Homeward Bound

"You pushed me this far, now I'm pushing you the rest of the way. You know, back in the woods, even when things looked really bad, I always thought we'd make it because I thought you were too stubborn to quit. Well, you're not going to quit, not now, not when we're this close." Chance from Homeward Bound

David and I came home from the New Year's holiday with Baxter in tow, anxious to see our kitty Sandy. My sister-in-law had been by several times to check in on her and give her attention. Sandy, like most cats, is super self-sufficient....she doesn't use a litter box, but goes outside like Baxter taught her; she uses his doggie door just like him; and when her food is out, she likes to eat his. Sometimes when we would come home from a trip she'd be out playing in the woods and show up within a few hours. When she didn't come up from the basement right away on that Sunday, Jan. 2nd, we just started taking down our Christmas decorations. It was getting late, and she still hadn't turned up. Monday morning, still no Sandy and we were moving from optimism to worry. Then, we started looking for her. I handed out 50 fliers...mailboxes, neighbors, the vet; I called every vet in town; David visited the Humane Society 3 times; and we walked and walked up and down our neighborhood streets calling Sandy over and over. Baxter knew that we were sad and joined in on the search for Sandy. We were encouraging him to bark and howl in hopes that she would hear him and it would lead her home. After a week, we knew that snow was on the way. Waking up to 6 inches of snow was fun, but only further instilled the worry about where our little kitty was. When the snow melted, we resigned ourselves to accept Sandy may not come back to her home, and we prayed that someone else was looking out for her and giving her what she needed.

This past Thursday morning at 4:30am, a little cry woke up both David and me. We rushed downstairs and started calling Sandy....but nothing turned up. I just thought maybe it was a bird, and tried to go back to sleep even though my heart was pounding with hope that it was her! When our alarms went off to wake us for work later that morning, David got up to shower and get the coffee started. I was having trouble putting my feet down on our cold floors and getting out of our warm bed. As David was making coffee, he heard a little cry again. He opened the basement door and there was our little Sandy, sitting at the top of our basement steps just like she had always done! He scooped her up and brought her to me - all I could ask was "Is this a dream?" Then shock turned to happiness and on came the tears. I cant imagine what being parents will be like because all we could do was love on her and talk to her like a human...all we could ask was "Sandy, where have you been?!?!?" After 3 weeks, our little Sandy came home to us. Baxter was literally leaping into the air with happiness. It has been a joyful past 48 hours, and we know that she is as happy to be home as we are to have her here with us again. She was a little thinner than when she left, but looked so pretty - no injuries or anything. We are so thankful that our prayers, the prayers of our friends, and prayers from our family guided Sandy back to us!

Sandy is our little miracle rescue kitty and maybe if she could tell us about her time before coming to live with us, she'd say something like this: " You see, this family came along, and I guess you can say they rescued me, because they adopted me and brought me to live at their house.  Lots of space, fresh air, plenty interesting things to explore, and all the food I could eat. " (Chance from Homeward Bound)