The Search for Oreo

Oreo disappeared about ten days ago in an apartment complex in south Tacoma.  Normally, I don't use Kelsy for cat searches, but since this was an indoor only cat, I thought I would give it a try.  I had actually brought Karma down, to do the usual cat search, checking the bushes in a methodical search.  Because it wouldn't hurt anything, I tried Kelsy first to see if we could find a trail.  Oreo often slept on the arm of their sofa.  Kelsy had a hard time understanding that I wanted her to sniff the sofa as a scent article, but once she got it, she took off like a rocket on a scent trail leading to the right, around their building.  Kelsy led me to a cat's latrine, in the landscape, then she led me around the dumpsters and through a hole in the fence to the next neighborhood.  After that, the trail seemed less strong, more diffuse or overlapping.  Kelsy led me to the next block, to an abandoned house.  We were called back because they had a recent sighting of a cat matching Oreo's description.  When we got back, they said they had seen a cat that looked like Oreo going exactly where Kelsy had led me.  We tried to get permission to search the private properties where Kelsy and the witness had indicated, but no one answered the door.  Many condos and town homes in that neighborhood had crawlspaces with open access, and Oreo could have been in any one of them.  Without permission, we were unable to continue the search.

I told the owners that the scent trail Kelsy followed was much fresher than ten days old, and that Oreo likely came to their door recently, trying to get back in.  We did see a cat that looked similar to Oreo.  I have a feeling they will catch Oreo eventually.  I have no way of knowing if Kelsy was on the right trail, but she seemed pretty sure of herself in that first 200 yards from the apartment door to the hole in the fence.  It only occurred to me later, but I wish I had looked up into the tree by the hole in the fence.  Perhaps Oreo was looking down at us at that very moment.  The owner said later that Oreo always liked to climb on the highest part of the furniture in their apartment.  It could have been Kelsy's second walk-up find in one day.