Of all the crappy things that I could imagine happening to me in Bulgaria, one of the more unlikely has happened. The cat, Yuli, is missing. She disappeared last night in what has becomeone of those strange, without a trace kind of disappearances. On information that my living room smelled funky (I have little or no sense of smell. Another story, another time), I left the door to the balcony open even though Yuli tends to try to explore the neighbors' balconies.
I have two neighbors that the cat, with any kind of logic, would have access to. She can get to their balconies either by hopping over the waist-high wall separating each or by crawling around the wall on the ledge overlooking the street below. Beyond the balconies on wither side is a sheer wall that there is no possible way for her to negotiate. I live on the fourth floor and highest floor. As I was letting the apartment air out, I went about my business and Yuli came in and out as she pleased.
Then, around 8:00 last night, I noticed that she hadn't come back in. I stealthily hopped the walls between the balconies to grab her up and shut the door for the night before too many mosquitos got in, but she wasn't there. So I spent a few minutes going through every corner of the apartment, clapping and calling. Then, after a few moments of contemplation, I went to go ask the two next door neighbors if they'd seen the cat. This means walking down to the street, walking to the next building entrance down the block, and walking back up to the fourth floor.
Both had seen the cat, but confirmed that she wasn't on their balconies or in their apartments. At about 9:00 at night, this left me with the possibility that she had fallen either 3 floors to ledge on the first floor, or four to street below. The latter seems unlikely. The ledge juts out about 6 feet, and if she had landed on it, her first thoughts probably wouldn't be jumping the 10 feet down to the sidewalk.
So today, I've been going door to door on the first floor, asking everyone with a balcony if they've seen the cat. So far, no luck. But at least I've got the word out. No, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping she shows up at some point.
Posted by Rob at June 29, 2005 07:29 PM