The incredible journey, Chester-style

One reason I haven't posted any new, self-serving rubbish here the last couple of days is that I've spent my after-school hours searching for a lost cat. Chester is a scrawny, FIV-positive cat from the shelter who I brought home a few months ago to treat for ringworm (I have an odd, 100% immunity to ringworm fungus). Like other unadoptables, I ended up keeping him. He's a quiet boy, not demanding.

Last week he somehow ventured into the back yard when I was at work. I am guessing my new lodger let him out; he is nice enough but not the sharpest eyebrow pencil on the cosmetics counter. Later in the day, I realized Chester was outdoors and brought him in, observing that his day out seemed to have helped his chronic sniffle. He didn't seem interested in leaving the back yard so I put a collar and ID tag on him, and let him out.

The first few days were fine. Chester spent about half his time outdoors with Smokey, the 19-year old tabby who "runs" the back yard; the rest of the time he came indoors and camped in his bed. But sometime on Sunday he got out.

I searched the back alleys Monday evening, then called Pamela the pet psychic the next day. She reported back that he wasn't too far away, just a few doors down northwest. So I spent Tuesday evening exploring the area, but no Chester.

Today I spent most of the day thinking that some harm had come to Chester and I should never let him out. I finally called the city Animal Control facility, who said that I would have to come look for him. Since Animal Control makes no effort to pick up strays, and Chester would have run from them anyhow, I decided not to go. (Also, had I gone into the viewing area at Animal Control, I would have ended up pulling/adopting every death row stray I could fit into my car.)

Not wanting to come home to another Chester-less Chez Melina, I stayed at work cranking out GetaLife press release templates. Finally I headed home, already beginning to snivel at the realization that Chester was most probably gone forever.

But then my phone rang, and it was a woman saying she'd found a dirty orange cat on her porch, and was it mine, so I said yes and went to her house some six blocks from mine (northwest of me, like Pamela said!) and claimed a hungry stinky Chester. So I'm happy again, and Chester had a big dinner of $1.39 a can Wellness cat food like I promised him. But he ain't going out any more.