Edward's Tale and Tail

Please forgive me if I am a tad incoherent today --I had six weeks of cuddling Edward to catch up on and I'm a little sleep-deprived.

I have to start by telling you all of this weird thing that happened. Remember Monday when I spent the whole day working on the guest room and going through all of my office stuff? Well, I found a fortune (from a fortune cookie) that I'd saved because it said, "You will soon witness a miracle." I know this sounds crazy, but I took it as a sign that I was going to get Edward back. I can't really explain it but I was just certain all of a sudden. I sent an e-mail to Tiffany where I said, "I know this sounds crazy but..." and then I told Lin about it, too. (Lin said, "Oh, wow, I bet you sell your house!" and I said, "No, I bet I get Edward back!" Without missing a beat, she said, "Well, okay, or that!" She cracks me up.)

I know that sounds crazy. I really do. But y'all know how I'm always looking for signs, right? It's part of my psychosis --er--charm.

Last night, as I was working on a blog post about how blue I was feeling, my husband opened our front door and said, "Guess who's home?"

And there, in a cat carrier, was Edward.

I started SOBBING --seriously. Ana said later, "I've never seen you cry like that." (I'm getting all teary just writing about it.) Both girls started to cry and jump around and there was mass chaos and a lot of kissing Coop and questions and laughing and we opened the cage and let the Furry One out and there, there FINALLY was that tail. Oh, how we had missed that tail. Jane kept bouncing around saying, "The flag is home! The flag is home!" because that's how we talk about Edward's tail. It's part of our ART in this house, that tail.

So, after things had settled down, Coop told me that the reason he surprised us all that way was that he'd gotten this very cryptic message on his cell phone from the Home Again microchip people. He let me listen to it and honestly, if you weren't looking right at a certain orange puff ball, you might think that they'd found the BODY of a cat. It said something like, "We are calling with regard to your cat with the microchip XYZ123. Please call the XXX Shelter for more information." Coop tried to call the shelter but got a maze of telephone buttons and boxes and press-this-for-that, etc. and he couldn't seem to get a PERSON on the phone. The shelter is pretty to close to our house but Coop knew I had the girls at home and he was afraid to call me and tell me to go to the shelter and get Edward because what if Edward was No Longer? So he left work (things at his office are not so easy to just leave right now but the man has his priorities) and high-tailed it over to the shelter.

And there was Edward.

THERE WAS EDWARD!!!

It turns out that a family living about six miles (!) east of us had noticed Edward hanging around about two weeks ago. They weren't sure if he was feral or belonged to someone but they started feeding him and he started being Edward and then when it rained this week, they let him inside their cabana with a litter box. The daughter, Nicole (15) called her mom at work and said, "Butterscotch is using a litter box. I think he belongs to someone."

So they loaded him up and took him to the shelter. The staff at the shelter scanned him and got our contact information. The mom (Susan) told me that he was the first cat the shelter had ever processed who had a microchip! Isn't that amazing??

He's very thin. He weighed about 12 pounds when he went missing and I bet he barely weighs eight pounds now. And he's a bit disoriented. He knew me though, right away, and slept in his old spot on my pillow. I carried him downstairs twice to get food--he's eating like a horse. The dogs seem to be back on board with Edward being home but Thomas? Thomas is acting like he never even KNEW Edward, much less cuddled with him and played with him. Thomas is seriously P.O.'d over this new cat we've brought home.

So, there it is: another happy ending in my blessed life. I'm going to take a fat check and the carrier back to the shelter this morning, in the name of the people who brought us back our Edward, may the heavens bless them. I'm going to try to remember all the things I promised Buddha that I would do if we got Edward back.

I'm going to get down on my knees and thank God for the collective positive power of you amazing people all over this country who waited with me and prayed and ate spaghetti and cried until we got Edward back.

And I might just curl up on the couch and take a little nap with an orange tabby who is home at last.

(Look, Ei! Curled toes!!)