Cinnamon

The day after I quit my job, we had new windows installed. That was August 16th. I have had to call them twice now about the screens. They are pulling away from the frame and anything can get in or out of the house. Including my cats. They were fixed before. And yesterday morning, I noticed that the one in my dining room (screen #2 on this window) is once again pulled away.

I am the crazy cat-lady of New Brighton (remember that for later.) As I turned the light on in the dining room at about 4:50 am, I saw my littlest cat (Gimpy, she's got bad back legs. But she's the quickest one in the house let me tell ya) climbing out of the window. I managed to grab her and I look out of the window. There are 2 more of my cats, Pepper and Piglet. I ran outside and got Piglet immediately. He's never been outside (save for the last time the screens were pulled) and he doesn't like it. So he was easy to catch. Pepper, on the other hand, is a little hussy so to speak and very hard to catch when she escapes captivity. My youngest son, Jesse is very good at catching her. But, I didn't think he'd appreciate being woke up at 5 in the morning to catch her. I managed to get her when she was doing her business in the neighbor's yard (Sorry 'bout that!)

Everyone is in the house (or so I thought) and I run around shutting windows. I count the cats. 1-2-3-4-5---5? Where's Cinnamon?? Ok there's Nutmeg, Pepper, Smidgen, Piglet and Gimpy. Cinnamon?? CINNAMON!! I can't find him. I go running outside and I try to call for him without waking up the entire neighborhood.

Let me tell you about Cinnamon. He is the original Scaredy Cat. His own shadow will scare him. He likes to sit on your lap when he decides, not you. My parents are just now seeing him on a regular basis (and we've had him for 5 years, got him as a baby kitten) because he doesn't like strangers. It has taken him 5 YEARS to warm up to them. But if he hears a stranger's voice in the house, he will hide until you're gone. I had this brilliant idea about 3 years ago that I would take him outside. I put a collar on him and I put him on a stake in the ground. I thought that he would like to roam a little. My mom's neighbor's cat (Miss Kitty) is on a cord and loves to roam around the yard. He Freaked OUT!! Good thing the chain was extra long or he would have hung himself. He ran this way and that way and now I'm running this way and that way trying to catch him to calm him down. He jumped THROUGH the screen on my back porch door and back into my house. Collar and chain still on him, mind you, wrapped around the now knocked-over chair, shaking and crying. Can you picture this? There's a cat cowering around a chair with a long chain stretched out through the screen in my door and tied down to a stake in the yard. Ok, big mistake on my part!

There have been times when he has gotten out and he immediately recognizes the outdoor elements and quickly turns back around and runs inside. Only this time, I wasn't up yet to hold the door open for him. He's not smart enough to jump back up on to the window and get back in. Although Piglet tried on a closed window. HA! Had to laugh as he smacked his head off of it. I call and call for him. I check in the bushes. I check under the cars. I get the kids up and out of bed to walk around the neighborhood. Nothing! Kenny had already left for work and he assured that he'll come back. Through out the day I would go outside and look for him. I scoured my yard. I called and called. Still no Cinnamon. By 6 o'clock last night I am sobbing on the couch. And I mean SOBBING! It had stormed so bad yesterday that I just knew he was petrified. All I could picture was him laying dead on the road. I never made my bed yesterday. I made a lousy dinner. I couldn't even eat. After the boys finished eating (they'll eat anything) they went outside looking for him again. Austin said he saw a puffy orange cat down the road. He thought it might be him if he had been caught in the rain yesterday. Jesse said no. But I went to see anyway. Nope. Not my Cinnamon. I walk back home, sobbing. About half an hour later, I'm back on the couch wallowing in the fear of what must have happened, when in walks Austin with a very scared Cinnamon. I run over and hold him - making Austin lean in so that I can cover him in kisses. Now like I said earlier, Cinnamon doesn't like to be held on your terms. But he was so relieved to be home that he let me hold him for a good 10 minutes. The next 20 minutes he spent eating and drinking. He was laying on my dresser last night when we went to bed and I didn't have the heart to put him out of the room. I could hear Kenny grumble as he got ready for bed. I'm waiting for the window people to call me back....


This picture is not of my cats. But it looks EXACTLY like Cinnamon and Pepper.