My cat is gone...edited....no, she's not!!

and it doesn't look like she's coming back.

I've had Francie since before Chris and I met. We found her at the preschool where I was teaching in 1997. She was MY cat. She tolerated the rest of the family, but it was me that she adored. She used to run and jump on my lap and put her paws on each shoulder and lick my face when I came in. It was in one such time that I told her that we were going to marry Chris (she and I, that is) after our second date. She used to sit on the side of the tub while I took a bath. She watched Isaac like a hawk when he was a baby and someone other than Chris or me were here watching him. I worried that she wouldn't like it when we had the boys, but she just took them over as babies of hers, too.

One time I had a candle burning on my dressing table, and she jumped up and caught her tail on fire! When we moved to our current house from the one where we lived when we first married (where my parents now live), she kept disappearing to go over there as it is less than a mile from here and not across any major thoroughfares. One time I was at mom and dad's house and Mom said for me to open the door to let HER cat in, but it wasn't her cat at the door, it was mine!! So I scooped her up and took her back home with me!

I hadn't even let myself think about her being gone until this evening. We noticed that she hadn't been around on Wednesday, when I brought some Frontline home for all the cats and she didn't come to eat that evening. And then Chris got to thinking that she hadn't come around in a few days, which isn't like her....she's all about the canned food that we give her at night! I asked Chris this morning something about her being gone, and Chris hugged me, and I told him that I didn't have time to get upset about her then! (I helped take 74 first graders to a play, McDonald's, and a park today!) But tonight the tears are flowing! And as much as Chris loved to fuss about her, he loved her too. I keep hoping maybe she's gonna show back up, but in my heart I know she is gone. And my heart hurts thinking that she is laying out there somewhere!! I would just like to be able to bury her!!

I know I have two other cats and dogs and various fish, but SHE was MINE. And I miss her!


UPDATE: Chris went looking for her while I was posting this, and the little scamp was down at the neighbors!! She apparently was hanging out down there cause he'll feed her! I've cried all over again thankful that she is okay!! And now we know where to look for her should she go missing again!