All is Well With the World: He Came Back! or The polar vortex did NOT kill my beloved cat!

PHEW, what a relief!!

The first thing I did when getting into the house the night we came back (Wednesday 1/9) was going to the garage to check on our two cats, but there was only one there, Quark, Lepton [the one on the right in the photo above an the one below] was gone! :-(

I immediately panicked and began to worry whether he had been gone for a day or two or for many days. I left a voice mail at the cat-sitter's house and waited for her to call back anxiously.

When she did call, I had some answers, but they made me even more upset! She told me he'd refused to come in and had been outside for about a week. She had seen him and tried to get him to get in the house, but hadn't been able to, he just wouldn't come. And she hadn't left food out for him. :-(

Sigh... I spent two nights and a day and a half SOOO stressed out! I couldn't go back to sleep when I woke up at 5:50 am yesterday and today and I couldn't stop going outside from different doors calling his name all the time. Yesterday I'd walked around the bushes in the back of the house calling him too. And I put food out yesterday morning, but he didn't tough it.

Today, late in the morning, I heard him meowing outside, next to the food and ran to the garage to let him in! He looked fine, really really happy to see me, but, poor thing, he was limping on his right leg. It didn't seem to be broken because he touched the floor ever so slightly once in a while with it.

He meowed insistently until I gave him his favorite canned food and didn't stop purring for over half an hour. I kept him in the house with me for a while and then took him to the garage to join his brother who was sniffing him and seemed a bit spooked by what he smelled. ;-) I thought he wouldn't be able to, but Lepton jumped up to their bed by the window. I just don't know if he can jump down because of his limping leg. We'll see.

I'm just so happy he came back! Now I can go back to normal and relax and sleep in the early morning, and not feel sick (my IBS was acting up this morning). I texted our vet (who happens to be a friend) and she said to keep an eye on him and bring him if he seems to be feverish and sick.

What a relief, I'm just so thankful! My poor baby Lepton was outside in "polar" temperatures with no food and survived! Cats really do have seven (in Brazil) or nine lives, don't they?