I last saw Riley on Sunday night. He was running between my feet as I opened the back door. I was coming in and he was going out. He doesn’t care that I don’t want him to go outside. He is compelled.
It is getting cold. He doesn’t like to stay out at night now. But sometimes he misses last call and spends the night outside. In those cases he is by the door in the morning complaining about being locked out. I tell him house cats don’t have to worry about that. He ignores me.
Monday morning he wasn’t around. Monday night I didn’t see him. By this morning (Tuesday) I was driving around the neighborhood making sure I didn’t see a squished grey body on any roads. I came home tonight and there was no sign of him. I looked on the front porch. I looked repeatedly in the back yard. Powder was asking to go out. I figured she was worried too. I told her, “Ok, you can go out but you have to find your brother and bring him back here. Bring him right back, ok?”
I sent her out the door with good wishes for a successful rescue mission. I closed the door, turned around, and saw…
“RILEY!!” He lifted his head from where he’d been sleeping on the couch. I hugged him and kissed him and annoyed him. Then I opened the door to tell Powder she could come back in and he ran outside. Now I have to start worrying about him all over again.
The question is has he been here the whole time but using his new-found power of invisibility?
