so long, farewell...

sad news.

my sweet/grouchy mister baby kitty ru, who this blog was named after, has ran away.

being the accountant that i am, i ran the numbers and the probability of him returning, unscathed, is a measly 2%.

needless to say, i am devastated.

it all started with the move to the new house. apparently, despite the husband's and my hopes, rufus did not take to the new house. we thought he would love all the space to roam, all the windows to view the world around him. but according to several online sources, a new home can lead to new bad behavior in an adult cat.

poor rufus had a lot of change in the last year and a half. first we added token to the family. rufus was not very please at first. but soon he accepted tokey as his little brother and loved him as such.

then we adopted sweet pico de gallo a year later. rufus really wasn't pleased and let pico know who ruled the house.

then 4 months we uproot sweet rufus from his home of 2+ years and move him into a giant foreign place. soon we noticed an unpleasant odor in our unfurnished front room. i assumed it was pico, marking his territory since he hadn't been fixed yet. within a few days we had him fixed.

then we caught rufus in the act. spraying our brand new overpriced super soft desert sand carpet.

i was flabbergasted. i had no clue what to do. i quickly researched the problem online. and spent a small fortune at petsmart on products to help elimate the problem. then we locked rufus in the upstairs bathroom for a week. occasionally we would toss tokey in there for company.

he was miserable and i felt horrible. lincoln was furious at him and insisted that rufus would have to be an outside cat now because we couldn't trust him not to do it again. i scheduled a vet appointment to rule out medical conditions and we made another trip to petsmart for supplies.

lincoln fashioned him a "cat house" out of one of my storage bins and some old towels. we set him up with a new food and water dish. and moved him outside. i was so upset. i hated how he sat at the glass door and cried. so i would sit out there with him. he used to be an outside cat when we lived in chandler years ago. i hoped he would be ok.

he didn't show up one morning when i went to check on him. i left for work and reminded lincoln to watch for him. no sign of him the next day, then the next day, etc. i registered him online as a lost pet, sent out some messages and contacted the necessary people (vets, animal control, etc).

a couple false leads and several tears later... no mister ru.

we went to the mesa shelter and the phx humane society. nothing.

i blame myself. it wasn't safe for him. i am heartbroken.

rufus was my baby. i adopted him 5 years ago when i was just 19 and all alone. i lived in an apartment with a couple and it was during a time lincoln and i were on a "break". kara, my roommate, and i went to arizona animal welfare league in phoenix (with the car salesman from ABC nissan in tow, kara was buying a new car) and we picked out kitties. i looked in all the cages and the cats just looked back. i was leaning in to look at one cage stacked in the middle of three when a small black paw swiped at my head. i looked up and saw the funniest looking kitten in the place, my kitty. he showed moxie. he was just what i was looking for.

he has always been there for me. he was my silent comforter. whenever i would be having a bad day rufus would lay in my lap and make biscuits on my legs or tummy. he loved to sleep on the bed with me. he was playful and entertaining, grouchy and sweet at the same time. he was my 15lbs of fun.

so all who read this blog, close your eyes and send your happy thoughts to my sweet mister baby kitty rufie ru. may he be safe and/or at peace.

fingers crossed he will return.