Sunday Bookend: Our pain-in-the-butt cat uses up another life and enjoying a variety of books

/ Lisa R. Howeler

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

Our cat Scout was missing yesterday so I was not in a very perky the entire day.

We hadn’t seen her since Friday morning. We do let our cats outside but they usually come  back several times throughout the day, and in the case of our oldest cat at least, don’t go very far.

I hadn’t been able to mentally function much since Friday night when it was pouring rain and she still hadn’t come back. I was sure she’d been hit or kidnapped. She could have been locked in one of the neighbor’s sheds too. They were all mowing their lawns before the rain came. I held out hope that she’d be home Saturday morning when one of them opened a shed or barn door.

Saturday morning came and still no sign of her.

I spent all day Saturday crying, but I knew it wasn’t just over the cat – it was over all the stuff that’s been going on with my parents and my health all combined. It was mainly the cat because I pictured her dead over the banks, I suppose, but the built-up tension from trying to figure out some weird symptoms I’ve been having and the challenge to get into a doctor and the challenge to fake it to everyone around me has been overwhelming me lately.

I just kept shoving it all inside and trying to pretend everything was fine and it just came to a head yesterday because I thought the cat was dead.

Saturday night I headed to bed around 11:30, resolved to the fact our cat — the biggest pain in the butt cat I’ve ever had in my life — was gone. I don’t know why I even did it, but I walked to our blanket closet in the hallway, as if giving it one last look, even though I was sure my husband and son had already thought to do so over the  last couple of days, and I opened it.

There was a soft trill, and then a cat jumped out at me.

I was in total shock. I just started yelling, “Oh my gosh! She’s alive!”

The kids came running while the cat, probably startled as much as I was, took off for the food downstairs.

During the day I had been thinking about how much I would miss her. I would miss her touching her nose to mine when she came into my room at 5 or 6 a.m. for cuddles (I don’t actually enjoy being woke up that early, but I would now miss it, I had decided). I would miss her touching her nose to mine when she jumped up on the counter and waited for me to give her a snack of turkey deli meat when she came in from exploring outside at the end of the day.

Touching her nose to mine is something Scout has done since she was a tiny kitten, and she’d sleep on my chest.

After she grabbed some food and water, she ran back up the stairs, overwhelmed by everyone screaming over her and the dog excitedly sniffing and chasing her (I’m sure our older cat Pixel was simply glaring at her as she’d probably hoped she’d died somewhere so she could have all the attention again). I went up to finish getting ready for bed and she was standing on the window sill at the top of the stairs. She trilled at me and then she stretched her neck out toward me. When we were face-to-face she touched her nose to mine and I cried again and did something I almost never do to a cat — I kissed her forehead.

Then I wiped the fur away. Yuck. That’s why I don’t do that.

This cat definitely has nine lives. She’s the same cat that climbed and then fell out of a tree when we first got her. She lay on her side at the bottom of the tree panting and we thought she’d broken her spine and was dying. Thirty-seconds later she jumped up and took off running..

A few months later she climbed a larger tree in front of our house and was trapped there a day and a night and finally the town’s lovely fire department came and rescued her in dramatic fashion with their ladder truck. Just like in the movies.

In addition to having nine lives, the cat is also notorious for embarrassing me. That time it was the fire company rescuing her and yesterday our son went up and down the street asking all the neighbors to watch for her. Now we have to tell all of them she was in our linen closet the entire time and that we are sort of morons for not checking it and she’s sort of a moron for going into in the first place.

Last night I finished The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt. It is a Penny Parker Mystery. I actually enjoyed it more than some of the Nancy Drew Mysteries because Mildred’s wit and humor comes through so clearly and Harriet Adams took a lot of that out when she wrote the Nancy Drew books that Mildred had written.

I might have to agree with Mildren when she once said that Penny was more Nancy Drew than Nancy was.

She is a lot more mouthy and pushy, but in a well-meaning way, than Nancy was even.

I am still reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, one chapter a day, but I didn’t read it much this week because I lost my paperback of it and then found it late last night. I did download an ebook copy to my Kindle too in case this happens again (which it will. I’m always laying my books down somewhere and losing them).

I am also continuing All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriott and will most likely finish that this week.

I plan to start The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse this week and soon I will start Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh (a fun summer romance) and ‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara.

This week I watched a couple of older movies with two of the original Dames.

I watched The Assassination Bureau with a young Diana Riggs. That was — um, interesting. Quite goofy with a lot of sexual tension between her and Oliver Reed.

Then I watched The Honey Pot with a young Maggie Smith and Rex Harrison. This was another interesting one with an odd plot. A rich man pretends to be dying and invites his three former mistresses to his home to see which one of them is worthy of his inheritance.

Maggie portrays a nurse of one of the mistresses.

Rex is in his usual, witty form in this one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of the film when I started it and when it got serious, Maggie really stepped up her acting game. That was enjoyable.

I also watched Ludwig, a mystery with David Mitchell, on Britbox. I really enjoyed the first episode.

Of course, I watched Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube and will watch it again because I was interrupted during it. He was restoring a Farmall tractor. Who knew one day I’d be fascinated with watching a man restore an old farm tractor…

I’ve decided that I am going to have a Summer of Angela and watch Angela Lansbury movies. I’m going to sort of do it on my own but if anyone wants to join me, they/you are welcome.

