Pets On Quilts Entry

This post has a second title and that is:

Sunny's Bad Day

FYI, Sunny is safe and as sound as he ever is now.  The morning of August 11th I was sleeping in, happily curled up under a quilt of my own making I pepped open one eye when my 6 year old daughter came running in.  "Daddy Lost Sunny and now he's outside!"

Say what?  Most of that went right into and out of my sleep fogged brain.  But I heard the words; lost, Sunny, outside and that was more than enough to have me pushing myself up from the bed. I tried to think clearly while convincing DD to explain it to me.

Eventually I got the whole story.  It was pouring down rain that morning and as our yard had just been mowed my DH went to check the neighborhood drains to make sure the rainwater was draining away instead of clogging up.  He came in and closed the door behind him.  As DH went into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee he heard our infamous Sunny digging in the litter box.  After a bit of early morning putzing DH went to the mud room and was alarmed to find the front door wide open.    Seems the door hadn't quite latched.  DH went outside and looked around - no sign of anything.  So he closed the door (for real this time) and started a systematical search of the entire house.

Some of you already know Sunny is a special needs cat.  He had two operations before he was a month old due to an upper respiratory infection that went to his eye, which sadly is somewhat common in feral neonatal kittens.  Sunny is not all there at least part of the time.  He has spent at least part of his past 7 years trying to get back under our house where we found him.  Back to his mother (who was hit by a car and died a handful of years ago) and his mute brother (who died while Sunny himself was undergoing medical treatment for his eye).

I adore my Sunny, he lights up my days and makes me laugh so I was quick to become the crazy woman standing at the door in my pj's yelling "Sunny, Sunny!" out the back door.  I spent the day looking out the windows for my red fur ball, and DH was out searching whenever the rain would let up.  

Thankfully he was found around 3 that very afternoon, rolling around in my neighbor's driveway.  DH brought him to me and placed him in my arms.  He is a Maine Coon Mix so he was completely dry except for some very dirty wet feet.  But Sunny seemed inclined to stay in my arms and I'm not the type to wash a cat that has only just found his way home.

You'd think that would be the end of the story.  Cat returns home, everyone's happy.  But instead the tale goes on.  Sunny seemed to be more sort circuited than ever and would leave me only to get a drink or a snack out of his food bowl.  He seemed to get lost trying to come back to me and would call out crying.  I would call back to him and unlike his normal laid back personality that only comes when called sometimes, the new Sunny would come running and sit with me for hours.  Maine Coon cats don't often speak and when they do they have a low rip your heart out sort of voice.  That's what my Sunny sounds like.  This behavior went on for about four days, he even took to sleeping with us.  Let me tell you I love him but it wore a little thin.  Especially as he would sit on the floor in the kitchen while we were eating dinner look up at one of us and cry.  When he would jump down from my lap I began to wonder how long it would be before he would start crying again.  And crying it was - long and low and sad.  Thankfully after the 3rd day it started to lessen and now he's returned to his normal self.  I can't tell you how glad I am that everything is back to normal.

My friend Vicki told me about GPS and radio pet collars that allow you to track your pets.  I think Sunny needs one.

The Quilt Sunny is laying on is Patisserie Waltz and it's my daughter's quilt which I finished this spring.  The Quilt is traditionally called a Tennessee Waltz, as it uses both snowball blocks and the fight star block.  All I know is that when I saw that pretty Patisserie fabric I knew it had to be a quilt for DD.  Then I saw Eleanor Burns making this particular quilt on her show and I knew it was the perfect answer for this fabric.  My DH is a whiz with acrylic and made the triangle templates I needed and everything went together lickity split, of course until I tried to use fusible batting but that's a different story which you can read here.

That's my entry to SewCalGal's Pet's on Quilts Show.  So often we read sad stories online and never find out how the ending resolved.  Well let me tell you what this white pawed boy is staying inside with me!