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On July 15, our cat Mischa got out and never returned. We had just finished watching the sunset and feeding Garett his bedtime bottle on the front porch. As we opened the door to put Garett down, Mischa ran out. She has always been quite the escape artist, but she always returned within an hour or two, so we weren't terribly worried about chasing her down. Unfortunately, we were wrong and now she is gone forever, we fear. We've handed out hundreds of flyers, contacted all the local vets, visit the shelter regularly, and taken out ads in the local paper, all to no avail. I've had Mischa for 13 years, longer than I've known Gene. We are heartbroken and pray that either she wandered to a kind stranger's home and is happy and well-cared for, or she is with God and knows how desperately we miss and love her.
My girl wasn't the most social of cats. She was independent and definitely craved her own space. But, she was a sucker for a warm lap, especially in the winter and when I was pregnant, as in the picture above, and my body temperature was higher than normal. Despite the fact that she was less affectionate and gregarious than our other cat Mickey, she was very intuitive - whenever I was feeling sick or had had a bad day, she would always come sit near me on the couch or lay by my feet in bed, as if to say, "I understand."
Mischa never made any bones about claiming the best seat in the house.
Here she is napping in my nursery chair on the very night our furniture arrived.
What a little imp! I caught my girl napping in Garett's Moses basket, in his crib, shortly before he arrived. Life sure changed when Garett arrived, and the cats had to learn to take a backseat to our little man. Mischa adapted beautifully and didn't seem to take the lack of attention personally - she was always the most flexible of our two cats. For example, when we moved to Columbia, Mickey hid under our bed for nearly two weeks, but Mischa was immediately at home and roamed around the rooms, checking it all out. That was my girl - strong and brave and completely confident.
When we brought Mickey home six years ago, Mischa wasn't very pleased and she made absolutely clear that she was and always would be THE BOSS. With rare exception, Mickey deffered to her. And, by the way, those exceptions usually involved lots of hissing and flying fur. They weren't enemies, and they weren't best buddies either - they simply coexisted. This photo was taken about a week before Mischa disappeared. I was pleased to see them hanging out together early one morning, watching the birds flying around in the backyard.
I love this picture of Mischa. She absolutely loved roaming around in our fenced-in backyard. She would hunt bugs and birds, lay in the sun, and nap under our Japanese maple tree. She loved being out of doors. I always said that, when Mischa passed away, I wouldn't bury her - she would hate being stuck in one spot forever - but I would cremate her and sprinkle her ashes in our backyard and let the breeze set her free to roam the world. Mischa, wherever you've roamed, please come home. If you aren't coming home, we hope you know how much you've meant to us and that we will always love you.