Shea



We lost one of our cats last week.  We have many coyotes in the area and I am always careful to make certain that all my animals are safely inside at night.  Shea had been snuggling with me on the sofa until Pierce came into the room.  All animals have their favorite humans and Pierce belongs to Shea the same way I belong to Bear.  Shea jumped off the sofa and followed Pierce upstairs.



I awoke during the night when I heard a cat scream.  Thinking gratefully that all my animals were safe, I went back to sleep.  The next afternoon, Pierce came through the house to ask if I had seen Shea.  Not since he went upstairs with you last night I replied.  Pierce gave me a strange look.  He didn't follow me upstairs last night, he said, I only gave him some milk and he decided to lay in the window seat.  My heart sank - I knew then what had happened.

The only thing we can guess is that Shea ran out of the house when the Photographer took the dogs out before bed and didn't come back in with them.  He has run off before but has never been gone for more than 2 days.  

Pierce is beside himself with worry and has taken the dogs out every day to search for Shea.  He is convinced that what I heard was Shea fighting with a raccoon.  Shea is half Main Coon - a hulking 25 pound boy that has held his own while fighting racoons in the past.  Pierce insists that Shea is only lying low, nursing his wounds until he can return home. But I can see the desperation and the doubt in his eyes.

I am mourning him as well.  When we first moved here, the Photographer gave me a kitten for my birthday and Shea was her first born.  Call me silly or call me stupid but I think of Shea as my "grandbaby".  He was all I had left of his mother - who had a stroke and needed to be put down several years ago.  I have taken the dogs out myself every day and scoured our property from one end to the other looking for him. But there is no doubt, I know he is gone and I am heartbroken.