A Christmas Story

December 16th, 2005

I have a Christmas story I must share.
UPDATE MARCH 17, 2007 - SEE BELOW

Misha

Nearly two weeks ago, I was leaving for the Chicago Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference.  It was Sunday afternoon, and as often seems the case, I was once again in a mad rush to get out the door.  In doing too many things at once, my cat Misha apparently skipped out during that time.  My pet sitter called me that evening to let me know that Misha, my loyal 15-year old grey tabby cat, was gone. 

I was heart broken and worried.  My petsitter, staff, neighbors, and friends were out looking. My boyfriend, Steve, also went out hunting for Misha that night.  Monday and Tuesday my wonderful staff went over to my condominium complex and called, rotating every two hours, for Misha.  Flyers went out.  He was registered with the shelters and Humane Society along with PetFBI.org.  I arrived home late Thursday evening, after the lovely snowstorm in Chicago where Southwest crashed into a car, and my assistant, Marnie, and I went looking some more.  No Misha.

My cats, Max and Monroe, and my dog, Cody, were very sad.  Max and Monroe weren’t eating.  Cody was sniffing along the garage doors of neighbors and being a great trooper.  Max, though, worried me.  He is Misha’s brother of 15 years as well.  He has a hyper thyroid condition, which makes him susceptible to losing weight easily.  Not eating was not good.

Monday night, still no Misha.  It had been over a week, and the weather outside was frightning (sorry - had to take it from the Christmas song, "Let it Snow").  Each time the weather forecast promised snow or dropping temperatures, I cringed.  I came home to find Max’s left eye terribly infected.  In fact it was so bad, I thought he might have literally scratched his eye right out.  I could hardly look at it to clean it.  I cleaned it.  Yuck!

Tuesday afternoon, no Misha.  And now, my eye was beginning to hurt.  Who ever heard of an eye infection transmitting to a human?  Well, my left eye began to tear up and hurt like the dickens.  Knowing I had a TV appearance, I thought - I better do something about this - so Marnie, my assistant, called the eye doctor.  I got in Wednesday afternoon.  I told the eye doctor, somewhat sheepishly, that I thought my eye infection had come from Max, who was sick probably because of Misha still being gone.  He missed him, I said.  Well, the eye doctor told me to sit in my chair while he took a look at things.  He wanted to tell me a story.  He asked me if I had prayed to St. Francis.  Being a Catholic/Christian (yes, I use both), I said that my Catholic mom had recommended the same, but had not.  I had prayed to God, but not St. Francis.  Is there a prayer for St. Francis?  And am I spelling this correctly?

He said that his wife has two cats she loves dearly.  They often go outside.  He said that one day they did not come home.  On the fourth day, his daughter and he went outside to get the statute of St. Francis.  They took out back and prayed for the two cats to come home, and set out some fresh water and food.  Half an hour later one of the cats appeared.  Another half hour, the second cat came home!

I grinned as he looked back at me a little sheepishly and I told him I believed in this, and would pray to St. Francis.  I told him Misha had done this once before and I had prayed and he had come home.  In fact, it happened on Good Friday last year, in 2004.  He came home at 4 a.m. Sunday, Easter morning.  I thought it was a great reminder of God’s power, and told him I had prayed but not to St. Francis.  I would go home and do so.  He told me he would do the same.  I left, with the diagnosis of a slight eye infection, and went home to pray to St. Francis and set out fresh food and water for Misha.

Not an hour later my scheduled New York trip was cancelled.  My client told me that she was concerned about me coming out to present to their college since a snow storm and scheduled Metro/Subway strike were to occur Friday morning.  I looked at the weather and strike forecast, and we decided at the office to not go to New York.  That meant I would be home the next two days.  I wondered quietly if Misha was going to return.  In fact, I began to feel as if he was absolutely coming home.

I prayed for Misha to be safe, warm, and healthy.  I then asked for Misha to possibly come home.  I realize this was asking for more.  Then I told St. Francis that Misha was a grey tabby and by the way, the garage door was cracked open slightly, in case he wanted to let Misha know that.  That was about 1:00 in the afternoon.

That evening I went to Steve’s daughter’s recital, and talked with the girls and his Mom about St. Francis and Misha.  It was about 10:00 p.m.  I began to get the feeling I should be headed home.  It was about 10:15.  I became restless and looked at my watch.  Steve took me home at 11 p.m.  I had my phone turned off.  My home phone rang about 11:15 - it was Steve.  He was ecstatic!  He exclaimed that Misha had been found!

My neighbors, Murat and Heather, had found Misha wandering around about 10 p.m. that night.  He was quite a ways from my condo, near another condo complex.  He was very skinny, dehydrated, frostbitten, but still alive.  Murat and Heather were just as ecstatic as Steve was.  They had seen the signs and knew it was Misha.  I told them about St. Francis and my eye doctor. 

Misha

So, Misha is home safe.  The vets have examined him twice already.  He has frostbite and will likely lose a portion of both ears.  The verdict is still out on his paws and tip of his tail.  He is beginning to eat and drink water.  I think according to what I hear from others, including one of my staff members, Camilla, that the verdict might still be out for another few days.  We have to wait and see if the processes are working normally.

So, I’ll continue to post his updates here.  So, my recommendation for those who believe and don’t necessarily believe - if your pet is missing, consider praying to St. Francis.  I now know of three people whose pets have returned after praying to St. Francis.

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