Understanding the in-laws....

My mother in law claims to be this major animal person...most of the time, I agree. SOmetimes however I really wonder about her! A few weeks back I posted about the "surprise" kittens my brother-in-law ended up with...mom-in-law adopted one, cute little thing we named Splotch (it looks like someone just threw a bunch of paint colors at her, therfore, Splotch!) Anyway Splotch is just about 10 weeks old, still very tiny. Hubby and I stopped at mom-in-law's last night, I had taken my camera just to get pictures of the new baby...we couldn't find her. Did a quick search before dinner, then I started to get worried. I mean, she is so small, there are all kind of places she could get into and get into trouble....mom just kept saying "Oh she's here somewhere..." I wanted to scream! Hubby and I started a very thorough room-by-room search, bascially we weren't leaving until we found her. I was in the laundry room, meowing, kitty, kitty, kitty-ing, when I hear this faint little MEW!!!!! in response. Called Hubby in to help me pinpoint. There is a room off of the laundry, they call it the Locked Room as it is where mom would hide the Christmas presents when the kids were little. Sure enough, mom had been in there for just a minute about 2 hours ago and guess who snuck in? I opened the door and out comes Splotch, straight to Hubby, purring up a storm.....how can someone who claims to love animals so much be so cavalier about finding the tiny little thing? Am I reacting a little too much? :confused:

Yes, I think you are over reacting. Mine that are grown can sneak into a room when I go in or come out and I never know they went in until I hear them crying to come out. This one you said is small so she could have slipped in easily un noticed. This happens to all of us and one day it will happen to you (if you have a kitty in the house). You think nothing of them being gone for hours at a time because they go off to their favorite hidding place to sleep and won't answer or come when called until they are over their nap. It is just a easy thing to accidently do... couldn't tell you how many times Chester has been shut up in the closet....

We always check that all 8 paws are visible when we leave the house. It happens that you just get startled: "I haven't seen Filou for some time." and then we usually go into major search mode because we are sure either he snuck in a closet etc. or he made himself invisble to run in the cellar (Of course he knows purrfectly how to become invisble ;)).

We do that several times a day and most of the time he's just somewhere- but at some times we are really glad we checked.

I think my main problem was the "oh well I'll worry about her in a few hours, etc...."They have an adult cat that has managed to sneak out the door once or twice, Echo knows not to go any further than the porch. I doubt the little one would understand that...and mom has rats (really big ones!) that have been coming into the yard from the ravine behind her house....

I admit it, I'm a worry wart. When I don't see one of our guys for an hour or so I have to search :rolleyes:

I thought that I let the Princess out yesterday, until I saw a shadow in the Iams Tent.
I try to count noses at the Found Cat Hotel but with so many, it can be a bit of a chore to keep tabs on them all.

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Originally Posted by trinity

.....how can someone who claims to love animals so much be so cavalier about finding the tiny little thing? Am I reacting a little too much? :confused:

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You did the right thing. A young, small kitten like that can get into just about anywhere and get hurt, lodged, squished, etc. The poor wee one was missing for over two hours? YIKES! What if they didn't find her for a day or two? Depending on the temperature she could have been very hurt due to dehydration. I'm glad you went searching and found her .... now where are those pictures? ;)

I think it depends on the people. Hubby always ells me I over react when I can't find the cats. Even to this day I freak out if one is not present and accounted for. I was worse when they were little. He rolled his eyes at me on a nightly basis as I hunted for the little ones. We always found them within half an hour.

I was giving Allen meds this month. He dissappeared for 99% of the day and only came out for a quick meal and potty. I have NO IDEA where he was hiding all month. I have looked and looked and hubby just rolled his eyes at me once more.

All that said, hubby is a huge animal lover. I swear sometimes he loves the pets more than I do. Especially Harry and Flutter -- he adores those two. Does the fact that he was/is a whole lot more relaxed than me when it comes to knowing where the cats are make him less of a animal lover? No. Sometimes I wish I could be as confident as he is that everyone is around. Only once was I right (I forget who snuck out) and the other million times where I couldn't sleep for worry over a missing cat turned out to be wasted worry because the cat in question always eneded up sleeping in some hidey hole.

I obsess over where the cats are and how they are doing. Hubby just "knows" they are fine and doesn't begin to worry until I've whipped myself up into a frenzy for a few hours. And it never fails.... two seconds after he begins to help me look: the cat shows up from their hiding spot.

I'd chalk it up to different temperments and ways of looking at something and not question their love of animals. Personally, there's NO WAY I'd let a kitten that small have full run of the house. But thats me.

Now, if they knew she was missing for 24 hours and still acted like that, then I'd worry.

You could be over-reacting a bit but than again you might not be. We recently got a front load washer. Everytime I fill it up I check to make sure there are three little kitties running around before I turn it on. I worry that one will sneak in and something horrible will happen. Am I over-reacting? Maybe, but sometimes it's better safe than sorry. Who knows when you MIL would of gone in the room next and little ones can go down hill very quickly (dehydration etc).

Maybe that was a kind of 'wake-up' call to your MIL; kittens can and will be elusive and WE have to make sure they are safe at all times.

You did what I would have done.