Our precious, precious Max went missing on January 26. I had seen him around 8 pm, right before Alex got home from work. Well, normally when we sit in front of the tube at night and watch our pointless shows, he usually comes in and talks to us and begs for attention. Well, we both fell asleep and when I woke up at 12:30 on the couch, I realized I hadn't heard from him. I looked all over the house for him. Panic had set in. I woke Alex up and had him search with me. We found a hole in one of the screens... there was probably a bit of slit where the screen meets the metal pole and he used that to get out.
He was gone... without a trace. At 1 am, we were searching around the yard with flashlights yelling for him. I would hate us if I were my neighbors.
We decided to wait until daylight. We set food out for him and left the regular door to the screened porch open so he could walk in that door and then walk through his cat door. I had already convinced myself that he had been eaten by an alligator, a boar, a rattle snake, a gnome, etc. I had warned myself that I would probably see his dead, lifeless body on the road bc someone had probably hit him while driving. It just made me sick.
We would drive around in the car and yell for him (day or night), I made fliers and put them up in our neighborhood, I went around to the local vet offices and reported him missing, and went by the SPCA. I cried each time I had to tell them who/what/when/where/why. The night that I did all of that, my neighbor that I don't know very well told me that she had seen him outside of her house on Saturday night. Apparently he had made a little cat friend and was running around at night torturing cats that were stuck inside (like he normally is). It made me feel so much better than he was hanging out close to home.
We continued to go on walks and shake bags of treats for him. Charlotte would yell, "MAAAA" and shake the treats. It broke my heart. She yelled for him every day.
Finally, Thursday morning, right at a week since he had been missing, at 5 in the morning, Alex and I were lying in bed and we hear a really loud, hoarse "meow". Max was home! He wasn't missing any limbs or part of his tail. He was skinny (for him). He got some lovin' and then went and started drinking out of the toilet. He was so thirsty. We had so much food for him. He ate and ate and ate and drank and drank and drank. He slept off and on for 2 days. He would come check on us to see where we were and get some love, then he'd head back to bed.
He wanted to be by us so bad that he even decided to sleep in Charlotte's blow up ducky.
It was one of the best days of my life. We are so glad he is home. He is such a vital part of our family. Thank you for coming home, Maximillion Pujols Jackson. We love you so much.
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