Curiosity led to investigation led to minor panic.  Andrea and I came home fairly late from hanging out and having dinner with our friends Greg and Melissa.  We locked the door, cleaned up some of the mess in our kitchen and moved to go to bed.  We slowly became aware that our rambunxious male cat, Buddy, was not pestering us or running around or fighting Bella, our female cat.

We called for him and walked around our apartment (which doesn’t take long) and checked the spots that he occasionally gets stuck in.  As I stepped into our office area, i realized that I had opened the window the day before to let in some of the fresh spring air.  I had a sneaking suspicion that screen was not secure and a quick test let me know exactly where Buddy was…AWOL.  We put on some shoes and headed outside to call him and look around in the vain hope that he would be hanging out close by.  As Buddy has been an indoor cat since he was about 4 weeks old, we had no idea what his outdoor personality would be like. 

 At this point, my parental worry kicked in.  The thought crossed my mind that we may never see Buddy again.  After coming back in, we opened another window that we knew Buddy had escaped through before and hoped that he would come back.  As I fell asleep, I had visions of Buddy coming back all bloodied from being in fights with cats or dogs or God knows what other critters were out there.  I feared that he might get near roads and freak out when cars were passing and run out into the road.  I drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

I awoke at about 5:30 AM to the happy sound of Buddy clawing up the screen and through the small handle window.  I jumped out of bed and grabbed him and welcomed him back.  He let me pick him up, but would have none of being held.  He leaped out of my arms and ran towards his food dish.  I was so happy to have him back!  After I left for my internship, Andrea said that he slept soundly all morning which is contrary to his normal running about.  What a night he must have had…if only cats could tell tales.