We do have a cat, but it’s an easy thing to forget. She belonged to the previous owner, Rob, and when he was preparing to move he got out her crate a few days early. She didn’t seem to mind and was in evidence as much as always (HA and I were also staying here at the time). The day before their flight, however, the cat vanished for just long enough to avoid the vet appointment that would clear her to board the plane. We tried to find her, but she has five acres (more if she goes to adjacent properties) and much of it is wild tropical forest. She also is all black. I was surprised to actually catch sight of her a time or two, but catch her? No way.
The next day, Rob moved away. I offered to take the cat to him in Montana should she show up and be amenable.
She did show up, and continued to allow us the privilege of feeding her. We stayed in touch with Rob who decided that the cat was probably better off here until he got more settled. The caretaker we hired took care of the cat who would come and go and be affectionate.
Before we could arrange the cat’s transport, Rob died in a tragic accident.
It looked as though we might be without a caretaker for a while, so I got an automatic feeder. It worked well, even though we got a caretaker (now the Hired Hand) in the nick of time. We took to feeding the cat under the house, as otherwise the birds would eat all the food and make a terrible mess on the deck. I moved to the compound, and all continued to be well.
Then Luna the Big Dog™ flew over. The cat took one look at Luna, and vanished into the woods.
I continued to put food under the house, and it continued to disappear daily. We put in a motion-sensing surveillance camera and verified that the kitty was still coming every night, occasionally bringing a friend. For weeks, we never saw her except by infrared camera light.
One night, I was getting out of the outdoor shower when I felt something furry rubbing against my legs. It was the cat, though it had been so long since I had seen her in the flesh that she startled me. She began meowing insistently, which caused me to check the cat feeder and discover that it had malfunctioned.
I repaired the feeder and everything has gone back to ghost-cat normal.
—2p