We have a new October holiday, the Boosterversary. It’s a celebration of the Booster, whose photo adorns our homepage. Not only did Boo come to live with me in October (of 1994, when she was just a teensy kitunia) but last year in October, she was LOST. She was out at dusk and ran off, and was missing for several days.
I did all the usual lost-cat things: posters, going out and calling, shaking kitty-treat bags, and so on. A national lost-pet listing service gave me a unique piece of advice that I hadn’t found via any other venue: put one of your shirts outside in your backyard, a shirt that you have worn. The smellier, the better– a gym shirt is ideal. The woman who told me this said that she had, over the years, had many reports of people finding their lost pet sitting on the shirt the very next morning. She said that a persistently “lost” pet was often hurt and hiding, and not daring to come out, but that the shirt would represent your protection and safety to the pet and embolden it to remain outside its hiding place in daylight.
My husband woke up before me the next day, looked out the window, and said “She’s there! Boo is outside!” He ran to the porch and opened the back door to let her in. She had been sitting on the shirt. I called the hotline back and reported her as “found”. She had a nasty two-puncture bite that we treated at the vet’s, but was otherwise clean, well-groomed, and tidy. Clearly she’d found someplace to comfortably hide out during the several days of her absence. She had been missing at least 3 nights, maybe 4, by then.
Happy Boosterversary, Boo. Tonight, we dance the mamushka for you!
Relentless Inquiry 