The night before my birthday

On Sunday night, we were headed to bed. My husband said "I'm going to bed", and off he went. I said "me, too", then put a few dishes in the kitchen, took the dogs out one last time, made sure all the animals had water, went to the bathroom, and finally started heading up the stairs. He, of course, was snuggled tightly in the bed snoring already at this point.

But waitaminute!!! I realized half-way up that I had not seen our kitten in quite a while. I checked the usual spots (Haleigh's bed, dining room chairs, back of the couch) and I called her. No answer. I called her some more, pulled all the covers off Haleigh (carefully without waking her) to make sure she wasn't smothering the poor thing. I tried rattling the food bag, to no avail. Now, this is not a cat who hides. She likes her people, and she typically comes right out, or "chirps" to let me know where she is when I'm looking for her. I started to panic, and I realized that it was very likely she snuck out the door when I took the dogs out much earlier in the evening.

I raced into my bedroom, shook my husband (who was, quite literally, snoozing like a baby) and uttered the dreaded words "The kitty is GONE!", the last syllable choked out by the tears welling up. Bless that man's heart, he got up and came downstairs to help me look. We checked the basement, rattled the food bog some more, then we went outside. We proceeded to walk up and down our block calling her. Some kind and very drunk individuals offered their assistance by informing us they had just had a little cat run across the street in front of them, so we followed the lead. We only trespassed a teeny bit.

After a half hour or so outside, we met back up in front of our house. It was 11:30 at night, and it was COLD, and I was distraught. Suddenly, in the stillness, there it was . . . a tiny little 'mew'. Matt said "there she is!" But where? Where? We heard her, but we couldn't see her! Until Matt walked to the front door to peer in the glass . . . . she was sitting inside looking up at him like he was crazy.

I have no idea where the cat was hiding. I found a tell-tale fluff of cat hair in one of my kid's dresser drawers, but I'm not jumping to conclusions. All I know is . . . she was the only one getting any sleep!