well, I certainly had a scare this morning

Holland and I are living in my mom's house at the moment. We've got the basement, which is finished and a great space, but it's one big open room AND the kids' playroom, so not a lot of privacy. My sister, BIL, their 3 kids and 2 dogs moved in last weekend, so it's been quite an adjustment for everyone this week.

Now, Holland has her own space with lots of places to hide where the kids are NOT allowed to go, and they are not allowed to come downstairs until I get up. This morning, when Holland did NOT wake me up by 6:00 for her breakfast I was a little worried, but just assumed she'd gone upstairs or something. Didn't think too much of it.

I got up, made my nieces some blueberry pancakes, still kind of wondering where Holland was, just figured she was hiding. Then my sister came into the kitchen, and I told them all I wasn't sure where Holland was, and if they went outside, to please make sure the door closed behind them. That's when my sister told me she and my mom had heard meowing when they got up this morning, thought it was Holland, but decided it was coming from outside.

Then we were trying to figure out if a door could possibly have been left open, if there was any way Holland could have gotten outside. I said if she IS outside, she's probably hiding under the deck. I went out and started calling her, checked under the deck - of course my mind kept seeing little kitty-shaped black shadows... But no Holland. So I went out front, terrified that I would find her in the road, hit by a car or something. Still no Holland. I went to the basement to make sure she wasn't hiding somewhere. No Holland.

At that point, I was on the verge of panic, tears already running down my face, and my niece told me she heard a meow. I said "are you sure you're not just imagining it?". She told me no, she heard a meow twice. Then I heard a meow. Not just A meow, but Holland's meow. We all stood still and quiet, and sure enough, we all heard her - this girl does NOT meow unless she needs help or thinks she needs to be fed RIGHT NOW.

She was behind my mom's washing machine. NOT stuck - she came out on her own after I'd talked to her for a couple minutes. I think she must have come upstairs sometime during the night, then panicked when kids & dogs started to wake up.

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of relief when I saw her sweet little face behind that washer...

oh dear what a scare, im glad Holland is ok

OMG...



That is the WORST feeling, and it's hard when you have a lot of people in the house and you're not sure if someone might have let the kitty outside. I live on a main road, really heavy traffic, so if I can't find either of mine, my first reaction is always sheer terror.

SO glad everything is okay.

You poor thing, I know the feeling EXACTLY! I'm so glad that Holland is just find though!

Oh, I'm so glad Holland is OK! Man, what a scare you had.

Oh boy do we know that feeling! So glad she was hiding and not outside!!!!

I'm glad Holland is safe and sound. I hate that panicy feeling!
I've 'trained' my kittens to come when I shake a bottle of Pounce (a cat treat). It seems to be either an easy way to find a kitten that has been hiding all day or a good way to tell me I need to be worried. The one time my tabby, Faye didn't come to the bottle, she had snuck out my door--she was sticking her paws under my front door though (I live in a small apartment building with a hallway between the units). She must have wanted that pounce!

Originally Posted by HyperSaurusRex

I'm glad Holland is safe and sound. I hate that panicy feeling!

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Thanks.

Originally Posted by HyperSaurusRex

I've 'trained' my kittens to come when I shake a bottle of Pounce (a cat treat).

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That's awesome. Holland normally comes when I call her, but she's also afraid of any human that isn't ME, so having all these new people in the house makes it nearly impossible to predict her behavior.

I can assure you though, that making sure outside doors are closed has been pounded into those kids' heads!!

I'm glad Holland was OK....I'd have been scared to death, too.

With six cats in the house, I like to do a head count before we leave to go anywhere. Yes, I know, they didn't get out of the house. But it's still nice to know that they're all OK.

I have the cats trained to respond to the word "Treat!" (Read that in The Cat Who.....books that Qwilleran did that with KoKo and YumYum and I thought, well, it couldn't hurt to try it.) All I have to do is say "Treat!" and all the cats come running. I count furry heads while giving them their treat and all is well.

I think "Treat!" was probably one of the first words that Mollipop understood when she first got here. I kept giving her treats while saying "Treat!" and it didn't take long at all.

Oh yes. Although Holland does respond to her name (most of the time), I think her best response words are "hungry", "eat" and "treat".

Wow. That would be quite the scare. I have had a couple of similar experiences with Precious. One happened just the other day. I was looking for her and could not find her anywhere. I called for her and she wouldn't come. I looked in every room in the apartment and in most of her hiding places. The one place I didn't check, however, was under the bed. Well, I went out in to the hallway to make sure she hadn't gotten out there and she was not out there and a couple of kids that were walking down the hallway said that they had not seen her either. I began to panic. Finally, I decided to go back into the apartment and look for her in the apartment again. Finally, as I was entering the apartment, there she was by the door waiting for me to come back in. I was sooo relieved! I was quite scared that she was gone for good. Thankfully, she was not. I have since been keeping a much closer eye on the door when I go out into the hallway because she has been known to follow me out the door from time to time. Thankfully, all of the apartments here are enclosed in one big building so it would not be easy for her to actually get outside where the dangerous world of the outdoors is. I honestly don't think she'd go too awfully far anyway but I still don't want to risk it.

Thank goodness you found her! That must have been so scary! I would have been freaking out too.