The adventures of Mr. Socks
Jack Socks came to our home when his mother showed up on our back porch one day with four kittens; Jack Socks being one of them. We called him socks because he was almost all black except for a white patch under his chin down to his belly and each of his four paws were white and he looks like he has white socks on.
It took a while but we caught the kittens and brought them in to live with us and we found out just how crazy Jack Socks was. Running here to there, sleeping all day on our bed only to be awake all night stepping on our heads while we slept and carrying toys to us all night long wanting to play! Have you ever been awakened by having a cat step right on your eye in the middle of the night?
Jack socks has these little round plastic toys and he would find one somewhere and carry it around the house until he found you and then he would drop it and wait for you to thump it with your finger and shoot it across the room. And then he would burn out after it and bring it right back to you in his mouth, ready for you to thump it again!
After living with us for two years and having never been outside in his life since we first caught him, Jack Socks accidentally got out one day. He slipped out an open door without us even knowing it. We didn’t know it for an hour or two and when we searched our house and didn’t find him we panicked! Mr. Jack Socks didn’t know anything about the outside world and it is a scary place for a kitty. We went out with flashlights and walked and walked and called and called him, but nothing. There was not a sign of him and it was very dark out.
We couldn’t sleep that night thinking and worrying about Jack Socks and hoping that he would be alright out there, lost in a strange new world of darkness and unfamiliar noises. The next day we searched and searched and searched until our legs felt like they were going to fall off, but not a sign of him. Mr. Jack Socks was just gone. We would look at his little plastic toys lying in the house right where he had left them and we would cry.
One day passed, and then two days and three without as much as a sign of him. We went to every neighbor, searched every back yard a dozen times or more and we walked through every nearby field, but no Jack Socks. We were heartbroken. We were worried and so very sad. After all, we live in the country where there are coyotes and Owls and Chicken Hawks and snakes and other things; animals that people mostly don’t have to worry much about. But a kitty? A kitty that doesn’t know a bird from a cow or a horse from an Owl? And some of these things can hurt a kitty cat.
The days passed by so slowly without Mr. Socks, and we never stopped hunting for him. Why even our other cats were sad. And then…on the eighth day just after dark as we walked and called his name like we had a thousand times…we saw him! He was at the edge of a bunch of trees and he was watching us! We walked toward him and called him but he didn’t come to us; in fact he ran away. But we saw him and Mr. Socks was ALIVE.
We actually slept that night. We had seen him and we knew that he was still alive. And so we started putting very stinky cat food around the house in the hopes of bringing him in to us, but it didn’t work, all we caught were Opossums. A few nights later we saw him again and when we tried to get close to him he would run away. We put traps outside the house and continued searching for him, but we never saw him one time when it was daylight, he would only show up after dark.
I began leaving the garage door open enough so that a cat could come in if he smelled the stinky food and was hungry. I would hide behind things with the garage door remote opener in my hand and try to be quiet and still..and wait for Mr. Socks. One night after sitting in there very still for three hours staring at that opening under the door, a little black head popped in. It scared me so much that I moved..and when I moved it scared him and he was gone.
The next night I did the same thing. I sat there in the darkness of the garage along with that stinky food and waited for hours, but he didn’t come. Eight days had passed, nine had passed, ten and then eleven and still no Mr. Socks. Had he forgot who we were? Was he having so much fun that he did not want to come home?
On the night of day number twelve without Jack Socks I sat in that garage and did it all once again. And after sitting there in the quiet darkness for four hours I fell asleep while sitting up with that remote in my hand! And then all of a sudden I opened my eyes and there he was. Mr. Jack Socks was inside the garage and staring at me. He was skinnier now, he hadn’t been eating as much and maybe wasn’t sleeping enough, but he didn’t look good. He looked sad…and he looked hungry. And then I hit that garage door remote button and…..he ran.
The next night I did it again and I promised myself that I would NOT fall asleep. One hour went by and then two and then three and then a little black face emerged in the opening. He walked in slowly as if he was afraid to, but he walked towards the stinky mackerel food. And when he was far enough in that he could not make it back out..Wham…I hit that button, the garage door closed behind him and he was trapped. Mr. Jack Socks was HOME again!
And now that he is all comfortable and fatter and sleeping back on our bed; now that the sound of his plastic toys can be heard throughout the house once again, now I just would like to know what Mr. Jack Socks did out there all alone for thirteen days and nights? I’ve asked him a hundred times as I thump his toys and he brings them back to me in his mouth ready and waiting for me to thump it again. But he hasn’t answered me yet!
It’s okay though, we are just very glad that he is back home and safe. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go thump some toys for Mr. Socks; he's staring at me again!
Copyright © 2009
Glen C. Schulz
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