This is my first actual story here, but I had to share it.

My husband's employer gave him a supermarket gift certificate. Perfect! Just in time for the holidays. We went and stocked up on food and all those other life necessities. Bag after bag of things, from bread to cat food, eggnog to cat litter. Now, I suffer from back problems, so my poor husband had to lug all of this treasure into the apartment by himself. It took at least half a dozen trips, if not more.

We always carefully watch our five cats when we go in and out the door. They're strictly indoor, and we don't want them to escape onto the busy street outside. Sabra was hanging around the door as usual, watching my husband bring in bags, wondering if there was anything in there for him.

About an hour later, my husband does one of our frequent "kitty head counts" to be sure we know where they all are. "Where's Sabra?" he asked. We couldn't find him.

My husband looked up and down the apartment, flashlight in hand: under beds, behind the couch, even in the kitchen cabinets. I called every call I could think of, rattled the kitty dinner dishes. Nothing. Now panicking, my husband threw on his coat and walked up and down the street, calling. I called out the back door. "Sabra! Here kitty kitty kitty!" Nada.

I pulled out photos of Sabra, ready to go knocking on neighbor's doors. "Could he have slipped out when you were bringing groceries in?" I asked my husband. "I don't think so. But anything's possible," he said.

We were utterly panicked. My husband made one more round of the apartment, and noticed Cosmo, another of our cats, hanging around close to the head of our king-sized waterbed. The waterbed was a gift from friends, and has a long, open "tunnel" space underneath, with drawers on the sides all the way around. My husband checked under the bed again. Cosmo was still hanging around the head of the bed. My husband looked at Cosmo, and then noticed one drawer was sticking suspiciously out rather far. He pulled out the drawer, and called me upstairs. There was a rather sleepy looking Sabra, curled up contentedly in the drawer. I'm still not sure how he got there.

And I'm *really* going to work on getting him to come when he's called!

Copyright © Ginger-lyn Summer
December 21, 1999