If you’ve been keeping up since the beginning, you might remember that we not only moved here with a dog and a duck, but there was a cat in tow as well. When we lived in Utah, Zeppy was basically an outdoor cat. He’d come inside for maybe an hour a day to eat some food and hang out with us for a minute, before sitting at the front door meowing to go back outside. Rain, snow, wind: didn’t matter. Kitty wanted to be outside. He was born a feral cat after all. So when we moved, I was stressed. Keeping him inside never made for a happy cat.

We managed to keep him inside for a few days before he was just unbearable and we started letting him out for short periods of time. He was doing SO well. He wouldn’t wander far, he’d come inside at night, things were going well. Then, we had a few friends come visit to help us with some initial house projects (stairs, insulation, etc.), and our friend’s roommate brought her two dogs. Zep had a hiding place inside and I figured with all the excitement he would just stay there. Well, he decided to creep outside, the dogs saw him, chased him around the outside of the cabin, and then Zep scaled a big Ponderosa – got about 30 ft into the air.

He was all fluffed up and growling, but he was up the tree, and we could see him. The dogs were wrangled and I kept an eye on him. But with all the house work I got distracted, and maybe 30 minutes later went to check on him and he was just… gone. He had apparently climbed back down the tree and bolted. I posted his picture everywhere. Got one call about him; a lady spotted him like 9 miles away from our house. We went back several times calling and calling for him, to no avail. This was several months ago. Winter has come and gone. There’s a part of me that still is hopeful that he found some place to hunker down, or someone else is taking care of him, and that he survived. He does have feral blood in him, after all.

I should’ve just kept the front door closed. The dogs should have been controlled better. Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. I’ve never been much of a cat person until Zeppelin came into our family. And now I’ve found myself kind of missing having a cat around. We need a mouser anyway around the homestead. I miss Zeppy and I hope he’s found his way, but for now, for our pack/flock, there’s a cat at the humane society that might fit right in. More on him in a near-future post. I guess I just have finally come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably never see my big gray tabby cat again… Who knows, maybe he’ll show back up at our old house in Utah. I’ve heard crazier things.