Dos Anos

Well, today marks our 2-year wedding anniversary. What we thought was going to be a relaxing, chilled out day of 1-1 time turned out to be a day full of panic and despair. The morning started wonderfully, but was soon usurped by the fact that our little one did not come home for breakfast. Niko usually

comes in about 730, 9 being the latest he’s ever wandered home. So, after 10 rolled by and then 11–then 1230–we got majorly freaked out. We scoured the neighborhood for five blocks in each direction by car and by foot, crying “Niko Berry!” though the streets like a feline-loving Paul Revere. We looked under the house, in the garage, through every slot of every fence to every backyard we could find. We looked for bodies, evidence of injury–anything. Two cats joined in the hunt as they assumed I was calling them, one of them, of course, being the orange tabby Niko who lives down the street.

1pm came and went–we had to get out and go lunch to get our minds off it, thinking perhaps he’s be at the door upon our return. We were again, disappointed. I called Avid, Drew called the pound. Still nothing. 2 and 3 came and went. Our hopes began to wain. 4 and 5 we spent trying to keep our minds off his disappearances through the aid of term papers and computer games. About 530 the server to Shaiya was out for maintenance. I was forced either to study for finals or look again. I chose to look, of course. We made our rounds around the block once more. Still nothing. When we returned to our cottage, we sat on the stoop in teary defeat, wondering just what could have happened to our baby boy who had newly turned one years old. We figured he must be trapped somewhere and unable to come home–he always comes home and is most punctual. He has to be hungry, we thought. He has to be trapped somehow.

An opening and a closing of a gate, possibly ours. At least that’s what I thought–I thought it was our neighbor in the master house coming through the side-yard. A quaint meow–followed by a desperate cry. Little orphan Niko came bumbling up the sidewalk with a terror in his eye and a rapid heartbeat. Shocked, I sat there thinking I had, as many times before in the day, imagined it. He called to us again and came to rub his cheek against Drew’s knee. He saw me and immediately laid in my arms; I picked him up and held him like a toddler (he does so love that), talking quietly to me. Drew, stunned as well, went to go check out where he had come from while I brought him in the house to feed him. Turns out it was not our fence which had been opened (though it did appear at the time as if God had just “dropped him off” mysteriously), but our neighbor’s adjacent from us. Apparently, from what we can surmise, Niko had been trapped in their garage for the duration of the day and had been trying to escape. This is all we can gather because they denied that he was in there. Very peculiar. Anyway, I am happy to report that he is doing well and our anniversary, which started off in tragedy, as ended beautifully with the whole family here to enjoy it with.