Into The Wild

Not-so-wild thing...

On Monday, another brave soul joined me to search for my little lost cat - Karen and I went up and down side streets, walked down dirt roads into some heavily wooded areas and met a lot of wonderful folks who promised to let me know if they saw her. Karen even flagged down a woman who was speeding by on her bike - she stopped so suddenly I was afraid she was going to flip over, but she just smiled and put one of my post cards in her pocket, saying she would be happy to keep an eye out for my cat. 

The wild places behind my house

We also met a nice woman walking her dog who told us about another woman who also walks her dog AND her cat in that area. After meeting this other woman, she called me 10 minutes later, saying she had just seen a grey cat. We rushed over there, but it was someone else's grey cat. Shortly afterwards, I saw a woman I know who lives down the road from me who told us that she and her husband were out walking when a grey cat came up to them. The description didn't quite match, and the behavior was not consistent with Silver's timidity, so we ruled it out. But it's comforting to know that there are many more pairs of eyes out there looking for my girl.

From a distance, this looked like a grey cat hiding in the bushes

Lately, I've been getting up earlier and earlier, trying to go out before the traffic gets heavy and things are still quiet. Yesterday I went out at 6:30 for an hour; this morning I was out the door at 5:45 and came back an hour later to make coffee and rest before going out again. A few telephone poles are now decorated with small posters with Silver's photo and my contact information. 

The little green pond behind my house

I also try to go out at night, when the noise has faded, hoping she'll hear me whispering her name, and when I'm out there all alone and there's no response, I end up standing still for a moment letting the tears fall where they may, trying to reclaim that little spark of hope I had carefully wrapped up and put in my pocket.

The beauty of nature

Wild morning glory

Tricky terrain

Last night, when I got home from work, I went into the back yard to move the cat box further out next to an old blanket she used to sleep on, along with one of my worn-but-not-yet-washed T-shirts and a little yellow bowl with food and water, hoping to infuse the air with some familiar scents.  

In the darkness, I thought I saw an animal, so I aimed the flashlight at it and watched it run into the woods. It was a lighter color (was it grey?) and it didn't move like a skunk, an opossum or a rabbit (maybe a cat?). I went over to the corner of the yard and called for ten or fifteen minutes, with no results.

Spotted Jewelweed and Poke Weed guard the mysterious corner of my back yard

I much prefer to go out early in the morning rather than at night simply because it's before the relentless noise begins and there's just enough light to see by, There is beauty and serenity here in my little corner of the world, but there's also a darker side, the places I can't get to and don't even know about, the mysterious unknown energies, hidden deep in the wilderness that humans have always feared and avoided. That's where Silver is waiting, and that's where I must go.