I came home on Friday at three to take Mena to the vet at five. She had been living deeper and deeper in the closet for a week and eating nothing, and trying to throw up. On Thursday she had accepted a lot of Petromalt so I was hoping she was, um, digest more freely. I instant-messaged with the Daughter in Italy, and since it was the nicest day in many, many months, I had the slider open. Some time between about three-forty-five and four thirty-five, Mena vanished, probably out onto the deck and probably underneath? I have not seen her since. I was angry at her for disappearing; if she has gone somewhere to die, which I think likely (she was not at all pleased to have me looking in on her cave in the closet), it is What She Wanted, but it is not What I Wanted. I wanted to go and have the vet say 'she has an intestinal blockage, we'll just unzip her and she'll be FINE.' Needless to say I am cursing for not taking her to the vet on Thursday, but I wanted to go to the Precious Metal Clay class and I wanted to give the Petromalt a chance to work.

I am missing her fiercely (Mena loves this beautiful weather and it showed in her fluffy little body when she ran around playing Secret Agent Kitty) and I can't think this news is doing the Daughter's bronchitis (the bug she has has since about two weeks after arriving for second-semester abroad in Italy)any good.

She may yet turn up, but she was so thin and had been hurking the last couple of nights with no apparent result.