He's been gone a year.

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow will be one year that Bender has been gone. I know it's likely that he's not coming home, but we haven't given up on him. If you're out there, Bender, we're still looking for you. Come home.

Happy Birthday, wherever you might be!

This Saturday Bender turns two! Although he's been missing for 9 months, we still continue to search and to hold out hope that one day his microchip will bring him home. In the meantime, we're keeping all his presents safe and sound. Happy birthday, Bender! Your family misses you.

And they say my friends have no sense of humor.

Look closely at the right side of the picture, around the middle, atop the square concrete post. See that little black speck? That's a cat. A friend of mine who was visiting Italy during the early months of our Bender search sent me this photo he snapped in Rome, captioning it, "Maybe it's not Bender, but maybe it is." Everyone's a wise guy. Thanks, Heywood. ;)

P.S. No clear results from the latest postcard mailing, although a few vague reports of black and white cats.

Postcard mailings . . . third time's the charm!

I received a note last week from a woman who lives about a mile and a half southwest of our house (in the area of Country Run Way in Antelope). She has on a couple of occasions seen a cat matching Bender's description hanging out in a field near a local church - she didn't think too much about it because the cat had a collar and she thought it belonged to someone, but she recently saw our Craiglist ad and thought it might be Bender. That same field is only a few hundred feet from the area of another sighting of a Bender look-alike about a month ago (a woman called and said she saw him sleeping on the hood of a truck near the side of a road). My visits out there never yield anything, but I thought this might be worthy of another (smaller) postcard mailing. Round three, here we come. Wish us luck!

. . . and he threatened to bury the body.

Some folks have asked for more info on the "deaf and disabled police officer/doctor" who "arrested those gangsters who stole (Bender)" and who offered to return him to me for a fee. I corresponded with him for a couple of days to see what his game was, and here's the upshot - he demanded $1,900.00 from me in return for a promise that he would have Bender shipped to me from an undisclosed location. He couldn't provide any info about Bender that wasn't already in the ad, and refused to send me a picture of him when asked (he couldn't take a picture of Bender because he was "deaf," or something to that effect). He finally threatened to kill Bender and bury the body where I would never find it. Pleasant fellow, huh? A little digging revealed that he is the owner of a sleazy little Vietnamese restaurant in southern California, and he has been the perpetrator of numerous Craigslist scams involving lost pets and credit card fraud. Nice, huh?

Some people need a good beating.

Within hours of updating the reward figure on Craigslist and other places, I received the following e-mail, reprinted verbatim for your entertainment:

"Hello ,

how are you doing there My name is Dr.Richard Gonzales i got your contact concerning the lost Bender ,and i was so suprised to got your contact that you are the owner of the cat BENDER yes it is here and i will be very glad to bring the cat for you once you promised to compesate me ..PLs the colour of your BENDER is white and black ,tuxedo, and it was a male cat male. just like micro-chipped hope am communicating ???????????? actaully it was stoled by some bad boys but being a police officer i got those gangsters and arrest them so the cat is with me but was very good and obedient cat ..well i will much happy to read back from you ..i would have called you but am a deaf man so i just need to read back from you if you really want your BENDER stay bless love to hear back from you ."


Riiiiiiiiight. On my way to the bank.

I can put 'em up as fast as you can take 'em down!

So far, some weasel has, under cover of darkness, stolen 18 of these large signs that I posted in public areas around the neighborhood. These signs weren't only expensive, but they are our main method of letting people know that Bender is still missing and we're still looking. I had held on to a few, so I've reposted these high up on local telephone poles - and I've electrified them. No, really. Ok, well, not really -- but at least the thief will have to drag a ladder out into the darkness in order to remove these. With any luck, he'll fall and break something -- here's hoping! On the positive side, I've received four calls this week about possible Bender sightings - people still see the signs, although they have to drive farther to see them, and the Craigslist ads generate some responses, as well. As long as I have time and money, I will continue to look. Three months is a long time, I know, but cats have come home after longer periods of time. And man is he in for a beating when he returns! ;)

Take me to your litter.

