The Great Escape

Ms. Dottie, the Escape Artist
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Last night, as Dumpling left my house, Dottie darted out the front door through a narrow passageway and jumped off the porch into the bushes. At last! she thought in her kitty brain, Freedom! But alas, Dumpling and I foiled her plans by cornering and snatching her into my clutches. Sorry little one.

Around 3 am I was awoken (woken? waked up? huh.) by kittens leaping about my head in an effort to see out the window. It had begun to rain and they were curious, as cats are wont to be. After many a negotiation and subsequently losing my cool, I forced them out of the room to carry on their shenanigans elsewhere in the house. I have training again today and I need my sleep. Out, out damned kittens!

At 4:30 am, I startled awake from a very vivid dream. I don't normally remember my dreams so this scared me some. In the dream, I had taken the kittens out in the car and somehow, when I had gotten out of the car to run an errand, they had managed to sneak out. I frantically looked for them and discovered them eating plants. But Dottie was eating a lily and those plants are incredibly toxic for cats. Within seconds, her tongue was swollen so that it stuck out of her little mouth. She was slowly dying as I rushed her the ER Vet. It was not a pleasant dream.

I got up, opened my bedroom door, and went on a search for the banished ones. Dash scampered right up to me. I picked him up and we searched the rest of the house for his beloved sister. She wasn't in any of her favorite spots- the ottoman, the top of the washer, on the desk looking out the window. None of them. Then I saw it, the cardboard I had haphazardly used to cover the kitty door was removed. She had escaped!

I flew into panic, racing outside calling her name. It was wet and cold and dark. I ran back inside to throw on some flip flops and went walking around the house calling her name. Who knew how long she had been out. She could be anywhere. Oh God, what if she got hit by a car! This is why I don't let them out- ever. Our street is really busy and cats get hit all the time. I thought of her cold and scared. I thought of Dash and how he would survive without his sister. They are inseparable. It would surely break his kitty heart.

In all my fussing, Mikey and Meagan woke up and joined the search. I got in the car and combed the streets with my brights on. Nothing. Mikey and Meagan used flashlights to search the storm drains and bushes. As I arrived back, tears running down my face, Mikey called out, "Here she is!"

She had been on the other side of the house, meowing to us but we hadn't heard her. Phew. Such relief! I dried her off and returned her to the bedroom where Dash promptly gave her a bath and the started wrestling with her. Needless to say, I am going to rig up a more permanent, impenetrable covering for that kitty door ASAP. I am just so glad she is safe. I didn't care at all really that they kept me up pretty much the rest of the night with their antics.

I am still so weirded out that I had that vivid dream though. It TOLD me to get up. Freaky powerful, I tell ya.