The Story of Little Bear - Part 2

When I got to my apartment, I set Bear's carrier, with him in it, in the farthest corner of my apartment and opened it. I didn't know how he is going to respond to my other cat, Mimi, so I gave each the farthest corners of my apartment. Very similar to the corners that boxers retreat to in the ring. I anticipated a cat fight, so to speak.

Bear explored while Mimi sat perched on her thrown, the nicest pillow I have on top of my bead. She growled when he entered the bedroom, so he retreated back to his designated area where I had also prepared a litter box, food and water. I gave Mimi her own stuff in my bedroom. I shut the door and went to bed.

I knew Mimi wouldn't look for trouble and Bear seemed to understand the boundaries, so the next morning, I allowed Bear full reign of the apartment. Off to work I went hoping that the two would make nice with one another and be friends.

When I came home from work that night, I couldn't find Bear. I looked everywhere: behind the sofa, under the sofa, in dresser drawers, closets, under tables and desks, behind tables and desks. He was NOT in my apartment. As I was standing in my kitchen trying to think where he could have gone, I saw his little mouse toy just outside the cabinet under the sink. He must have been carrying it around while I was away and found something more interesting.

I opened the cabinet thinking I had solved the problem. He wasn't there. The pipes under the sink did go through a rather large hole to who knows where. I wondered, "could Bear really squeeze through that hole?". Then I saw the clumps of his hair along the edges of the hole. He did squeeze through and I had no idea where that hole lead to. I was panic sricken, looking for mirrors and a flashlight to see if I could see behind the hole.

I was able to get a pretty good glance but I could not see him anywhere. By the way, there are three really nice blushes back there because I kept dropping whatever mirror I could fit into the hole. The only way he could have wandered to from there was to my next door neighbor and that was it. So I ran next door.

This is the very first time I met Dawn. What a sweety. She dropped everything she was doing grabbed her own flashlight and came over. We determined that he could not go beyond our two apartments and so we headed back to my place. As she was standing in my kitchen I was frantically telling her how Bear got here. And what the hell was I going to tell Judy? I lost Bear the first night he was in my home.

As I was standing there, we both looked down at the hole and there was Bear behind it, just sitting there. He wouldn't come back through. I'm not sure he could have because where he was was lower than from where he came. He didn't have gravity on his side to pull through. He was right there and there was nothing I could do.