Smidgen and the Cold, Dark Night

Smidgen really has grown into her name. Which is to say she hasn't gotten all that much bigger. Wednesday last week I was holding down the fort at home all by myself so of course it was sleeting outside and the wind was howling. I decided to retreat to the warmth and security of the bedroom a little early but before I did so I needed to grab the mail. If I don't bring the mail in daily the postman takes it upon himself to declare us out of town and hold delivery of our mail. Being as it was nasty out I opened the rarely used front door just wide enough to get my arm through, blindly grabbed the mail and locked the door back up. I trundled upstairs without looking at the mail and promptly fell asleep with my reading light still on.

At 3AM I woke with a start with the fully formed thought in my head: "Smidgen is outside." Had My Beloved been home I would have promptly woke him up and sent him to look for her. Heavy things, sharp things, middle of the night things, smelly things and strange noises fall in the general category of "his job." But as I was home alone I started the search on my own. I forced myself to search the house first: under the beds, in the closets and cupboards, in the basement, and behind the furnace. All the while the film loop of her slipping out the front door onto the stoop under my extended arm played in my head. Killer and Princess followed behind me looking first at one another and then at me. "Now that you mention it. I haven't seen her either" was what they seemed to be saying. Finally I got bundled up and retrieved the flash light from the trunk of my car and went searching.

I started in the front. This is unfamiliar terrain for the animals since we don't come in and out this way. There is also virtually no where to hide. I crawled around on the icy sidewalk looking under all the parked cars and under some raggedy shrubs. I shined my light down the narrow passages between the houses. I decided she would not have gone far down the street. It was unappealing to a small scared cat. Probably she had followed one of these passages into the alley at the center of our block. Just to be systematic I went back around my house and started at the very end of the alley checking the big pine tree and the big pile of crap in the neighbor's yard on the way.

It was very CSI walking slowly down the alley shining my flashlight here and there. Except for the fact that all the while I was softly calling the cat's name. Thankfully she had enough sense to meow when she heard me calling but she wouldn't come to me. I had to follow her pitiful little voice until I found her 2 houses down behind the neighbor's cellar steps. She was too cold to move but let me scoop her up off of the cement and allowed herself to be carried home. She now spends the night sleeping directly on top of me.