The wandering cat came back

The sticks

Crystal R. Albers
Posted 9/13/17

Minnow, a slinky, silver cat with big, green eyes, disappeared on Tuesday, Aug. 15.

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The wandering cat came back

The sticks

Posted

Minnow, a slinky, silver cat with big, green eyes, disappeared on Tuesday, Aug. 15. The indoor/outdoor pet always came home when dusk fell, likely to ensure a warm, dry place to sleep with easy access to her food, water and litter box. She didn’t come home that Tuesday night, though, nor the following 26 nights. My husband and I assumed she probably wouldn’t, and hoped, perhaps, a loving family who mistook her for a stray adopted her. It was a better thought than the alternatives.
This past Sunday evening, the cat – now noticeably skinnier – was waiting at our doorstep.
We were surprised and happy to see her, for sure. Our baby daughter got so worked up trying to reach out and touch Minnow, she almost skipped her evening nap altogether. And Minnow’s frantic meows suggested she felt the same way.
So what happened to our cat of almost 10 years? Where was she for nearly a month?
We took Minnow in approximately nine years ago. My husband and I had just moved to eastern Nebraska, and I came home to Goshen County for a visit. I wanted a cat to call my own (looking back, I probably needed an additional source of comfort for the homesickness I was feeling), and the animal someone dropped off with us – a patchy, half-grown tom named “Harry” that liked to wander – just wasn’t doing the trick.
During my Goshen County visit, my mom, brother and I headed out to a former teacher’s farm. He had informed my mom there were plenty of stray kittens on his land, and we were welcome to keep any we could catch.
My mom waited while my brother and I ran around, chasing wild kittens, until we each had a soft, mewing ball of fur in our arms.

I had caught a gray and white, longhaired male. Prior to heading out to the farm, I told my mom and brother I wanted a female. Jake managed to catch a tiny, silver blur – a female with big, green eyes– and we ended up trading.
The seven-hour drive out to eastern Nebraska with Minnow was initially stressful, to say the least. From Torrington to Alliance, Neb., she gripped and shook the pet carrier door with her claws while yowling at the top of her lungs. I was nearing a mental breakdown of my own, so although I was worried about her sneaking under the brake or gas pedal while I drove, I let her out. To my surprise, she crawled into my lap and slept for the duration of the trip.
I hadn’t exactly informed Adam (my husband) I was bringing home a kitten, and he wasn’t in the house when I carried her in and plopped her on the kitchen floor to check out her new surroundings.
Adam had just entered the room when a purring kitten pranced out from behind the refrigerator to say, ‘hi’. He attempted to be mad, but I could tell he was trying not to smile.
And so it began.
Over the years, Minnow had a batch of kittens before we got her spayed. They all disappeared eventually.
She once vanished for nearly a week in the soybean field surrounding our home during harvest season – and we were surprised to see her at the doorstep then.
When we moved back to Wyoming three years ago, we learned she’s still not fond of road trips … and we didn’t even try to put her in a pet carrier.
Minnow had settled in nicely back at home in Torrington. Aside from being treed by the neighbor’s cat on occasion, or ducking out of the way of angry, swooping birds, she lives a good life just west of town.
Bringing home Autumn, our daughter, in mid-February, was an adjustment for the cat, as she was no longer the focus of our oohs and ahhs – but she soon learned how to taunt the baby by staying just out of her reach and, strangely enough, found she enjoyed stealing a few sips of Autumn’s bathwater.
Sunday night, the day Minnow returned, she slept on a pile of soft blankets, and I woke up to her meowing frantically in her dreams – or nightmares.
I’m not sure what she went through to get back to us, but I am glad she’s home.