11 Weeks

That's how long it took Ian to realize that Dupree isn't around.

He finally asked about her this morning, and I kind of deflected it because he had school in a little bit so I didn't want to get into the whole thing. I just said "I don't know, I haven't seen her" and then brought up something else.

Ian asked Allison where Dupree was, then Allison gave me the look as in "well, he finally asked" and then went into how she ran away. You could see Ian's eyes begin to redden and well up and his lip started quivering. He was really upset about it, which was sad to see of course.

He was sad because Dupree was all alone, or dead. He was sad because she wants to be out in the woods (either alone or with other cats) rather than in the house with us. And he was sad because she may be with another family, when she belongs to us.

He really misses her and he desperately wants me to take him in the woods behind our house to look for her. Does he want to do it conventionally like any normal 4 year old? Oh no.

He doesn't want to go back there shouting her name and looking for her. He wants us to go back there, find her tracks and follow them to where she is. Oh dude, how the hell am I gonna pull this off? Hopefully we'll come quickly upon a pile of furry coyote shit and have closure right then and there.

So anyway Ian said on the way to school that he was going to tell his friends and his teachers all about it. I already pictured picking him up after school and seeing 12 4yr olds crying over an elderly cat with a poor sense of direction. I was able to forewarn Ian's teacher and she appreciated it since she is often told stories by the kids and she doesn't have the foggiest as to what they're talking about.

When I went to pick Ian up, he was in a great mood which was a good sign. There was also no evidence of other kids crying or any candlelight vigils that might have taken place in the past 2.5hrs.

One funny thing that I noticed was that apparently they have a 'class news' segment in school. Every kid has an opportunity to tell what's going on with them and the teacher writes it down on a big notepad for the class. (Why they do that, I don't know since the kids can't read...but whatever). But I noticed that for Ian it said

Ian: Ian's cat, Dupree ran away into the woods. Ian can also burp his ABC's.

Well okay, then.