Last week on the blog I shared

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

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32 thoughts on “Sunday Bookend: Our pain-in-the-butt cat uses up another life and enjoying a variety of books”

    • So we wondered that too! All we could think was the door to that closet is super thick and we didn’t hear her. I forgot to add that to the story! I thought I heard her once but we had a pouring rain storm and it must have drowned her out. We honestly felt awful – especially me – that we didn’t hear her. She’s gotten a lot of extra cuddles this week that is for sure.

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  2. Glad you found Scout. At least, she wasn’t in the refrigerator. A cat we had once climbed in our fridge unnoticed. We searched the house high and low for her. She was an indoor cat so we couldn’t imagine where she was hiding until…I heard a faint meowing near the fridge. At first I thought she was trapped behind it because sometimes she jumped up onto the counter and then the top of the fridge to sleep. Nope, not there. Then I opened the fridge door and there she sat on the bottom shelf. From then on, we referred to her as a “cool cat.” Ha!

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  3. All of my cats have been inside cats and they still managed to vanish, but luckily only for a few hours. I once locked one of them up in a book cabinet – she sneaked in the back and being black, I couldn’t see her lying behind the books. I was so glad the doors weren’t shutting tightly!
    Gandalf managed the same with the wardrobe, but I found him more quickly because I knew it was one of his favorite spots.
    There are more stories, so I can imagine how you felt if it was even longer than a few hours!
    So glad you found Scout!!

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  5. Oh that cat! ❤ Glad she was just trapped in the closet and all is well … cats are very good at triggering the emotional release when we need it most, I’ve learned. ❤ hugs to you in this season!!

    The James Herriot books are so good … I haven’t read them in ages. It might be time for a reread, if I can remember where they are, lol. Look at you, reading a chapter a day of Mansfield Park! Maybe that’s what I need to do in July, when I finally dive back in – set myself a daily goal … hmm …

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    • I wrote that I was going to read a chapter a day but haven’t read it in two days! Haha! In my defense my neck is messed up so I haven’t been able to bend down and look at a book as much as I would like. Hopefully the painkillers and ice packs help soon!

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  6. I’m so glad your cat was found safe and sound! Having two cats of my own, I can imagine how scary that was for you. I hope you have a much better week this week all around. 🙂

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  8. I’m glad you were able to get those tears out but goodness me, what a naughty cat to scare you like that. Ours are indoor cats and it’s hard for Percy to disappear because he lives in the bathroom, but Willa is terrible especially because she’s small and although she has that little pale face her back is dark tabby and so if she has her back to you crouched in a small space (e.g. behind a wardrobe) you can’t see her easily. Only yesterday she managed to vanish and I heard a small thud (not the mighty one when she jumps off the top of a wardrobe) and there she was. Where did she spring from? Who knows! Hope the mysterious health issues resolve and you can get a doctor to take it all seriously.

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    • I have a feeling that mysterious health issues might just be a lifelong thing for me at this point! Ha!

      And, yes, sometimes I wish our cats were not outside cats but they absolutely love it. Scout used to go all over the place and wouldn’t come back over night sometimes, but now that she is getting older she seems to want to stay closer to home.

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  9. I know exactly how you feel. OK, not exactly, but let me explain. We had the world’s best cat, Oscar. His meow sounded like he was saying Mo-om with a slight uprise in the om part. He was gone for several days, and we were sure he was gone. After almost a week of crying kids (and one adult), he showed up when the neighbors mowed their yard. He had gone into their shed and got locked inside it (they didn’t know he was in there). He was skinny and very hungry! Unfortunately, we lost him to feline leukemia just as it was becoming more known.

    I keep thinking about getting BritBox because I love British humor. Mike doesn’t like to “listen” hard to understand their accents, though!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    • We thought that Scout was in the neighbor’s shed and it would have made sense for sure! Our neighbor just told me his cat’s name is Oscar. Now we know the name of the cat who sometimes wanders into our yard — before our youngest cat chases him away.

      Sometimes we have to use closed captioning for British shows. I won’t lie! 🙂

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  11. Oh I’m so glad that Scout is ok! That’s a horrible feeling when they go missing. My favorite cat when I was growing up (before the days of spaying & neutering) would go off on her “hunt” twice a year, and I hated it! So glad when she came home, even if it was with “expectant” news. Lol.

    I sure am praying for your family and for you. May you find good answers and help.

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  12. My cats don’t go outside but I still know how you felt. I freak out every time I call them and they don’t come running. I look everywhere including closets even though they are shut, because Jaspurr has a bad habit of sneaking in it when the door is even a little open and I turn away for a second. I don’t have that problem with our older cat Boots who won’t go inside a closet or outside, or with my dog because she only goes outside if one of us takes her out and is in a small fenced in spot. We have free roaming cats and have seen a snake so I don’t want her roaming all over the yard so I keep an eye on her.

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  13. Isn’t it so much better to have to tell the neighbors the cat was accidentally shut up in a closet, though, than to have to say you found her dead? One of the things the Stoics do is try to put a spin on bad things that happen—I’m working on doing that.

    There are one (or two? maybe more?) of the James Herriot books I haven’t read yet. Sometimes I don’t want to read them all when there are and never will be any more.

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  15. Well, it sounds like you needed a good cry! I totally get the pushing everything inside and making like you are fine for your family, but we also have to express our emotions. I am glad your cat is not lost or dead, and despite your embarrassment is very much alive! I hope you have a much calmer week, you get the answers you need for your health, and your parents are doing ok.

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