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Perhaps it’s fortunate that Harry didn’t totally retrace his steps to get home.  He’s such a klutz; he may not have crossed that narrow ledge safely a second time.

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But I wasn’t impressed with their methods and opted out.  I did continue reworking “Harry”.  I asked Lynnaea Brodar, in Mesa Arizona, if she’d have time to read and comment on it.  She literally edited it right down to the spacing after periods.  She also read it to her 7-year old granddaughter who loved the story.   I asked what she thought of having illustrations of the different cats printed in the story.  Great.

I work with a very talented artist and asked him if he’d consider illustrating “Harry”.  Well, he didn’t know.  He didn’t have a lot of time.  I asked if he’d read the manuscript and give me a definite yes or no.  A week later he asked how many illustrations I wanted.  He loved the story too.

That was when I decided I was going to publish a chldren’s book. 

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Harry and his brother Louis had been declawed and neutered when they were kittens.  I find it hard to believe a kind old lady who took in two kittens would declaw them  Maybe she had expensive furniture; maybe she didn’t know any better.  But the fact that Harry had no claws was frightening to me after he ran off.  Not knowing where he was or how he was surviving was scary.  In fact, after the first week, I was pretty sure he hadn’t or wouldn’t survive.

Several of my friends are cat lovers.  And the people who entrusted Harry and Louis to me were also concerned.  To the point that one was willing to come to Vancouver to help me ‘beat the bushes’.  I thought if I could write a little story and make it upbeat that everyone would feel better about Harry’s demise.  However, I wasn’t sure how to end the story.  And then one day, Harry reappeared!  Not a scratch on him.  His beautiful long and fluffy fur was as beautiful as ever…though his fluffy tail was full of debris.

Then it seemed logical to write a story about how Harry survived.  He ‘talks’ to several cats in the neighborhood through the front door – the storm door has a screened area that I leave open so the cats can enjoy the fresh air while they are standing at the door ‘talking’.  And that’s what I did – I wrote a story about how Harry got out and how he got lost and how all his friends helped him get home.  It seemed a logical thing to do at the time.

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I went outside and called for Harry.  I looked under anything that could possibly hide a 15 pound, long-haired, fluffly tailed cat.  When this did not yield any results, I walked the sidewalks calling for him.  People who live nearby had never seen the cat – except during nice days when he and his brother stand at the front door and watch the world.  They had never seen him outside and most couldn’t imagine what he looked like.  I continued walking through the small streets, calling for Harry, for quite a while.

When I got home, the cat who hadn’t wandered off was still sitting patiently waiting for his treat.  I couldn’t tell if he was glad that Harry was gone or if he just thought it was no big deal.

Being a bit of a camera nut, I have several photos of both cats.  I chose one of Harry that showed him in his very best light and made “Lost Cat” posters.  Back out again to hang them at various places in about a six block area.

I didn’t see Harry again for a very long time.  He was indeed lost.

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