I just read the sad tale of Bongo's loss.  We have two of the little
guys, Rocky - a lady sable who is about seven years old, and a still very
frisky (and somewhat macho) male siamese (Squeekers cause of his bark) who
is just four.
 
        It does seem that when the days begin to get shorter, the fuzzys do
get the urge to wander and tend to keep an eye on an outside door.  In our
case we have a door to an enclosed breezeway, and then another to the
outside or to the garage, but with two teenage sons and lots of friends (the
original source of Rocky) it was difficult to keep them closed.  Somehow
Rocky got out to the garage, and then when my wife left to work Rocky was on
the start of a great adventure, seen by the neighbors but not missed by us
until the following morning.
 
        She shared some cat food that night inside the neighbor's house next
door, and then was put out with the other 'Wild Things' to go back to her
'mother'.  A neighbor on the other side said she saw a squirrel trying to
get in her house and shooed it away.
 
        We Xeroxed and put up nearly five hundred posters with her picture
on it asking for help, but after four days, numerous 'false' sightings, two
nights of frost, and a soaking rain had all but given up hope.
 
        After midnight though, I couldn't sleep and went out with her
traveling cage, favorite stocking cap for sleeping, food and water, to where
she had last been shooed into the woods.  I called for half an hour and then
gave it up, it was cold, I was cold, and either she was safe underground
perhaps in a woodchuck's den, or she was gone.
 
        Coming back into the house, I checked the garage again and called
one last time.  Imagine my surprise when the plastic bag of garbage at my
feet began to rustle, and then this little head poked out of a hole no
bigger than a quarter.  She was so cold, and sooo glad to be back.
 
        We discovered that she had been eating raspberrys, and they are now
a favorite food especially in the fall, but Squeekers turns up his nose at them.
 
        Since that time we have tried collars with dog tags but they are
pretty heavy, and the collars don't stay on very well and occasionally got
caught in the sleeping hats.  We have also made a conscious effort to
introduce both Rocky and Squeekers to the neighbors.  A Godsend, when one
called to say that one of our our 'animals' was in his garage and his wife
was terrified, and would I please come.  Squeekers, who neither we nor him
had any idea he was missing, was covered in cobwebs, but none the worse for
wear.
 
        More later.
 
                                Thanks All
 
                                       - W.M. from Anon.
[Posted in FML issue 0985]