Treasure Hunt

I have been so incredibly busy, lately with work and volunteering and my classes! Yesterday was a very emotional day.

I volunteered at the shelter yesterday. I walked into the front office to get a leash so I could walk Sarah the pit bull when I heard Nancy hang up the phone and sigh.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Another volunteer quit at our smaller shelter in the city. They’re already understaffed and I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”

“Well, I could volunteer there for awhile if you’re willing to spare me. It’s closer to home, so it really wouldn’t be an imposition. I could even keep coming here in addition to the city shelter.” I said shrugging.

“Would you really want to do that? It would be helping us tremendously but I don’t want you to feel obligated, you already do a lot here.”

“Are you kidding? I love volunteering here, sign me up!”

Nancy had Doc drive me over there right away. The city’s shelter just got a huge influx of dogs that were seized from a dog fighting ring and really needed help. I tried to do what I could: made beds for the dogs that passed health screens, filled up food and water bowls, helped give some of the dogs baths, etc. By the end of my shift, I was exhausted. I went to the front desk and grabbed my purse and bag before heading out to rehearsal. As I was leaving, I had to walk past some of the animals up for adoption and I stopped cold. There was a cat meowing at me. I did a double take and thought I was seeing things.

It was Murphy!

I ran to the glass and put my hand against it. His eyes were huge and he started spinning in circles and rubbing against the glass. I went to the front desk as fast as I could.

“My cat is here!” I said.

“What?” The lady at the counter said.

“You have my cat here, he’s up for adoption and I want him.”

“Oh, that’s so nice! Usually our volunteers try to avoid the adopting animals because they already have so many. It’s so great that you’ve found a pet you want.”

“No, you don’t understand.” I said getting frustrated, “Murphy is my cat. I owned him before. I thought he died in an apartment fire. He’s been missing for months and he’s here!”

The woman just stared at me like I was crazy.

“Come here, I’ll show you, he knows it’s me!” I went down to his kennel and he was pawing at the glass trying to get out.

“If you’d like to adopt Oscar you’ll have to pay a fee.”

“Oscar?” I said crinkling my nose, “Do you have access to humane society records?”

“Yes.”

“Look me up. You’ll see I adopted him. There’s bound to be a description or even a picture of the cat I adopted, I KNOW it’s him.”

She sighed and walked back to the front desk and sat down at a computer. I gave her my information.

“Well, it shows that you adopted a cat but they failed to include a picture, so there’s no way for me to confirm that that’s the cat you adopted. You’ll have to pay the adoption fee. I can’t just GIVE you a cat because you claim he used to be yours and you lost him.”

“I didn’t LOSE him! My apartment burned down and he disappeared. I thought he DIED!”

“Well, our records show that he doesn’t have a microchip implant, if you had actually adopted him, he’d have one with the humane society’s information about your address.”

“That’s because it was taken out of him.”

She looked at me like I was trying to convince her that the moon landing was a hoax.

“You know what? Fine!” I said.

I was so angry and sick of arguing with this woman. I whipped out my check card and handed it to her fuming. And maybe I was just taking it personally, but she seemed to be taking an unnecessarily long time with the paperwork.

“While you handle all of that can I at least SEE him?” I said waspishly.

She gave me a dirty look before letting me into a very small room with a bench in it. I sat down and she shut the door. A few seconds later she returned with a squirming Murphy in her arms. He practically jumped away from her to get into my lap and immediately started purring. I started sobbing immediately.

“I missed you SO MUCH!” I said holding him to me and crying into his fur, “Mommy loves you!”

Murphy is pretty thin. And he has a cut on his front leg that seems to have healed a long time ago. I called Zoey while the woman finished up with my paperwork.

“Oh my God, what is wrong!?” Zoey asked when she answered the phone and heard me sobbing.

“I found….Murphy!” I cried. I told her where I was and asked her to pick us up so I could get him home before I had to go to work and she was on her way within seconds of hanging up.

Finally, my paperwork went through and I was given a cardboard kennel for Murphy. I waited for Zoey outside the shelter and we stopped at a pet store to buy Murphy a litter box, food, a new bed, and some toys (of course). When I got him home, I immediately had to leave to get to work and all through rehearsal I kept thinking about getting home to him.

I still can’t believe I found him and that he’s here with me right now, sitting next to me while I type this up. It’s so surreal to have him back home with me again.