Remember Oreo, my adorable cat buddy that I wrote a birthday FAQ post about last year? Well, it’s time for his birthday again. Only this time around, he’s been missing for almost three months. I have no idea what happened to him.
The Cat Disappears
I saw Oreo for the last time on the morning of May 28. I woke up around five AM to check on him. He came to the patio door when I called him. I fed him salmon. I asked if he wanted to stay inside when he finished eating, but he hopped up on the arm of the couch, his signal that he wanted to go back out. Before he left, I kissed his head, told him I loved him, and reminded him to be careful. He settled on the sidewalk to lick himself; I went back to bed.
When I woke up again, it was after ten. I usually wake up earlier, but I figured Oreo would be okay if I caught some extra winks. I immediately knew something was up because the screen door was ajar. Oreo often pries the screen open in an effort to get inside when he feels threatened in some way. He didn’t respond to his name, and I didn’t see him anywhere in the front- or backyards.
Despite my worry, this was normal behavior for him. His second stop after our house would have been his own house. I assumed that his owners had let him inside and he’d pop up again soon.
Things Get Real
By the fourth day, I began to question my assumption about Oreo’s whereabouts. It was weird that we still hadn’t seen him. He definitely would have wanted out of his owners’ house by the second day.
A full week went by with no word. My dad happened to pass some of the neighbors’ relatives when he was coming home from work. He took the opportunity to ask them if they had seen Oreo. They hadn’t. In fact, they thought he was with us. I panicked. I started checking animal shelter websites and looking more closely around the complex for any sign of him (alive or dead). Nothing.
By week three, my dad questioned the neighbors about Oreo again. This time it was one of Oreo’s actual owners and another relative. The owner said she hadn’t seen him, but the relative dropped a bomb: she had seen an animal control truck in the complex around the time Oreo had disappeared.
Scared to death now, I emailed the closest animal shelter. Their (polite) response was that they didn’t have Oreo if his picture wasn’t on the website. I inferred from the message that they couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me if he had ever been there. Nevertheless, I followed the shelter’s advice to make a post in their lost-and-found forum in case something turned up. It never did.
Making Up Theories
The thing that haunts us is wondering what happened to Oreo. I mean, he just disappeared into thin air. How does that happen? We have no concrete answers, but we have a million scenarios.
Our top theory? That the neighbors are lying about having Oreo. We think they’re either holding him captive in their apartment or one of their relatives took him to theirs. Nothing else makes really sense. Like I said before, Oreo would have gone to them when he couldn’t get us. And why would animal control pick him up and leave the complex’s numerous stray cats behind? Why weren’t his owners concerned enough to ask after him when they saw the animal control truck? Because they already had a new kitten? Because there was no truck? It’s their prerogative if they want to reclaim their cat, but it would be petty as hell—just like them, in other words—to make us worry about Oreo just to punish us for our perceived cat-nabbing.
Another theory is that one of our other neighbors has Oreo. He was well-known around the complex. Everyone loved him. It’s possible that one of them took him in. This scenario is plausible but unlikely. No one could have held him this long against his will unless they locked him in a cage. Otherwise, he would have zipped out the door the second someone opened the door or he would have become increasingly violent until they let him go.
My mom has her own theory. She thinks that Oreo got so scared by whatever prompted him to claw the screen open that he ran far away and couldn’t find his way back. This is also unlikely. Oreo knew the complex backwards and forwards. There’s no way he could’ve gotten lost around here. Plus, he wouldn’t have gotten lost elsewhere in the neighborhood because it wasn’t his style to leave the complex.
My least favorite theories are the ones that involve Oreo being dead. It’s totally possible that the animal control people really did pick him up. I heard some commotion in the yard that day, but I attributed it to our neighbors’ usual morning ruckus. I didn’t check it out.
Additionally, a closer look at the animal shelter’s website revealed that they usually only keep lost animals without tags for three days before euthanizing them. Given his advanced age and lack of identification, they probably would have put him to sleep. If that happened…he didn’t deserve that kind of impersonal end. The idea of him sitting scared to death in a cage, waiting in vain for someone to come save him, makes me sick. I cry every time I think about it.
Conclusion
I finally understand how the families of missing people feel. Logically, I know that Oreo probably isn’t coming back, but at the same time, it feels too soon to write him off. I pray every night that he will turn up. I want it so much that my heart leaps every time I hear a baby or a stray cat cry. Both things sound so much like him that it takes my brain a second to catch up.
I think about him constantly. I miss finding him lounging on the porch in the morning. I miss him sitting in my window at night. I miss him begging for whatever we’re eating at the end of the kitchen table. I miss watching him sleep in weird positions on the couch or in my bed. I miss him lifting his face up so he can bump his nose with mine (aka nose kiss). I miss him sitting in or on my laptop to get my attention. I miss trying to interpret his various sound effects. I miss rubbing his belly or holding his soft little paws while he slept.
Admittedly, there’s a lot of anger and regret mixed into the sadness. I’m furious with the neighbors. They should have taken better care of Oreo. They should have collared or chipped him. They should have done something when they supposedly saw the animal control truck. But I’m mad at myself too. I didn’t wake up when I should have. I didn’t check on him when I heard the noise outside. I didn’t look hard enough for him when he first disappeared. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
Despite this unfortunate ending, I think we did the best we could for Oreo. My parents and I truly loved him. I like to think that he loved us back. I wish he could have been our cat for real.
Goodbye for now, Oreo. Thank you for the four years of friendship, love, and entertainment you gave us.