As I prepared to return to Central Texas today, I was, of course, gathering cats.  As the carriers filled, there was still an empty one.  Ruby was missing.  We looked everywhere for her.  When had I seen her last?  Yesterday, but I couldn’t pinpoint when.  I was too tired last night to wake up enough to see who was sleeping beside my legs, so I don’t know if I’d seen her then or not.

I’d put the food tower up before going to bed last night, because Ajax gets car sick.  A car sick Ajax is easier to clean up if he hasn’t eaten before traveling.  Of course, that means the cats were racing around and wrestling this morning, but I couldn’t recall if I’d seen Ruby or not.  When I got up, the cabinet door under the sink was open, but Mr. L and I both looked in all the cabinets at least twice and didn’t see her.

Mr. L searched the house while I continued to load the truck with cats and whatever else I needed to bring back to Central Texas with me.  By the time I was ready to go, I was already an hour later than I had planned to be, and we still hadn’t found Ruby.  Fortunately, Mr. L will be in town for a few days.  He was certain she must have gotten outside and was probably in the garage or under the house (there is under house access from the garage if you’re a cat). I was pretty certain Ruby had found herself a new hiding place but we didn’t know where it was yet. I was betting it was somewhere in the cabinets under the sink even if I had looked twice and couldn’t figure out where.  Ruby is a small seven pound cat with feral roots.  She can hide very well.

Mr. L asked me to leave Ajax with him, and I headed for Central Texas (Ajax is good at luring cats).  Three hours later, as I was driving up the street to the Central TX house, Mr. L called and said I could come back to pick up Ruby (ha, ha).  He didn’t know where she was but, he’d had to go to the bathroom, and when he came out, Ruby was sauntering out of the kitchen.  I said, “I’ll bet she was under the cabinets.”  Sure enough, the under sink cabinet door was open when he went in to look. Somebody has a new hiding place.