Trouble the Cat's Great Escape

As many of you know, in early December our cat Trouble broke out of his jail cell, our house=), and ventured out into the real world. Chris has had Trouble since his college days and would take Trouble for "walks" so he has always had the desire to bolt out the door to explore the great outdoors! Unfortunately there was bit of confusion and he was able to make his big escape.

Honestly, I had NO IDEA he had gone missing until the night after he left. I had been busy all day running errands and once I sat down to watch some TV that night I realized that Pheobe, our other cat, was acting strangely. I told her to "go play with Trouble" and then I realized I hadn't SEEN Trouble all day! AHH!! I was panicked! This is CHRIS' baby!!!(Trouble is my step-kitty and Pheobe is our cat;-) But I do love Trouble..) Naturally, we all sprung into action and started combing through the neighborhood to find Trouble. It was SOOO cold outside and of course dark(around 7pm) so we could really only do so much that night. Apparently, Trouble really lives up to his name sometimes;-)

With the help of Greg and Ashley, our brother and sister-in-law who were visiting, we searched high and low for almost a week, day and night. I was getting dangerously close to giving up hope. It was in the 20's every night that week and Trouble is an indoor cat that has no idea how to care for himself "on the outside". I sat some of his food outside and hoped that maybe he would come back at night for some grub;-). We did everything we could think of to bring him back. I went and spoke with all of our neighbors, some of which had seen him and not realized that he was "missing" at the time, and asked for their help in our search. We sent out a mass e-mail to our entire neighborhood directory. We got several sympathetic and supportive emails in return... we do have a wonderful neighborhood community!

On Dec. 6th, we took our nightly walk looking for Trouble just as we had every night before. We called his name and looked high and low. I was so cold so I decided to take a break but Chris continued his search. Chris' family and I were all standing around saying that we felt really bad for Chris because we knew he was going to take Trouble not coming home badly. Suddenly, the door flung open and in walked my husband, flushed and out of breath, carrying his Trouble.=) Everyone let out an enthusiastic "Trouble!!!" and we all stood there in shock looking at the fur ball who appeared to be no worse for the wear. Maybe a bit skinny and maybe a bit tired, but healthy all the same! The look on my husband's face was something I will NEVER forget. He was so relieved, but exhausted at the same time with a half smile=). We were all so glad that he was home.

Since Trouble's return we have been very careful not to leave the door even cracked if he his nearby. For the first few weeks he was afraid of the door when it would open... he wouldn't go near it. He has slowly but surely become more courageous and is now back to trying to escape if someone knocks on the door. I always give him the same, " NO Trouble!! Get Back!!" But, I never do get too mad at him. After all, who could get mad at this face=)...