Now you see her, now you don't

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

Thinking about escaping from second floor deck?

 And she's tired of the camera too

 POULSBO, WA -- To protect her treasured privacy, I'll call her Cat X, as it's consistent with her DNA. And her secret-agent tendencies.

 Cat X is one of our charges during our 16-day house-sit here. A couple of days ago, she added to my growing collection of gray hairs and aggravated Prince Charming's elevated blood pressure.

 She disappeared for about five hours.  She did not appear for dinner.  She had never been out of sight that long before.  We were contemplating explaining to the her humans how we had managed to "lose" her.

 We were all but positive she could not have gotten out into the yard, or even the garage. So we searched, carefully, every room in this large, two-story, four-bedroom home.

 We broke out flashlights and peered into dark corners of cabinets and closets.  We looked under the chest where she hid for the first couple of days we were here.

 We looked under the floor-length cover on the grill which is on the second-floor deck, another favorite spot.  Later, I went out and prowled the property, on the off chance that she had jumped off the deck railing. 

 At one point, her brother, call him Cat Y, began crying and led me down the hall, into the master bedroom and then into the walk-in closet.  Was he trying to tell me something?  Was his sister trapped in there somehow?

 Cat Y's behavior, as far as I could tell, was a false trail.  He has his own way of messing with our heads.

 After an hour or more of searching, Prince Charming suddenly encountered Cat X on the deck, where she had not been moments before.  It was as if she had been dropped off by a small, silent spaceship.

 We still don't know where she was all that time.

 One of my favorite things about cats is their mysteriousness.  Cat X has a bit too much.