Curiosity killed the cat...almost

Last Monday morning I woke up and realized the cat wasn't in the house. I figured Shawn or Matt had let him out and he was down at the pong terrorizing small animals. Monday night the cat hadn't came back and I was starting to worry. We have had Linus for five and a half years and he has never taken off for more than a day or so. There was this one time when he got locked in the girls' room when we were out of town but the neighbor who was animal sitting rescued him and we didn't really know he was gone so that doesn't really count. Anyway....
By Tuesday night I was in a full on panic and called the police department and animal control. Neither had picked him up. Wednesday and Thursday came and went with no kitty. This morning I resigned myself to the fact that my ki-ki was gone and wasn't coming back. I briefly thought about throwing out his scratching box and emptying the litter box and putting it away.

This afternoon I had several interviews set up with babysitters, Shawn was trying to pack for camping and the kids were running around like little banshees. Shawn came in and out of the house asking if I knew where things were located. He made it a point not to bug me during an interview though. He had asked for the water cooler and I suggested the ice house. Matt said it was in there because he had put it in there a few weeks ago when he was playing in there. I thought nothing more about it and sat down for the next interview. Shawn came busting through the door to tell me he found a cat in the ice house. My first question was is it a live cat. What a dumb question. If the cat was dead he would have waited to tell me when the kids weren't around and I wasn't interviewing someone. Duh!

He brought Linus in and I'll tell you I am surprised he was alive. Something was wrong with his eye. It was all watery and goobery and his pupils were dilated almost fully. He has lost about 5 pounds. He is shedding like crazy and is a bit skittish. He also couldn't meow. He would open his mouth like he wanted to but nothing came out. I was really worried that we didn't find him in time. Two days this week were up in the 90's. I was sure he had spent too much time out there but he immediately ate and drank and let us all cuddle and fawn over him. His eye has cleared up, he is yowling that Siamese yowl of his, I gave him a good brushing and he seems like his old self minus the big fat belly. We'll work on that this week. The little shit keeps wanting back outside. He didn't learn his lesson!!

Sky is beside herself with happiness, she hasn't left the poor baby alone for even a minute. Linus is her cat and has been since the beginning. Now she can sleep tonight. She hasn't been sleeping well because Linus sleeps with her every night and she was missing him. A girl and her kitty, it's a beautiful thing.

PS. The best we can figure is he crawled through the hole in the floor and when he was in the wood fell back over the whole trapping him. Shawn removed the wood cover so if he goes in there again he won't be trapped. Curiosity