Sasha, The Vanishing Cat PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 13 January 2004 00:00

As you all know, we travel with our two cats, Sasha and Sambucca. Both cats are skittish and disappear from sight whenever there are strangers around. Most people don't even know we have two cats because Sasha never comes out. The folks here are very used to RV owners and their travelling companions and it is not unusual for cats to stay aboard while work is being done on a rig. We made them aware of our invisible cats and they were very careful to keep the door closed as much as possible. As per the norm, both cats vanished when the guys came aboard and stayed out of site all day. Yesterday, after we returned to the Travel Supreme repair facility our motorhome was nicely parked outside, waiting for us.

We went inside and set up the TV and Internet, put out the slides and settled in for the night. Sam came out to greet us right away and resumed her usual behaviour. Sasha stayed out of site, which we expected, however two hours later when she was still nowhere to be seen we started to look for her. She wasn't in the bedroom closet, her favourite hiding spot, nor was she under the couch. We looked in every cupboard and under every surface. We even, reluctantly looked behind the slide outs, afraid of what we might find (...a cat pancake!!??) Frown Sasha had disappeared!!

My fear was that somehow she had gotten out and was hiding in the huge repair facility or worse, she was lost outside somewhere. I wandered around the huge, now deserted, garage filled with motorhomes, tools, boxes and paraphernalia for a terrified cat, to no avail. I wandered around outside calling her name and quietly panicked. Rick re-searched every nook and cranny inside. After my efforts outside proved futile, I came inside and joined him in the search. Finally, together we lifted the mattress off of the platform and in the corner, underneath the mattress we found one very frightened, folded cat in a space about nine inches long, three inches wide and four inches deep. How she jammed herself in there remains a mystery however we realize utter fear enables any living thing to do anything they deem necessary to survive. She was in there so tight that if we hadn't found her, there is no question she would have suffocated. We have ALL been traumatized by this experience!