About a month ago, on the way back from the family cottage, my father had to stop due to the alarming sounds both cats were making in their cages. Journey barely begun, he stopped within short distance of a the nearby town, in a sand pit off the road. Just his sense of smell told him that most likely both cats had “gone and done it” in their cages. (Bleh, just thinking about the smell turns my stomach.)

So lady cat (aka Mittens, aka “Pink Nose”, aka “Pratz-lee”) was taken care of first. Clean the cage, clean the cat, place cat back into cage. This is usually a two person, 4-hand operation. Dad, besides being slightly overwhelmed by the stench, was also a bit sleep deprived due to said cats. Both are adopted indoor-outdoor animals, with nasty nocturnal streaks. And dad spoils them with “attention to their needs”, therefore he was zoned.

Young mister cat (aka Rusty, aka “Krum-pus”) was jittery. As he had almost filled the cage’s bottom with pee, he was a bit anxious to be out. He also has a silly tendency to hate, and I mean HATE , his own by-products, often running away immediately from the stench and coming back later to cover the mess. Unfortunately, he was in the “this stinks, let me away from here” mood. Two person, no problem, one sleepy dad, not enough. He bolted. (see Disney movie on how poor a choice this is).

Dad in his stunned and tired state, stricken pretty much immediately with grief at this turn of events, continued on home with plans to return same day to search for Rusty. Not the best plan by a long-shot, especially since he didn’t even call me to perhaps “review the options.”

Needless to say, one has to have some faith in events to think such a silly, adopted, semi-feral (but recently “scardy” ) cat would be found again. I’m sure there is plenty of adventure that happened over the last month … but Rusty is back home today.

Rusty, positivly IDed from posters dad spread about, turned up at the house of some very friendly folks, not far from where the silly cat went “walk-about”. Although there was an earlier attempt to catch him in a cage, only the much larger “humane trap” that dad bought just before the weekend helped. The little bugger shed much of his “Sumo Cat” weight, demands food incessantly, but seems ecstatic to be home.

Roll the Disney end-credits. The Cat Came Back.

Sorry, I don’t have pictures of the little bugger with me, but I’m not surprised that Wikipedia’s “Cat” is family relation of Rusty, with the namesake stomach color patch.

Not Rusty, but a relative