Stealth Kitty

Well - he has done it - he finally made the great escape. Palladio (our beloved cat) has been trying to escape in every possible way for about 2 years. He wants to go outside so badly (he watches the dog), but every time he gets outside he throws himself down on the cement, rubs around and then at the slightest thump or movement he races to the door and house for safety. He thinks he is a "tough" tom cat.

Last Thursday night he made an escape- we think it happened when Jon and I returned home from visiting a neighbor. The porch light was not on and being "Stealth" kitty he must have snuck out on our way in. The sad thing is that we merely shut the door - locked it and headed upstairs to bed. It was late... Ceasar woke us up in the night barking like a maniac - but we did not think anything of it. As I see it - he must have been trying to tell us that his buddy was locked outside...we did not realize that he was missing until mid morning Friday when he did not come when we shook his food.

I suddenly realized that he did not wake me at 4am with his heavy feet crawling on me, and he did not bat my alarm clock off the night stand when I did not respond to his heavy paws, and he was not waiting for me when I got out of the shower to lick the water off my ankles. I suddenly began to frantically look everywhere in the house as he is also great at hide and seek. But to no avail - he was not in the house. I headed out to the neighborhood - asked all the workers building houses if they had seen our "Gato"... nope - asked the foreman of our development if he had seen Palladio - nope, asked the sales office manager if they had seen our cat - nope - wandered around calling for our cat bawling my eyes out - no cat!

I called Jonathan and we prayed - no cat. We posted signs in the neighborhood with pictures and a $100.00 reward - no cat. We called the Humane Society, Animal Control and the local Cat orphanage - no Palladio. Our whole family went on hunts and dad spent 2 hours combing the landscape around our house - no cat. We were heart broken and so was the dog. Palladio raised Ceasar - we had him for 9 years. He taught Ceasar to growl, hit with his paws, stretch like a feline and to curl up in a ball to sleep.

We are hoping that he has been picked up by a sweet family who loves him and does not realize that we are missing him. Unfortunately, with bobcats, owls, coyotes, rattle snakes, and 115 degree heat we are afraid our timid little prince did not make it very far. We have been mourning our loss for over a week and have cried many times. We loved him so much - even though he was a CRAZY cat! So here's to Palladio - may we meet him again some day!