Lilly's Big Adventure

As I was getting ready for bed last night I realized I had not seen Lilly (our cat) all night. It wasn't that unusual. She will often disappear for hours and then we will find her sleeping upstairs on the changing table. What was very unusual was that she never showed up at dinnertime when I made tuna noodle. I called her a number of times and she never came to drink the tuna water from the can. Brinkley had it all by himself. The more I thought about it, the more worried I got. I went upstairs and she wasn't sleeping on the changing table. I checked the entire nursery and she wasn't anywhere in there.

Lilly thinks the nursery is hers. If anybody walks in there, she is there immediately. She needs to know what someone is doing in her room. So, I started to freak out when I was searching the nursery and she never showed up to check on what I was doing.

Adam was searching the rest of the house, but I knew she wasn't there.

I put a robe on, grabbed a flashlight and a package of treats, and went out to look for her.

She got out once before and was gone for two days. I kept telling myself she would come home on her own when she was hungry, but she never did. It was raining and I was walking around calling her and shaking treats at 3 AM.  Turns out she was with a new family. They took her in and fed her that night. I only got her back because I went to the neighborhood behind us to ask if anyone had seen her and ran into a group of kids. One of them told me they just got a cat and "his" name was Casper. I asked if I could see him. As we were walking to the house, the kid tells me they found him in a tree. I knew it was going to be her. We got there, and sure enough, there was Lilly hiding under the front porch all scared. They actually had to take a panel of wood off in order for me to reach in and grab her. I took her home, she ate, took a drink of water, then fell asleep on the couch for the rest of the day.

I did not want a repeat of last time. I was determined to find her.

It only took a short time because when I called her name, she meowed. She was nextdoor under our neighbor's van.

I shook the food and called her, but she would not come out. That's Lilly. She is very stubborn. She doesn't come when you call her and she doesn't really care about food or treats. If it were Brinkley, he would have come running when he heard me. And he would walk through fire for treats.

I had my cell phone in my pocket so I called Adam for help. He was still looking for her in the house. He came out, but we could not get her. She kept moving to a different part of the van whenever we got close. Or running under the other car and then back under the van again. She was so quick. It was very hot and humid out and I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Oh, yeah, and I was in my robe.

So at this point we were crawling around our neighbors yard on our hands and knees with flashlights. Then I see our neighbor look out his bedroom window. I said, "Great, now we are going to get arrested."

Luckily instead of calling the cops, or coming out with a gun, he came out with a flashlight to see what was going on. He thought it was teenagers messing with his car. Honestly if it were us, we would have just called the cops. We apologized over and over again. He was awesome about it and actually helped us get her.

It took three people and a broom but we finally got her out.

I carried her home and could smell she got into something gross while she was out. I thought it was skunk, but Adam thought it was stuff leaking from the van. Either way, she was gross.

So at midnight last night I was giving Lilly a bath in the kitchen sink. She still smells bad today.

I have no idea how or when she got out. It must have been when one of the kids were coming or leaving. Or when I got the mail. This weekend she is getting another bath and a new collar with a bell on it. No more sneaking out a door when nobody is looking.

I made zucchini bread today and will be bringing it over to our neighbor when he gets home from work.

For now I am looking at cute pictures of Lilly and remembering how much I love her, even though I am very mad at her right now!

Kitten Lilly next to her big sister Layla.

Trouble.

Bath time.

Cuddly Brinkley and Lilly.

House meeting for all three cats.

Lilly in her nursery.