September 23, 2000 - Saturday
This journal entry has very little to do with Harry when you get right down to it. Last evening our cat, Paavo, escaped the house and has not yet returned. Paavo lived with us as an indoor cat for almost exactly ten years. In the city, there was little reason for him to go outside beyond the occasional appearance beneath our window sills of one or two neighborhood cats that would come and peer mockingly at poor Paavo stuck in the window. Yet, past that great cat anxiety, he never expressed all that much interest in being outside. We took him out on a leash and into our backyard a couple of times, but he never seemed to thrive on being out and the one time he escaped, we quickly found him cowering under a nearby car howling at his predicament.

Maybe it's that he's older now and calmer than he used to be, but since we moved to the country he's been noticeably more aggressive about wanting to get out. I've caught him sneaking out twice now and, especially the second time, he had no interested in recoiling to the safety of the indoors as he would ordinarily have done before. That second incident even made me think about integrating him into the world outside - in fact, we kept his claws at the expensive of our rugs and furniture for 10 years on the chance that we might let him out in the country one day - and maybe building a cat door somewhere about the house. However, thus far we had kept him inside, because at 10 years old, it's hard to believe he would understand and adapt to the subtleties of living in the wild. Now that he's missing, we can only hope we've underestimated him.

Harry liked Paavo the cat to the extent that he understood him. At least he made Harry laugh. Of course, Harry's not so subtle touch had Paavo heading away pretty quickly, but occasionally we could work it out so Harry would, under strict supervision, pat the cat. It's possible to think that Paavo left because of Harry, or because our attention and affections seemed now to be passing him by. We undoubtedly and necessarily spent less quality time with Paavo, but that is not likely. It's more likely that the new smells and fresh air of our new environs were the real draw. If so, it was going to be a struggle to keep him in and maybe this was inevitable. Hopefully, he will return after his walkabout and Harry will be able to laugh at the cat again.


Comments, opinions?