Dotti

As you know, we have a darling cat, Dotti (who's convinced she's a dog).  She's great.  She lives harmoniously with the dogs, playing with them, sleeping with them, and even walking with them.  Yes walking.  She recently developed a habit of following us on our walks around the neighborhood.  It didn't bother me so much when we were just taking short walks to get the dogs out of the yard, and she really never crossed a major street to follow us- until Saturday.  I took off for a long walk with the dogs, as I tend to do on the weekends, and it took about three block for me to realize Dotti was following us.  For those of you familiar with Turlock, she crossed Colorado and followed us along the perimeter of the high school, crossed Canal (in the crosswalk, I might add, while cars waited for her), and walked all the way to Berkeley Avenue.  At that point, another walker passed us, and she darted away.  I completed the walk and returned home about an hour later; I was disappointed that Dotti wasn't there, but she wasn't flat in the street either, so I didn't think about it much.  I did think about it hours later when I brought the dogs in for the night and she was nowhere to be found.  I was in tears, having convinced myself that someone stopped to "save" this cat from the busy street, and Dotti, being the friendliest cat ever, went along willingly.  I cried even harder as Belle walked around the house, looking in all of Dotti's hiding spots, over and over again until we had to make her sit in another room.  She missed Dotti too!!!  Oh, how I cried.  I was a bad cat mommy- this was the third cat in a year to leave our home... As Travis will tell you, I was still incredibly upset the next morning when she was still not around.  We packed up for Santa Cruz and left, as planned, and I left out more than enough food and water, but was sure she was gone from us forever.

But no!  As we pulled into the driveway this afternoon, three days from the last time we saw her, Dotti was waiting for us!!!!  I picked her up and carried her around for at least half an hour. When I put her down, she ran after the dogs and has not left their side since.  Our little family is back together again!