Merlin is Missing

Update 1:25 AM Thursday: He's back. I stepped out on the back porch for the upteenth time in two hours and there he was. So relieved, I'm shaking.

Our cat Merlin, an inside cat, got out and I can't think of anything else at the moment. It was my fault and I've got to sit here by myself with the thoughts because Ed has to be up early for work. He got out because I left the bedroom door open when I rushed back to the room for something I need to get the quick shower I had fifteen minutes to finish before the park's water was being turned off at eleven for the next ten to fourteen hours. Ed was out on the front porch having his last cigarette before bed. Merlin got out Sweetie's doggie door in the back door.

It's happened before and he has come back safe. But this is the first time it has happened since I got home and the first time since Flipdizzy, the stray kitten that was living under the front porch last July and adopted the family winning all our hearts, was found dead under a rose bush last January probably having been poisoned. There has been a rash of pet death to poison in the park and the suspicion is that someone is taking it upon themselves to deal with the strays and raccoons that plague this trailer park.

This is one of the reasons Merlin is an inside cat and we always put him in a harness and leash to go outside. There are a lot of feral cats, raccoons, possums, and mean dogs running loose. Not to mention some of the malicious people. There is a creek next to the park that is home to more wild animals (where some of the coons and possums come from) and on the other side of the park is a busy road--two actually and one of them is the connecting road between the freeway and the main street going through town aka Hwy 99. It is just not a safe place for a cat raised indoors to be roaming free. Especially one as timid as Merlin.