The Incredible Missy Bloomers

Missy spent Christmas holiday with us when I got Smokey as a present - she was his sister, and was adopted by our old neighbor, Mrs. Parish. We kept her until Mrs. Parish returned home from visiting her daughter, I believe. Missy never took to poor old Mrs. Parish, who was such a sweet old lady - she hid behind her stove, climbed her curtains and lived most of the time voluntarily outside the house. She had her kittens outside in the window well, and when Mrs. Parish tried to bring them in the house, Missy carted them one by one back outside.

One day, Missy just disappeared - sadly - and we couldn't seem to find her anywhere in the neighborhood where Mrs. Parish lived at that point (behind Army Post Rd. by Millers Super Value). Nearly a full year later I saw a black and white cat up in the tree in front of the Pearl Wolfkill's house on the corner from our house. I coaxed her down (it was easy, she came to me readily) and will swear to this day it was the same cat that we brought home for Christmas. Same markings, same floofy bloomers. We even compared old kitten photos to be sure. Mrs. Parish was either gone or in a nursing home at that point, so we took her in and she settled right away.

 To this day I wonder if Missy wasn't trying to find her way back to the home she remembered for those few days at Christmas? She was a great cat. Every night she'd come to my room as soon as I went to bed and kneed my right arm for nearly a half hour before settling. I never minded - especially when I would come home from college, since it was kind of comforting. However, she also had a habit of drooling as she purred, so my sheet over my arm would be soaking wet...