Creamsicle is Gamma’s little orange and white cat — the runt of the litter, that Gamma received as a birthday present from her godmother three years ago. 

Creamsicle is an adventurous little cat, frequently stalking birds, squirrels, mice, and even small rabbits in our yard.  When she was not yet fully grown, we had to confine her to the house one spring, because she was darting down into a rabbit hole to steal baby bunnies.  Yet, she does not leave the yard, and is decidedly more of a house cat than an outside cat.

Yesterday evening when HWTFM went to pick Gamma up from a birthday party at Big Ed’s, Creamsicle had stowed away in his truck.  She had probably hopped through an open window to enjoy the warmth sometime in the late afternoon.  Unfortunately, when he got to Big Ed’s, the cat bolted as soon as he opened the door, running across Georgia Avenue through the parking lot and into the dense underbrush.

He went to find Gamma first (tossing a football in the Blankenship parking lot), thinking that she could better call the cat than he.  Unfortunately, too much time had gone by, and they had no idea where she went.  Delta and I arrived a few minutes later, and we searched for an hour and a half, with no luck.

Last night when I went to pick up Beta after work, Gamma and I searched some more — this time, with a flashlight, and with Dog (of whom Creamsicle is very fond).  Shining a flashlight into the woods behind a house on West Geneva Ln., we saw two glowing eyes that seemed to respond to Gamma’s call, but they would come no closer.  Gamma was ready to tear off into the ravine with a flashlight, but motherly instinct kicked in and I wouldn’t let her.  Crawling around the woods in someone’s back yard at 11 p.m. is not a good practice; doing so when there’s an obvious steep gully is an even worse idea. 

After all, we could only see the glowing eyes.  It might have been someone else’s cat or dog, a possum, a raccoon, a small fox… it wasn’t worth the risk in the dark.

I’m pretty sure Gamma cried herself to sleep, but I promised that we’d look again this morning.  And we did.  The underbrush was quite dense and filled with poison ivy, but I started from the Tennessee Avenue side of the gully, while Gamma entered the woods from the Geneva Lane side.  When I came to an old fence in the brush, I stopped to call the cat (I could have gotten over the fence, but it looked so old and brittle that I would have risked damaging it).  After just a couple of calls, Creamsicle came trotting to me.  I carried her back up to where the truck was parked on Geneva Lane, and we all came home happy.

Except HWTFM, who’s a little miffed that we missed church to find the cat.