Winston in backyard

LOST

...and FOUND!

OK, here’s what happened about Winston… the short-legged Munchkin cat. :)

He typically meows and follows me around quite often in the morning asking for food (which he rarely gets it), doing some yoga stretches, and have a lonnngg afternoon nap on the Ikea Poäng chair. Then he follows us around occasionally, and sits on the window sill. When it’s about two hours before 9pm, he starts meowing for food. At night, there’s the endless scouting on the window sill while we sleep... usually until 2 or 3 in the morning then only he wanders onto our bed and sleeps with us. What a life!

The unthinkable happened on June 27. As I was about to leave the house to post office around noon time, I decided to look for the cats, Toro and Winston, and make sure they were okay. Somehow, Winston was no where to be seen. I searched the entire house. Nope! No Winston. Fear and panic washed over me. I searched the entire house again and again, to no avail and no sign of cream fur anywhere! Only our sweet as a snuggly bunny overweight Toro sitting on the Ikea Poäng chair in the living room alone. No wonder I didn’t hear any meowing this morning. I then realized one of the window screens in our kitchen had fallen out onto the yard waste cart, and the window was wide open!! That explains why all of us heard a loud banging noise in the kitchen while we were sleeping. He finally snuck out of the house! Hm… he probably fell out from our kitchen window as he leaned on the screen. Argh! Or is it that his hunger and some instinctual catlike behavior drove him outside to hunt for girlfriend?! I called daddy & mummy immediately as they were still strolling around our neighborhood, hoping that they would see Winston somewhere out there. I called Choon as well and told him about the unfortunate incident... he planned to come back home earlier to help searching for Winston.

My trip to the post office was delayed. I walked around our neighborhood, talked to our neighbor whenever I saw anyone who’s hanging out in their front yard. I then came across this guy who’s washing his car on Lori Ave., with a fluffy long hair golden brown tabby sitting on his porch; we named him ‘The Lion’. He hangs out at our back yard occasionally, which always drove Winston nut. His tail would puff up and he would stare out from one window, and run to another, and another. Anyways, I talked him about our missing short-legged cream color cat, Winston. Guess what!? He recognized the short-legged cream cat! According to him, Winston had a fight with his next door neighbor’s cat, and another “Rafiki” tuxedo cat from across the street. But that was around 7am or so!! 5-6 hours had past! He could be anywhere then... :(

We printed tons of flyers with photos and post it around our neighborhood. We’d been walking and walking… My legs were tired. I was sure daddy’s and mummy’s too (thanks for your help!) So, we took a break; drove around our neighborhood before heading to the post office to mail out the jackets that were left in the motel by Shawn. On our way back from post office, we drove around our neighborhood again. Ten minutes later, I was out there walking around our neighborhood again... shook his treat, I even brought his feather toy with me thinking he would come out to play. Nothing! A few hours had passed... Choon was back around 3:30pm. (That was darn early from work! But I was glad; another helper.) ...printed more flyers... Then, a group of kids from our neighborhood came to ring our door bell, we thought they’d found Winston but it wasn’t. They had been helping us to find Winston too! They took our flyers and went around our neighborhood door to door asking about Winston, calling out his name… I was moved. I love our neighborhood!

A few hours had passed, around 6:30pm... no Winston still. However, a biker from our neighborhood came to our house. He told us that he saw Winston around 6:50 to 7 in the morning! Winston was in a fight with a couple of cats in the middle of the street on Lori Ave. He rode through them to break the fight. All other cats ran away except Winston. He stood still in the middle of the road looking at him. What a naive sheltered house kitty! He probably thought that he won the fight!

I later started realizing the odd behavior of Toro during the day. She seemed sad. I think she knew Winston was gone for a while. It was getting close to eight in the evening. Toro didn’t meow for food at all, and was still lying on Winston usual spot - the Poäng chair.

It was dinner time. Choon, mummy and daddy reluctantly gave up looking for Winston for the day. Winston was still outside in the great unknown. Raccoons, rodents came to mind, as did cars especially in the dark and the numerous neighborhood bully tomcats that watch him jealously through the windows. Despite being told by Choon and parents that Winston would find his way home, I felt terrible. I was afraid to break the new to Rhea, the previous owner who gave us Winston. So I decided to walk one last trip around my neighborhood for the day. It was getting closer to Winston’s meal time anyway; he must be hungry and should have stopped checking out the surroundings.

There I went again, started from the street/houses behind ours on Lori Ave. I passed by the house of the fluffy ‘lion’ cat again, hoping that his owner would see Winston again, but no one’s outside. Suddenly, I saw a light brown cat sitting on the side of the porch... took a second look, *sigh* not Winston. It was the ‘lion’; wish he could talk. I walk further down the street, about 2 houses down... ah ha!! Another light brown cat, much lighter in color, was squatting/kneeling by the corner of front yard, on the side of the house and under some bushes. “This one looks like Winston. I think it is!” I thought. I called out Winston, the cat didn’t response. When I walked closer toward him and called out Winston again. “Meow~” I knew he was mine! :D He looked very relieved to see me. I was torn between kissing him and smacking his bottom. He smelled like dirt instead of shampoo, with his dirty brown short legs with gray paws instead of the usual cream short leg with pinkish paws. Spider webs and some small dried leaves were stuck on of his whiskers, his forehead were all grayish instead of the pretty cream color...

Yay! After some agonizing 8 hours looking for Winston, he is back at home now. When I brought him back, all of us were very happy and relieved. :D Toro licked him immediately. Winston allowed her to do so... for the longest time. Guess what after that, Toro started meowing for food constantly!! Of course, Winston got a quick bath...

Well, now the whole neighborhood knows about Winston. And he did get his freedom for approximately 16 hours. He better not be ‘planning’ another great escape ever! The final straw though, he is going to be fixed and wear a collar that has a tiny jingle bell and our phone number on it just in case he ever gets outside and lost again! Oh... and he’s getting a microchip too! (wish there’s GPS on it but it’s not availableL)

Winston drove my legs into a state of exhaustion. They were aching for a few days! And Daddy said, “For the next few months, if you see any short-legged cats around the neighborhood, you know what Winston had done!!” :P

Beautiful Moorea