Sadie Found

E. had to leave for Switzerland the day after I got back from Bogota, which was its own special form of torture.  Anyway, he was gone for almost a week, and about half way in, Sadie disappeared.  She was gone for three nights.

We have lots of coyotes that live over the fence from us.  And a neighborhood fox.  I figured the worst.

Miss Fluffy McFlufferton, otherwise known as the Suzanne Sommers of the Cat World.  Also Known as The Marmot, or "That Fucking Cat."

I wasn't sure how I felt about this, to be honest.  I mean, we just lost Prudence this spring, which sucked.  You know how I felt about the Pru.  It would have been sad and odd to be catless all of a sudden after having these two cats for ten years.

But I confess to some other thoughts crossing my mind.  Sadie is one of the more annoying felines on the planet, to be frank.  She pulls her hair out in huge chunks because of some anxiety disorder she developed as a kitten as a result of being left alone, unbeknownst to me, with a heroin-addicted housesitter (long story).  We really only adopted her to keep Prudence company.  Which I know makes us some sort of awful people, this privileging of one animal over another.  I'm sorry.  I'm just being totally honest here.  We just never have really bonded with Sadie the way you might with a pet you love, like Pru or Milo.

And she has bad habits.

She wanders around the house at 3 in the morning, mewling as loud as possible, until we call out to her and remind her where our bedroom is.  We've lived here for four years now.

She wants to be petted constantly.  She bites you when you pet her.

We had her on valium and it mellowed her out a little.  But not much.  Plus, who wants to keep their cat on valium?

She is constantly bloated, making it a little icky to pick her up.  Think "Hindenberg."

She scratches the furniture.  Even the wood furniture.  I may have dreamed, if only for a moment, of buying a new couch.

She misses the kitty box frequently.  And we're talking turds.

But other than that, I like her okay.  So when Eric got home from Switzerland at 10:30pm at night, after I texted him that Sadie had disappeared and we were catless, and I opened the door to greet him, and in one arm he had a suitcase and in the other arm he had Sadie, I had two thoughts:

One:  My hero!
Two:  Shit.