Well....we have had one of the most horrible weeks of our lives.
Last Friday, the 31st, Shannon and I took a trip to visit friends in Wisconsin. We have had the plane tickets for a while, and thought it would help with my recovery to just get away for a couple of days. We would only be gone for 5 nights. we had friends and family helping with the animals.
Well...we found out Tuesday night that one of our cats couldn't be found. We figured she was just hiding...she's a very skittish kitty. But when she still couldn't be found on Wednesday, we began to panic. Luckily, we were flying back Wednesday and arriving in Atlanta at 7:30 pm.
Instead of landing, at 7:30 pm, we were circling somewhere in the air for an hour because of storms in Atlanta. When our fuel got low, they decided to divert us to Knoxville for fuel. Once we got there, we were told that the Atlanta airport was closed due to weather. We had to sit on the plane in Knoxville for several hours.
In the meantime, I was having horrible problems due to my surgery. I have to use the restroom every 1.5 to 2 hours. Shouldn't have been a problem at all since that's how long our flight was. As we were sitting on the plane in Knoxville with me in massive pain and given the fact that I couldn't go when I needed, I could now physically not go, and would need assistance from Shannon. Given the fact that the plane bathroom is tiny, that wasn't happening. She talked to the flight attendant, and she took her to talk to the pilot. He called someone at the airport and we were escorted off the plane and taken to the restroom that the pilots use. The time that was taken for all of this to happen caused worse problems than I have had. Well.....all of the complications of the flights nearly cost me a trip to the hospital.
We finally get home at midnight to find out the biggest nightmare of our lives. Our sweet Maine coon kitty, Logan, was nowhere to be found. After much questioning, we are told that one of the sitters is almost positive that he accidentally left the door open when our dog decided to get stuck under the porch. For some reason, likely a barking dog, Logan got scared and probably ran out the door. We walked the streets calling her until 4am Thursday and then went back out at 6am Thursday and walked a total of about 11 hours. We handed out fliers to every single house on our street, making personal contact with everyone we could.
I was back out there at 7:45 this morning, still with no luck. One thing did happen that gave us hope, though. We put a used litterbox at both doors, food and a cat bed. When we looked this morning, the food at the side door had been "sampled" and the litterbox used. I would think this points to it being Logan that came. When we feed her, she totally picks at it. If a stray was out there, they likely would have eaten all the food in the can. I also can't imagine a stray using the domed litterbox we put out.
I have a friend coming today to bring a trap. With any luck, that was Logan and she will be back! We would appreciate prayers please. Our animals are like our babies, so this heartache is unbearable. We have heard many stories about housecats getting out and suddenly returning, even after a couple of weeks. We are praying that happens in this case.
All that being said, we will be very distracted tomorrow. We have only slept a few hours for the past few days and can't really focus on much of anything other than finding her. Our yard will definitely not look like we planned. We have a lot of work to be done, but it just won't be happening right now. As far as the time, we will have to mow in the morning. We don't want to do it in the evening because that's when cats move around the most. We don't want to jeopardize her coming home.
Instead of 11am arrivals, would everyone be ok with coming at 1:00? Maybe a few could come at noon to help set up, but due to us having to mow the yard and make one of our many daily rounds looking for Logan, we would prefer to not feel like we have to be entertaining at 11 or noon. So maybe just a skeleton crew to set up at noon if possible.
