Tale of the Missing Cat

Lily's cat Hobbs, has been missing since Friday. Dan was taking both Calvin and Hobbs (brothers) to the vet to get fixed. Someone from the vet has said they would drop carriers off for us, and they forgot. Dan was in a hurry and just grabbed the cats and put them in the truck. When he got to the vet's office, he went inside and got a carrier, put  Calvin in it, then took him inside. No problem. Then he went back for Hobbs. As he was putting Hobbs in the box, a big noisy truck pulled in the parking lot and spooked the cat. He went running, and ended up climbing a huge cedar tree across the road. Dan tried going after Hobbs, but Hobbs just climbed higher.

Dan didn't know what to do. See, Hobbs is not social. He doesn't like anyone but Lily. He choose Lily and only likes her. So Dan went to the school and got Lily. Imagine filling out the reason for pulling your child out of class; Need child to get cat out of tree.

So Dan and Lily went back to the vets and Lily tried calling Hobbs down. Hobbs was pretty freaked out at this point, and was not moving. So the vet left food at the bottom of the tree, and Dan took Lily back to school. When I got done with work, I went over to see if I could call him down. At that point, we couldn't even see him in the tree.

When the kids were out of school, we went back again. We talked to the land owner that the tree was on, and they said they would watch for Hobbs. We then went and got a live trap from my Grandpa, and a can of tuna from Grandma, and set the trap. That night Dan went back every couple hours, hoping to have caught the cat. Well, he caught a cat, actually two cats, but not Hobbs.

We went back many times on Saturday, but still no sign of Hobbs. Dan talked to the fire department and they said they didn't have a ladder tall enough. The people at City Hall just laughed at him. Our fire fighter friend told us that they had never found a dead cat in the tree. Still, we were worried. (More worried about how Lily was going to handle loosing her cat).

We ended up calling a friend of ours that has a tree service. He has all the equipment to climb trees. So Sunday morning he climbed the huge tree. He got to the top and didn't see a cat, so he shimmied over to the tree next to it and looked around. Still no sign of a cat. He felt really bad, and didn't even want to charge us. I had to pay him something for his gas and time.

So we have been over there multiple times a day looking for Hobbs. We have been adding more tuna, and hoping to catch him. The kids and I posted fliers around town yesterday with his picture. We posted on facebook and thought we might have found him, but it was the wrong cat.

Today Dan tried another tactic. I still can't believe he tried this. We have a neighbor cat that hangs around our house alot. We call him Psycho Ninja Cat. I have no idea what his real name is. He is a huge orange and white cat. He tried climbing my friends car one day. He jumps out of bushes and scares the kids and I as we walk to school. He chases squirrels in our yard. And lately he has become friends with Hobbs. He has been hanging out in our carport, and Hobbs gets out to play with him. Since Hobbs disappeared, Psycho Ninja Cat has been very vocal about missing his friend Hobbs. So..... Dan grabbed Psycho Ninja Cat and took him to the area we last saw Hobbs. He was hoping that Psycho Ninja Cat would "talk" and Hobbs would hear him. Of course Psycho Ninja Cat wouldn't talk, and Dan just brought him home. (On the way home, the cat pushed the button on the window and Dan almost lost that cat too. Imagine explaining that one to the neighbor....a neighbor we have never met!!!).

So that is the tale of the missing cat. If you see him, please contact us. We have a heartbroken little girl that misses her kitty!