Phantom Cat

Leia has always been what we call a "scaredy-cat".  She doesn't like a ton of attention from us, definitely doesn't like to be held much, and will scurry away quickly at the slightest noise or movement directed toward her.

On Sunday, the girls were cutting her claws, as is their usual job. They're the best at it because Karissa is good at handling cats and Leia does like Victoria more than some others around here, but still, cutting Leia's claws is not an easy task! Luke can be done while just sitting there, without anyone holding him. Leia has to be held just right and needs to have soft whisperings spoken to her to calm her down.

For some reason, this particular time, she was hard to work with. I don't really know what happened, but she didn't cooperate and wouldn't keep still. I think part of the problem was that Victoria was doing the cutting and not the holding. She hissed really loudly at them, which she has never done before, and then took off like a flash.

We didn't think much of it, except we thought it was weird that she hissed like that. A few hours later, though when she didn't come out for the canned food we give them for dinner, which she loves, we started to get worried. We didn't think she got outside, because the only place we went to was to take dinner to the missionaries. We searched all over the house in all her favorite hiding places, to no avail,

We prayed for her that night and I fully expected to see her the next morning, rubbing her body against me just before my alarm went off, as she usually does and is the only real affection she gives me (because it's on her terms and I'm half awake), but she wasn't there. Nor did she come for breakfast that morning. Luke was extra friendly, knowing he was the only cat around which is pretty hard to do since he's already really friendly!

She didn't come to dinner that night either and I started to get really worried. I thought that maybe she was stuck somewhere, maybe even dead. Karissa and I had to go to an outdoor cheer meeting that night. Before we left to come home, Jason texted us a picture of Leia eating some food in the kitchen! He said she was on the guest bed, so he convinced her to follow him to get some food. She wasn't using her front left paw. She disappeared again after that, but we were so happy to know she was alive!

The next morning she was in my room when I woke up, just sitting there on the floor. She still wasn't using her paw and hobbled down for breakfast, then disappeared for the rest of the day, though I did find her hiding spot behind a bin in the storage room in the basement.

Same thing this morning, she was on the floor in my room when I woke up. I talked to her softly and gave her some soft rubs so she would trust humans again. She hobbled down for breakfast, even got two when Luke came in for his after being in the garage. She made her way to the top of the cat post where I gave her some more TLC and checked out her paw, which looked ok to me, but who am I to say? While I did my strength training she hung out on the post, but when I finished and went back into the kitchen, she was sitting on the counter! I walked to her slowly to gently get her down, but she scurried away, still not using that paw, and disappeared into the basement for the rest of the day! Jason saw her in her new hiding placed, but she wasn't there later today, so she may have changed locations, now that it was discovered by us.

So, now she's like this phantom cat who we never see, hiding in the basement all day. Limping to get her food and being all sensitive. It's so weird! Even though she wasn't very comfortable with humans, she loved playing with Luke and always followed me around the house, as long as I didn't pay her much attention. She always watched me prepare meals and watched us eat from the cat post. We miss our old Leia! Hopefully, she'll recover soon! We may take her to the vet next week if she'll let us get close enough to get her in the kennel.

(Btw, I wrote this last night, intending on posting it then, but obviously, that didn't happen. This morning was pretty much the same. Now she's the phantom in the basement again.)

I couldn't get a very good picture of her without her hobbling around, so they're blurry.

This was her and Luke when they would always cuddle on their favorite post all day long. You can't even tell there are two cats there!

She used to always spread out on Karissa's bed.