Err, um, DUH!
After I finished my run around the neighborhood on Friday, I walked by the “Found Cat” and “Lost Cat” flyers.
I stood there and shook my head wondering WHY the “Found Cat” people hadn’t returned my call yet and if Thundie was stuck in some kind of other worldly time warp like Carol Anne had been in “Poltergeist”.
I glanced long and hard at the “Found Cat” poster.
Then I had an epiphany as I glanced at the phone number.
Not only did I not have a job, but I had become partially dyslexic and my brain was beginning to turn to mush.
I had been dialing the WRONG number all week.
Someone should SO take all my shoes anyway from me!
I had been dialing “772” instead of “877”.
One big mental “Eeek” later, I was running home to dial the CORRECT number.
Once again, I got an answering machine; however, this time, this one had a voice attached to it, the very friendly voice of a woman named Vanessa, who worked as a realtor for ReMax.
I left a message saying who I was, described Thundie, and asked her to call me as soon as she could.
After hanging up, I thought again.
I called back.
You know it’s amazing, cuz when I have my wits about me, I can write three coherent paragraphs easily, but when missing a cat, I can’t seem to leave a coherent voice mail message.
Vanessa’s voice mail beeped, and I said, “Oh, I just wanted to say that I’ve been calling you all week. Well, not all week, cuz you see I’ve been calling the wrong number. I was calling “772” instead of “877”. Anyway, could you call me as soon as you get this message!”
Of course, after I hung up, I thought again about another important detail I wanted to mention.
I dialed Vanessa’s number again.
Vanessa’s voice mail beeped, and I said, “Could you call me whether or not you have my cat, just so I know. My flyer with his picture is underneath all of your flyers on the telephone poles, so you can see if he’s the cat you have.”
After hanging up, I realized that I had probably called her office, and it was 3pm or so on a Friday afternoon.
What if she was off for the weekend already?
What if she had already pawned Thundie off on a friend or placed him at an animal shelter?
I waited, and again, every time the phone rang, there was that “Oh, it’s just you” going off in my head.
By the time 9pm rolled around, Vanessa hadn’t called back.
I went to bed, hoping that I’d hear from her in the morning.
At 7:30 on Saturday morning, the phone rang.
I was ready for another “Oh, it’s just you” kind of phone call.
Half asleep I glanced at the caller ID and saw “Vanessa”.
I answered and said, “Hello! Do you have my cat?????”
Vanessa laughed and said, “Yes, I do! And, do I have a story to tell you.”
I started to cry.
I said, “Thank God. I’d love to hear it!”
She then asked if I was home, and she told me she’d bring Thundie right by.
After I got off the phone, I screamed, “Thundie’s coming home!”
Of course, I was the only one around to hear that.
I ran into Nathan’s bedroom, pulled five layers of covers off his face, and said, “Thundie’s coming home!”
He said, “Ugggh.”
I knew that he really meant “Hell ya!”
He had texted me every day from school with “Is TB back yet?”
I then went downstairs, and I said to Iz, “Thundie’s coming home.”
She said, “He’s coming back from the vet’s?”
Uh-oh, time to come clean.
I told her that Thundie had been lost, but now he was found, and he was coming home any minute.
She quickly said, “I’m going outside to wait for him!”
About 15 minutes later, Vanessa pulled up.
I could see Thundie in the front seat looking out the window and saying, “Oh, yeah. THIS is where I live.”
Vanessa got out of her car with Thundie in her arms, and Isabelle asked to take him.
I ran out to greet her and said, “Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?”
She said she would, and I made sure that Iz brought Thundie right into the house.
He was on a 24-hour house lock down from there on.
Vanessa came in but not without first reaching into her car to get a bag of litter and a box of cat crunchies.
Once inside, I got her coffee, and I said, “So, where did you find him?”
She told me that she and her friend were out on her friend’s porch on Sunday, which was almost down at the end of the street.
Thundie came walking up to them, and then he climbed up into Vanessa’s lap.
It was getting late, and Vanessa wasn’t sure if Thundie was lost, a cat that was dumped by someone who couldn’t take care of him anymore, or a stray.
Her friend had two cats that would not have been happy if Thundie stayed the night, so Vanessa took Thundie home with her.
She put up her “Found Cat” signs on Monday and then went out and bought a litter box and cat food, which she mentioned were things that she couldn’t really afford.
She explained she is a realtor, and that it just took her 11 months to sell one house, and that she was “losing” her own house due to the current economic climate.
She had to take a second job at K-Mart to "keep the lights" on.
As the days went by and she got no calls about Thundie, she said she grew more and more attached to him.
Her house had also recently suffered smoke damage from a malfunctioning heating system, so she was dealing with “losing” her house while also dealing with a professional cleaning service coming in and out of her house.
She then started to cry and said, “He has been such a blessing to me during this week.”
Then she said, “Can I have a hug?”
I was now in tears at this point, and I went over and hugged her and kissed her.
She went on to say that she had gotten the first of my three message on Friday afternoon when she was at work.
She only listened to the first one, the message where I didn’t say that I was dialing the wrong phone number all week.
She said at that point she really had to think whether she wanted to give him back, because, one, she had grown so attached to him, and two, she thought I was the worst person in the world, because I waited almost a whole week to call about my cat.
She called her friend, and she and her friend discussed whether I was worthy to have my cat back!
“When I got home from work, I listened to your other two messages. I understood why you didn’t call me earlier, and I knew I had to give him back. I even had my friend go out to the telephone to look at your picture to make sure it was your cat. I knew giving him back was the right thing to do, but I had just grown so very attached to him.”
Vanessa went on to tell me about her kids, offered to pet sit for me if I ever needed it, told me how great the renovations to the house were (she had seen it 10 years ago at a realtor’s open house right before I bought it), and then an hour later, she said that she should be on her way.
I told her that she could come visit Thundie whenever she wanted, and that she and I should have coffee again soon.
We exchanged cards and are going to keep in touch.
I told Vanessa I'd take down all our signs in the neighborhood.
I felt like putting up "Lost Cat was Found Cat...happy ending!" signs, so everyone would know, but I knew the absence of both signs would probably send a message around the neighborhood.
As I was taking down two signs on Washington Street, a man who was raking across the street shouted, “Did you find him?”
I had Vanessa’s flyer in my left hand and my flyer in my right hand, and I emphatically slapped them both together, and said, “It was a match!”
He laughed and said, “Good!” and then went back to his raking.
Anyway, Thundie is back.
And, it’s SO good to have him home.
And, I’ve learned a few things…
1) There’s always a possibility of making new friends in situations you never thought of. (This is why I’m going to my 25th college reunion in June!)
2) No matter how badly you think your life is going, well, there is always someone who is worse off. I don’t have a job right now, but at least, unlike Vanessa, I’m nowhere near to losing my house.
3) While the world is full of a lot of jerks, it is also filled with many beautiful people like Vanessa. She could have easily let Thundie wander off, but she took him home, bought things to care for him that she couldn’t afford, posted signs, making such a huge effort to care for him when she was going through so much herself.
4) As I think about how the economy has affected me recently, I think that having money is important (but more in the context of a job to pay the mortgage, keep the lights on, and so on), BUT really the most important thing in life is your relationships (the one you have with a significant other, your children, your friends, your family, and even those that can be had by meeting a lovely once-was-but-no-longer-is-a-stranger like Vanessa). As we all know, money comes and money goes, but it those very special near-and-dear relationships that really sustain you when times are tough.
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