Pyewacket's Awesome (Awful, Scary, How-did-this-happen-to-me?) Adventure

Pyewacket is our yellow (golden oak really, but who ever describes a cat that way?) kitty. He is 13 years old and has never set paw outside the house. When he is not sleeping, he is eating or watching me prepare food. Pye has two foci, food and me.

After our 2 AM nuzzle this morning, he disappeared from the bed. Shortly thereafter I heard a noise but nothing was immediately amiss and I went back to sleep. Sleep was very good last night since it was cool and we had the windows open.

I got up early this morning because the car had to be to the service department by 7:30 (doesn't everything always happen at once?) and noted immediately that my constant companion as I walk downstairs wasn't with me. Perhaps he hadn't anticipated the early departure. But he wasn't in the kitchen either. That is strange and I began searching for him at once.

Not downstairs. Not up, but the window screen beside my bed was bent out. Uh-oh.

That particular window is centered over the porch roof. The metal roof. The very slippery roof. If he went out the window, then he went over the roof edge.

Flashlight in hand, I'm out the front door and checking the bushes. It's not even 6 AM. It's dark.

There is no immediate sign of him. If he's dead somewhere, then he has pulled himself there. I can't very well go wading through my neighbors' yards in the dark semi-dressed with a flashlight. A quick shower and proper search clothing on, I'm once again on the hunt although it's still pretty dark.

I call him gently. Down the street, flash the light into the bushes and the growth around surrounding houses, under cars. Awaken every dog on the block. Around our back fence, note our outdoor cats noting me. They are unsurprisingly mum on the subject of Pyewacket although I feel sure they know where he is.

And then I spot him! Under my car. Unmoving. He mews as I kneel on the concrete, steady the light on him. He looks okay, but he's not coming out for me. Perhaps for breakfast.

By the time I return with his bowl, he has inched to the back of the car. He comes out, quite scared, and I grab him.

Now to contemplate how he got where he was found. The logical way for him to have fallen from the roof, would have been to the north side into the bushes. To the east, he had a one in three chance of hitting concrete. To the south, where he was found, it was 100% concrete. He either survived unscathed a harrowing fall, or fell into the bushes, shook it off, and walked around the front porch and hid under my car.

Either way, I'm glad he's found and home. As to the screen, it's secured. Now if I can figure out what to do with the other forty.

Pyewacket in charm-mode.