Looking backward...but only to move forward THREE

[sage]

Got a very scary call from h just before noon. The back door of our house had blown open and one of our two (indoor) cats was missing. (Some of you may remember we got two awesome kittens two years ago after the sad death of our cat, Owen). What was really weird was this AM there was a flyer on my car at home asking us to look around for a neighborhood cat who had also gone missing.

Anyway, I offered to come home and left in a hurry. The drive home was terrible. When I got home h was thoroughly ticked. I asked if he knew where the cat was and he said "under the porch and he won't come out". I looked and yes, there he was, way under the back deck (impossible to get at). h seemed very, very annoyed (not sad but mad). His idea was to "blast" the cat out with water which I thought was a cruddy idea since I could envision the cat freaking out and running away (we live on a very busy street). I tried not to be controlling or overly emotional (think I did ok with that) but it was hard because h seemed so peeved!

After about 5 minutes of talking and mulling it over, I looked under the porch again and the cat had moved much closer to the front. He ran up on the back porch and we finally grabbed him. Happy ending!!!

For a while afterwards I felt really irked at h for being so mad. I didn't react that way to him at all (act "as if"!) but it was like he was "put out" because the cat had escaped. Well, yah, ok! What worked for me was remembering that maybe h was feeling guilty or sad or afraid and that that was manifesting as anger.

Anyway...we're fine now...we're going to go to a movie later (something lighthearted!). I stayed home since I was here and got an amazing amount of homework done!

Must lock back door at all times!

Sage