Belikin Watch 2008.

Early in the morning hours of Sept. 16 our cat, Belikin, pushed his way out of or simply fell out of our front kitchen window where the screen is old and bent. This has happened before on two occasions, and in the past we have found him on the porch the next morning, whining about his predicament. This time, however, the morning came and he was nowhere to be found.

Yesterday we spent the morning scouring the house and yard, as well as our immediate neighbors' yards, refusing to believe that a cat so disinterested in anything but napping and eating could have brought himself to wander that far — let alone farther. We were surprised to find that his plaintive whines didn't come in answer to our calls, and we had to leave off for work with no luck locating him. That evening we canvassed the neighborhood, dropping fliers in every mailbox in a two block radius and decorating telephone poles with an adorably lazy picture of the errant bastard (see above). Again, we came up short with the exception of discovering that we have moved into an extremely friendly neighborhood (We moved in Sept. 14). Most people were home when we dropped off our flier, and they welcomed us to the neighborhood and promised to keep an eye out, wished us luck.

The only luck we've had is in not discovering any evidence that Belikin has been attacked, eaten, or hit by a car — which we suspect would have been apparent and happened in the area we hoofed yesterday. He likely got spooked, ran, and got lost.

He's in Allied Gardens somewhere. Napping.

Last night we left the garage door open with a basket of our dirty laundry, food, and water, hoping to attract him home with some of his favorite things: food, and us. Today we have expanded the search. Sarah registered Belikin with a national missing pets organization, and I posted fliers at businesses up and down Waring Road (our closest major street).

We have hope that he will turn up. He is a stocky, strong cat with sharp-ass claws. And he moves so little, it's hard to imagine any other creature noticing he is there. Tonight we will expand our leafleting to a four block radius.

I type this to the sound of fliers printing. It's surprising how many noises sound like a whiny cat gone missing.

Jason