Tortie Tuesday: Missing Samantha

While I've been offline, we've had Snowstorms, Power Outages, and a Mutant Form of Norwalk Flu. It has not been the most enjoyable week. However, I was not the one who had a Power Outage during the Storms; I'd taken the laptop home, and was even able to do some work on it, in between bolting to the bathroom and collapsing on the bed. Those documents I promised last week have been written...but first I need to mention that Samantha's gone missing.

She was out with Burr. They don't usually go far. It rained. They might have taken shelter in someone's barn or shed, or in the cave. A bear has been observed in the neighborhood. It's been warm enough that a hibernating bear might have been moving about, probably hungry. They might have met the bear.

Or they might have gone to someone's house, and someone might have thought "What a pretty little cat" and trapped her. (That's not a thought people would have about Burr, or a thing Burr would allow to happen; he knows about box traps and staying out of them. But Samantha thinks a box trap is her safe place.) Someone might be putting her up for ransom at a horrible HSUS-type shelter as I type. And although Samantha has become much calmer than she was when I met her, she's still a panic biter; someone might be saying "She's vicious, she can't be 'adopted,' let's kill her now."

Burr is a big strong woodswise animal with more than the usual ability to take care of himself according to his species; I don't worry about his coming and going between houses that he clearly does not regard as homes. Samantha is strong, and she can jump at least six feet straight up in the air, but other than that she's not too good at taking care of herself, because she's always been a Scaredycat. If she's separated from Burr and Serena and me, panic is likely to ensue.

She is a sweet, gentle, affectionate pet when she's not in a panic. She is loved. She is missed, especially by Serena, whose message to the world is "First Traveller, then Stache and Felix, and now my mother! It's not fair! It's not right!" Serena's been growling and threatening everybody, hitting her kittens for no reason, even nipping me; she's spent time in Cat Jail and promised to behave better if released, and done it, but she's not a happy cat.

If you see a small Tortie cat who has never quite grown into her tail, and has to hold it up or curl it under when she walks, with this kind of face...please do not try to feed, "adopt," "rescue," or otherwise confuse her. She needs to come home. If you see a large, ugly-faced, surly-mannered, black-and-white (actually dark gray-and-white) spotted tomcat with a stub of a tail in the same vicinity, please do not try to separate her from him. He is her favorite person in the whole wide world and he does, if she doesn't, remember the way back to her home.