memo

re: goal #20. turn jeffrey into an outdoor cat.

june 29th at around 9:30pm, jeffrey went missing. i'd been experimenting with letting him outside. he would typically wander around the yard for an hour or two, eat some grass, watch the birds, and then come back in. he spent a couple of nights outside, totally by accident, but each morning he would be hiding under my dad's car waiting to come in at about 6am. but he wasn't there the next morning. we kept thinking he'd saunter up, walked around calling him, shaking the treat bag, still no jeffrey. i am a big proponent of cat instinct. i'm not sure why but i really believe that cat's can figure shit out on their own. if jeff wasn't coming home he was probably off skulking around the neighbourhood and he'd make his way back when he was good and ready. it was his first real taste of freedom. there was the thought that he got spooked (or killed..) by a bird or coyote or something, but we live in the burbs and it didn't seem that realistic. a car could have got him too but that theory was also rejected. so, we wandered around the neighbourhood calling him. everyone was pretty upset (probably my dad more than anyone because my dad fucking loves that cat) and there was still no sign of him. we were ready to start putting up posters on the mailbox and calling the animal shelters in case he wound up there. but my dad went for a walk yesterday morning into this vineyard bush place that's near the end of our street. he was just walking through the bush, calling him, and he heard some meowing but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from. he'd call for jeffrey, jeffrey would meow back, and my dad was wandering all over the place. finally my dad looked up. way way way up and saw jeffrey sitting on a tree branch at least 40 feet up this pine tree. poor little guy! he'd probably been sitting there since the night he went missing. we figure a coyote chased him up there because there is a coyote den close by there (according to the guy who owns the property we found him on). so, we ended up having to call a tree service and this guy climbed the tree like a crazy monkey. it was awesome. he had these spikey boot attachment things and up he went. no big deal. it was really cool actually and finally jeffrey was home!



so, i'm just gonna say that this goal was accomplished. not sure if jeffrey will be an outdoor cat or not (i don't want him to but he still really wants to get outside) but he had a chance at least. and now he's been past out for the last 24 hours and he only wakes up to go eat or drink.

does writing a whole long story about this make me an epically huge cat lady? oh well, he's a rad cat so i'm okay with it!