I just had a slight panic, but all is well now. I was getting sleepy and thinking of going to bed early when I realized that I hadn’t seen Pekoe for a while. Thinking back, I realized it was a long while. The last I could remember was when he was getting tangled up in the sheets I had taken out of the dryer and was trying to fold this morning. Since then, I’d gone out to have brunch with Alex, come back and gone out to work in the garden, and then come back to do some work in the kitchen and watch TV and couldn’t recall seeing Pekoe at any of those times.

I went through all the floors in the house twice, calling and looking in all the obvious places with no luck. Opened some cupboard doors, looked in the shower and under the beds, and checked out some nooks and crannies in the basement. Listened for cat meows everywhere, but no luck. Asked Jasmine where the heck he was. She probably knew, but she wasn’t telling. Went outside with a flashlight and walked all around our cluster, calling and listening, just in case he’d slipped out when I wasn’t looking. No luck.

But finally, when I came in from the walkabout, I heard a banging upstairs while Jasmine was sitting in front of me. Relief! He was in the linen closet, which I hardly ever open, except when I’d put in the spare set of sheets for my guest room bed this morning. Amazingly, he didn’t seem all that upset. I hugged and petted him like crazy, and then he sauntered casually down to check out his food dish. I bet he’ll be up all night playing, though, after having an all-day enforced rest.

Pekoe, don’t scare me like that. Next time you get caught somewhere, could you please meow already, like a normal cat?