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Old March 25th 16, 06:48 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Joy[_3_]
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Default I Frantically searched for Dot

On 3/24/2016 7:57 PM, Takayuki wrote:
Dot disappeared on me today. When I got home from work, Buster and Spicey
greeted me, but Dot was nowhere in sight. This is not too unusual - she's
16 years old and naps a lot. But most evenings, I see her in the window
when I come home, since she watches for me, since she's deaf and can't hear
the car.

So I went to look for Dot in the bedroom, where she usually sleeps on my
the bed on my pillow (or maybe it's "our" pillow). But she wasn't there.

So I looked in a couple of secondary napping spots, but no Dot. I looked to
see if she'd hidden under the sofas, which she hasn't done in years. But no
Dot. I frantically looked for her behind appliances, in closets, and
various other places she couldn't possibly be.

I called desperately for her, "Dot! Dot! Dorothy!", even though I knew she
wouldn't be able to hear me. It occurred to me that maybe my oldest cat had
a heart attack or something and died somewhere. In the meantime, Buster and
Spicey followed me curiously.

"Come on guys, you were home all day; where's Dot??" But Buster just looked
puzzled. Spicey looked at me like I was a moron.

Finally, I remembered that I left a dresser drawer open longer than usual
this morning. Long enough that I checked it for naughty kitties (like
Buster) before I closed it.

I opened that drawer. And found nothing.

But by this time, I was checking everywhere anyway. So I opened the next
drawer, which I almost never use.

And there she was! She gave me a little "Eck!" like she does after a nap,
and started licking me enthusiastically as I picked her up. She must have
gotten in there from *underneath* the drawer I had open!

Dot had ended up trapped in there for 10 hours. But on the other hand, her
regular daytime nap is about 9 hours, so maybe from her perspective, she
was only in there for an hour longer than she'd have liked.


I know that panicky feeling when you can't find a cat. That's amazing,
though, that she wasn't too bothered about being shut up there for so long.

I remember one time years ago when I went away for a few days. I'd made
arrangements, as usual, for my neighbors to feed my cats. My kids had
decided to paint my bathroom while I was gone. They came over the day
after I left. At some point they heard a meow coming from my closet.
They opened the closet door and Skeeter (RB) made a mad dash for the cat
door. She'd been shut in there for 13 or 14 hours, and had managed to
hold it all that time. By the time she came back in, they had put some
food down for her, and she went straight to the dish when she came
inside. It was so fortunate for both of us that my kids had decided to
come when they did.