Aw, no!

It's getting quite summery out, and the cats have been taking advantage.

Natalie went Out in the evening of April 29th, and has not been seen since. Not a sign of her. She's often gone for a day or two, and once she did disappear for a week. But it's almost two weeks now, and none of the neighbors have seen her either.

And then, while that was going on, Bandersnatch got sick and died.

The Bandercat!

Started looking woozy just around the time Natalie went out. Stayed out & hidden away the first & second of May, then when I saw her on Sunday a week ago, I scooped her up and kept her under my thumb waiting for the vet's to open up Monday morning. Kidney failure, no obvious cause. She didn't get any better at the vet's for 3 days, and Wednesday I had her put down. The poor little sweetheart.

Sienne is just now giving up looking for them both. She is still quite anxious (though, Sienne is always anxious).

Sienne rarely goes out; only when I'm out doing yard work, really. So if there was something the others got into, she wouldn't have found it. You have to wonder at the coincidence of Natalie disappearing just when Bandersnatch got sick. Did they catch some poisoned mice, perhaps? Or maybe the two events are unrelated.

In the meantime, the cherries are starting to blush. It's only the 11th of May - they're weeks early.

Crazy world.