Good-bye Rocket -- Blessings on Your New Home

So we had a cat named Rocket.  Black.  Handsome.  Strong.  Virile.

Ok, maybe not virile.  He was fixed.  He IS fixed.  He isn't past tense since he is very much alive and happy.

About 6 weeks ago, Rocket disappeared.  Kevin and I didn't notice, but Lydia did.  All our cats are outdoor cats and we have another black cat (though she is smaller), and the neighbors have at least one black cat who visits our food bowls.  So it isn't stunning that we "missed" his disappearance.

  A week ago, we got a mysterious phone call telling us that our microchipped cat "Snoop" had been found by a "Good Samaritan" and we needed to fetch him.

  Snoop?  Huh?  Microchipped?  Double huh?

  We sat on that for a couple of days. Then the people who found our cat called us.  Kevin again expressed bewilderment about the chipping thing.  Plus the people said the cat they found was a girl!

  At this point, we had a family conversation and figured out Rocket was missing. We also remembered that we got him from the Humane Society, who might have named him Snoop. And the Humane Society microchips their cats! The female thing was still confusing, but we decided to assume it was Rocket.

 And indeed it was.  We called the nice family who found him, and discovered they lived around the corner.  A vet said he was a girl but of course he is all boy.  Fixed boy, but all boy.

 So a few days ago, Rocket returned to the fold of our cats.

  For about an hour.

 He scarfed down some food, dubiously sniffed the other cats, and hightailed it back to the neighbors around the corner.

  No surprise.  The very kind, sweet lady said that not only had she brought Rocket inside, but she had bought him catnip toys.  She cuddled him and maybe sang to him.  Rocket very sensibly decided he WAY preferred the new digs.

 Today the nice lady called again and said she'd bring him back.  I asked her, after some conversational circling, whether she wanted to keep Rocket. The answer was an ecstatic yes. She obviously didn't want to steal our cat, to the point of actually having him checked for a microchip to find his real owners, but she really likes him and Rocket really likes her and her husband.

 So, new home for Rocket.

 And it really is a happy ending. We know he has a very good, happy home, and we don't have to worry about him traipsing back and forth between our house and theirs, and possibly getting hit by a car.

 So good-bye Rocket, blessings on your new home.