a car. He had jumped from the second floor to the ground. He was fine but I was still worried. The maintenance man was fairly lazy and I had to wait about a month to get him to replace the window screen. In that time Mickey managed to jump out that window a couple more times. Can you imagine jumping out a window from the second floor for fun? One time I came home and my weird Goth neighbors had captured him and had him in their bathroom.

Running Out

When I lived in Toledo he would often run out my apartment door as I was walking in. I would have to chase him throughout the enclosed building to get him home. One time in the middle of the winter he ran out and went to the bottom floor where he promptly ran into a strangers apartment. I was so embarrassed and I asked the guy if I go and find him. I was wearing a long dress and snow boots and they were dirty as we had some snow on the ground. This guys apartment was immaculate and I was so embarrassed walking around in my snow boots. Mickey ran into the guys bedroom and his under his bed. I had to crawl on the floor and get under the bed to get him out. It was a very interesting event.

I guess I could go on and on with Mickey stories but I will stop. If you have any good Mickey memories please post them in the comments.

I Love and Miss you Mickey, I wish you would come home!