It all started Tuesday morning. She had her annual check up with the vet, and I was going to see if he had any insights about her persistent chronic cough. She was easy to plop into her cat carrier--wow!--and off we went to the vet.
But when I got there and parked, and went around to get the carrier out, the cat carrier door popped open and she sprang out and ran! I just stood there for a minute, but then walked slowly after her. I didn't know at the time what this meant. I just thought I'd walk slowly to her, call her to me, and pick her up. She eventually ran around from one end of the lot to the other, and I lost sight of her. The vet's assistant came out and discovered her sitting in a tree outside the house next door.
I could almost reach her. Almost. But as I talked calmly to her and reached out, she ran further up the tree, then further.
I called the Animal control people to see if they had advice, but they did not answer the phone. The non-emergency police dispatcher got a hold of animal control, but they (AC) declined doing anything, and the dispatcher sent . . . the CRFD!
Yes, a big fire engine with ladder.
The ladder scared Elsie, who ran down and bolted around the house. By the time we (me and the firemen) ran after her, she had disappeared. I mean completely. We looked for a while until I told them they should just go. And I looked and looked. No Elsie.
Eventually, I went home, but came back later in the afternoon with a live trap that I borrowed from the Iowa Humane Alliance. I set it up and caught . . . a neighbor's cat! I took a break for dinner, then came back with Bruce and Eli. We set up the live trap again, and also walked the streets, me calling to her and rattling food in her dish. No sign of her at all--we were there almost 2 1/2 hours.
I came back the day after at 5:30 am and in the evening, and several times on other days. My friend Anne and I walked through the area one evening and tried to "think like a cat" and we thought that maybe she might be in a shed near where she escaped. We tried the live trap overnight, but . . . nothing.
Later, I made flyers and posted them on telephone poles and gave them out to anyone I saw: businesspeople, people who were outside. Everyone seemed very concerned and was encouraging to me. The guy in the sign shop who said he walked his dogs and sometimes saw stray cats, the guy in the other sign shop who offered to put out a live trap and hung the poster in his store window, the middle-aged lady with the bird feeders, the toothless guy with the detailing shop.
The flyer has this picture of Elsie
And this text:
Elsie
Female, spayed, has all claws, about 5 years old
Microchipped
Mostly white with gray patches and dark gray tail.
Blue eyes.
Last seen outside Family Pet Hospital, 1101 J Ave NE,
9 a.m. Tuesday, May 10
If seen, please text or call 319-431-9084
It was just so hard to go walking the streets calling and calling, shaking the dish with food and have nothing. No sign of her at all. :-( that's why today was so hopeful and heartening: maybe we will find her after all.
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