When fur-babies go missing

Yesterday, Darling Man and my Step-Son K were out in the front yard playing bacchi before SSK had to take GrandDaughterK to gymnastics.

As they were playing, Yoda came into the yard and SSK noticed that he was limping.

As cats do sometimes, he'd disappeared for a day and a half. Darling Man and I are always checking in with each other: Did French eat this morning? Have you seen Misha? I haven't seen Yoda since yesterday, have you? Tottie's on the back porch...

For two nights and almost two days, we'd been asking each other if we'd seen Yoda.

Darling Man picked him up and brought him in and when he put Yoda down, it was obvious that something was very wrong with his back right leg. No weird angles or anything, but it was swollen and he didn't want ANYONE (hiss, growl) to touch it.

I petted his head and talked to him until he fell asleep...

Then I inspected his leg as best I could without touching him. It is possible that there is a break or a bad sprain between his foot and his elbow, or maybe an abscess. He didn't smell very good - like something is infected.

However, it was nearly 7pm - the vet long closed and the emergency vet cost an arm and a leg. Since Yoda seemed relatively comfortable, we decided to leave him until morning.

Darling Man saw him playing with Tottie this morning, but after that, he disappeared. Didn't come eat. Didn't answer my calls. I got up at 6am and started calling/looking for him. I looked EVERYWHERE. No Yoda. Darling Man swore he didn't let him out when he left for work - we didn't think Yoda could move that fast anyway. I gave up for a bit, thinking he'd come out from wherever on his own. No dice.

Seriously worried now. Start over. Think like a cat. He wouldn't be able to jump up, but I knew he could manage the stairs. But he'd be down low - not on top of a chair or the piano. Possibly behind something. Methodical searching...

Not in the closet. Made my bed to rule out under covers or in the comforter. Then I looked at my bed. It's a platform bed with a little space behind it. We lost the piece that fit in the middle back there, so you could get UNDER the bed if you REALLY needed a place to hide...

After some serious door-handling (the carpet was a little too plush for the doors to open easily), I discovered THIS:

Hurray!!!! Now I can take him to the vet!



UPDATE!!!!

We're back from the vet. 1 penicillin shot, 1 cortisone shot, 1 antibiotic pill and a bottle of 6 more later we are $63 poorer and know that Yoda was bitten by a... CAT. I told the vet that French had turned up a couple of nights ago bleeding from around his tail, but he wouldn't let me near him. The vet says it looks like we've got a bad cat in the neighborhood.

For some reason, my two little neutered boy-cats make the bad cat feel threatened... Must be a wimpy bad cat with long kitty fingernails for raking and clawing. I hope this doesn't turn into a regular thing...