Sadie, Come Home…Please

Dear Friends,

 We have not posted recently because all our time has been devoted to trying to find Sadie. She went missing sometime on Sunday the 15th.  We found no evidence of anything “bad” (after looking up and down along the road, etc…I don’t think I need to be more detailed/graphic than that), but neither have we found any indication of what happened to her.  Maybe she just went on an adventure and will return when she’s bored?  We keep waiting for her little body to pop up on our window sill, hear the little happy chirp sound she makes and watch her hop in and go over to the food bowls, but so far nothing.  It’s been raining off and on for the last two days, too, which isn’t good. It may hamper Sadie making her way home and it impedes our search for her a little bit.

     I (Scott) have been staying awake past 2 am in hopes of seeing her return.  Eventually exhaustion takes over, especially after traipsing around the neighborhood on my bum legs three or four times a day.   But I need to do something, even if it doesn’t make sense to do it.  Today we created a flier and have begun passing it around.  If and when the bad weather stops, we will post them on telephone poles, etc.  If we still need to, though of course we are hoping that won’t be the case.

    Amy’s gone to Craig’s list and other web sites, but we welcome any other suggestions anyone out there might have.  It may be hard to imagine in a house that has nine cats already, but without Sadie, there’s a very tangible vaccum.   A pall hangs over this house, a sense of urgency and helplessness, a sadness and frustration that comes from not knowing.  From what happens when your mind goes to places you wish you could keep it from exploring.  We wouldn’t wish this kind of emptiness on anyone. It’s engulfing our usually lively spirits like a black hole. 

We spend so much time trying to make Sadie happy – and it isn’t easy.  We try to anticipate what food she’ll like on any given day as her tastes are always changing!  What flavor treats she’ll want because if you give her the wrong kind, she’ll be insulted and start covering it up like she would in her “sand box”!  We’ve come to call it the “litter dance”!  If she wants to sleep on Amy, it’s imperative that Amy’s legs be covered with the quilt or Sadie will find somewhere else, and heaven forbid Sadie should have to settle!  So Amy will bow to her wishes and wind up with a happy Sadie as poor Amy sweats through the night!

Why would anyone let a cat dictate so much of how they live? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, or at least not nearly so severe?  Well, we’ll tell you: it’s not just because Sadie is probably the cutes adult cat we’ve ever seen (her photos do NOT do her justice, for some reason). It’s not because she’s 10 pounds of crazy in an 8 pound sack -she’s fearless and has so much cat-itude it defies reason!  For example, she has decided that whenever Bob is nearby (and you could, literally, fit THREE Sadies into Bob) that he is to be tortured, yelled at and whapped until he flees for safety! No, we think the real reason is because Sadie has taught us more than any other cat the joy and satisfaction that comes from animal rescue. 

When I found her on the sidewalk, she was half dead, almost eaten alive by fleas. Within twenty four hours of taking her in she seized up twice and fell over.  But she has so much fight in her, so much spirit, she refused to give up.  Every day for the next few months when I came home from work, she made it a point to curl up in the crick of my arm and fall into a peaceful dreamless sleep.  She let us bathe her and medicate her.  For a long time it seemed like her life would basically be one of inactivity until one day she just “woke up” and lived every day like a kitten, running, playing and eating as if everything around her was to be taken advantage of and utilitzed.  That became something we would not only always remember, but  forever feel in our hearts.