Farewell, Signal
Another significant event occurred this summer – we became catless.
Before I left for Europe, I brought our 6-year-old gray cat to live with my parents for a few weeks who kindly agreed to host him.
I left and after a few days he actually started to get along with my parents’ cat, Moxie. But then they had to try to get him in his crate. He freaked out, busted through a screen and ran outside. He evaded my parents’ desperate attempts to catch him again and has not been seen since that day in early August.
Having been an indoor cat all his life and not also not being the smarted animal we’ve met, I doubt he’s still with us, especially with other wild animals roaming around rural New Hampshire. Sometimes you hear stories of animals who journey hundreds of miles home to find their owners. With Signal’s apparently-limited intellect, we’re not holding out for that possibility.
My parents felt terrible about the whole thing of course and put up posters all over the place. He is chipped so if he did end up at a shelter they would be able to find us, but no one has called.
Anne and I were a little sad about about it, mostly for how scared he must have been. For us, it was something of a relief. With two kids, paying attention to a cat was the last thing on our minds. I’m sure he knew that and would sometimes be very aggressive at getting our attention. He was never mean, but seemed lonely, especially after Pixel went away. We were tired of cleaning up the fur and replacing furniture he clawed.
Our biggest concern was how we would explain it to Audrey. Our solution to that was “don’t ask, don’t tell.” She never asked and we never told her. By the time she returned from a month in Europe I think she had forgotten all about him. She wasn’t particularly close with him, but explaining where he went might have been disturbing to her. At this point, I don’t think she’ll ever remember we once had cats.
So farewell Signal, I hope you enjoyed your big adventure outside, for however long it lasted. 
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