I Frantically searched for Dot

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.