Lasted for a week…

After what felt like forever, I put in my one month notice at my hellish, cruddy employment. That would be a story for another time though, my folks extended an invitation to spend some of my time off at their place.

Chheong-Ah was given to my parents by their boss and as far as I knew, we just tolerated each other. I called her out at times just to wave at her and her to just promptly ignore. She just came into and left the house when she pleased and all she had to do was meow from the outside or meow by the door.

She was an indoor animal by all means, but there’s only so much you can do inside. Cats don’t have internet, or cellphones to distract themselves with. By the fourth day, she had already started to expect me to open the door for her since mum sometimes just told her no. I just did it because I was kind of eager to let her have some fresh air and then let her in after she had her fill of the outdoors.

The plan was to spend ten days and return to my place. So we often went out in my dad’s truck to eat outside or just to go shop, hang out, those kind of things. And on the afternoon fourth day, we all loaded up in dad’s truck for some mini excursion. Cheong was out on the patio and ran away as soon as we called her. We should’ve just held her and taken her inside, but everyone figured she wanted to be out some more. And off we went.

Evening came, we were busy with dinner, but Cheong-Ah was nowhere to be found. It was getting cold, and she isn’t getting any younger. Mum looked around the compound, dad drove around the neighborhood. For the next three days. Nothing. And all I kept thinking was, hm, maybe a gps chip or a collar would’ve been the thing needed. My mind also keeps going back to some article I read about a cat returning to their family miles and miles away. I mean, shouldn’t she be able to?

But all of us have an inkling that might not be so. She was getting in on the years, maybe jumping from a height caused her to injure herself, maybe she got in an accident with some vehicle or some unleashed dog, who knows… All thoughts only go towards negative conclusions. And when I search for cat disappearing all I get is these searches that’s really not helpful at all.

Since Cheong only disappeared in the beginning of the month, I feel extremely sad, but it is at times strange because I did not hang out with her, or feed her, or even pet her. Not once. I was getting around to holding her, but being warned by mum and dad saying she never lets anyone who touches her go unscratched kind of put me on guard. If only I’d known my carefully crafted plan of touching her next time I open the door for was for naught…

I do think it’s stupid of me to think you’ll be back like those stories, but I still want to believe you’ll be back. Your presence and our (your) recent approval of each other (me) will be with me, Cheong-Ah. You’ll be with us for a long time.