GHOST

This is my cat "Ghost". Two years ago he kept slipping outside along with my cats Harry and Fagan. I had heard all the horror stories about letting cats outside but my sister and several friends kept telling me not to worry. I took all 3 into the Vet and had them microchipped (just in case!) So Ghost would always timidly follow Harry around the garden and sometimes over the fence into the neighbors yard and sit on the hill and watch the neighborhood. Old chubby Fagan would go 3 doors down to the elderly ladies house and lay on his back in her perfect green lawn. (I was always shooing him back to my house!) So I started to relax a little and let them play outside and they would end up laying on my front porch waiting for me after they had their fun. Then the Friday before Labor Day weekend only Harry was sitting on the porch. I walked down and carried old Fagan back home calling for Ghost the whole time. Later that night after leaving food on my porch I tearfully went back to bed. In the morning, no Ghost! By Sunday I was frantic, I printed out his picture and made 8 huge posters with all my contact info on it. I went out and bought my first cell phone on Monday and added the phone number to the posters. I put his photo and a lost ad in the 2 local papers. Then I printed up flyer's and my niece and I went door to door and handed them out. (talk about meeting the neighborhood!) I began a friendship with the lady who walks her schnauzer past my house every day. She began taking different routes in an effort to help. The man with the St. Bernard started walking the other direction helping with the search. Another elderly lady who walks slowly with a cane and a shih-tzu and has a friend with her to help her along would stop by to get updates on the search. Meanwhile I was walking my own dog Blue (he's a white deaf Great Dane) around the neighborhood at all hours). I also stopped or would call daily to the local shelter. I found that nothing brings out the goodness in people like the love of animals. I went on several calls to people who were sure they had found him, but it was always futile. Either it was the wrong cat or a stray that wasn't there when I got there. A client at my job told me he found his lost cat and found him one month to the day so not to give up hope. People in my life started giving me that sad smile when I would talk about my search. Some asked how long I was going to continue and I said I didn't know but I wasn't ready to give up yet. I couldn't get his image out of my mind. He was the one scared of everything and who would hide under the couch when it stormed outside. One month to the day I called HomeAgain to make sure there weren't any calls. No luck. Then 3 days later at work they came back to tell me I had a call from the "City". Everyone looked away as I answered the phone.
It was an animal control officer from the next town over. Some kids had found a white cat in a storm drain in a park and got him out and put him in the public restroom at the park and called animal control. The officer said when she got there he had crawled into a hole behind the sink.
She pulled him out and scanned for a microchip and my info came up and that's how she was able to call me! I left work and went to get him. He looked remarkable healthy and my Vet said he was fine. He is basically the some cat, still loving and sweet but now I catch him licking the water drops on the side of the tub. He no longer hesitates when he jumps from one area to the next. He doesn't hide when it storms. I wonder what he went through!? He doesn't run from my little dogs but slinks past them confidently. What battles did he go through and win to make this change in personality? He seems pretty content to stay inside, which is good because that's where he is staying!