A robotic litter cleaner? Yep, that's exactly what it is, and it works! After reading a million rave reviews about this "automatic litter box" (http://www.litter-robot.com/) I bit the bullet and got one. It wasn't cheap (well, actually it was, since my mom got it for me as a gift), but it really works! I haven't cleaned a litter box in five days -- it's almost like we don't have one. What's that smell? Ah, that's the smell of not having a litter box. I dare anyone to walk into our house and even know that we have a cat (well, assuming you don't see the shredded furniture and cat toys). And it even looks super cool, if you're from the future. And I am.

Cow-Cow goes home!

As the many followers of my blog know (and by "many" I mean "all two"), we adopted Cow-Cow after finding her in a field during a Bender search -- the lady who had called me was sure that she was lost and didn't come from that neighborhood. I brought her home, and she quickly made herself comfortable, sleeping at the foot of the bed, stealing treats, and insisting on being hand-carried around the house. We've been posting her pictures everywhere, but no one had called to claim her. Well . . . today I took her to the vet for a check-up and to scan for a microchip -- mostly because I was sure she wouldn't have one. She did. Sigh . . . well, it was a very happy reunion for her and her family, and her sister cat. She lives not far away, and her humans were thrilled to get her back. Us, not so thrilled to lose her. She was a great cat. Oh, and her real name is Chloe. I like "Cow-Cow" better.

Ten weeks missing!

Hard to believe Bender has been gone this long already -- I was fairly sure he would have been back within a week or two. Well, the search goes on, and "no news" continues to be "good news." We still get a few calls a week, but none that are him - the nice thing is that people are still looking and calling. I hope he's warm and safe somewhere, and I'm relying on his microchip and a few nice people to bring him home - I don't care if it takes a year or ten years. Meanwhile, Julius has developed a fondness for crackers.

Meet Julius & Cow-Cow!

During our search for Bender, we've somehow been persuaded to adopt these two, who we met along the way. Julius was given to us by a very nice lady down the block - and, well, that was pretty much love at first sight. He's pretty rambunctious, and he's still eating warmed formula with his food, but hey, how could you not want this little guy? Cow-Cow we found during a recent "Bender sighting" in a field a few miles away. We've been posting "found cat" ads everywhere, but no one is claiming her. She appears to have made herself at home, so, unless someone claims her, I guess she's staying.

A cat with a collar and tag? Now we're talking.

The calls seem to come in waves - some days I get none, some days several. Today I've had two calls about a sighting of a Benderlike cat in the same spot in my own neighborhood, but this time with a round collar! Yahoo! This would mark the very first time someone has spotted a similar cat and been certain that it also had a round tag on a collar - as Bender did when he left. Getting my hopes up? You bet. Gabe and I wandered around tonight in that area with flashlights, assisted by a few Good Samaritans - no sign of the cat, but if it was Bender, then we're close. We also had a call the other day from a guy three miles due east of here who's sure he's been feeding Bender in his backyard for two months. Hey, I'll check out every call - please keep looking! Oh, and we did adopt Julius and Cow-Cow. Man, when Bender comes home, it's going to be a very full house. How did I ever get into this?

Someone else has gone missing.

In my search, I've met some wonderful people who have also lost their animals. This handsome young guy is Lucas, and he disappeared from his home in Folsom in mid-November. His mom is going just about crazy looking for him. When he left, Lucas was wearing a light green collar with a red heart ID tag and a small bell. For those of you who live in the Folsom area, could you keep your eyes open for him? His mom misses him terribly.

Bender may have company when he returns.

I haven't made any promises yet, but this very nice lady who I met in my travels assures me this little guy, Julius, would be perfect as a companion for Max (Bender's original buddy, still at home and a little lonely). She's been bottle-feeding him, but says he's now ready to go home. With me. She says there are very few people she would trust him with, but I am one of them (I know, I know, I am such a sucker for flattery). But I couldn't possibly take him . . . could I? That would be . . . three cats. And that's not counting Bender. Uh-oh . . . am I turning into "that guy?" Should I just give in and start wearing my hair in a comb-over?

Still no Bender, but look at this girl!

It's now been over two months, and still not a single confirmed sighting of Bender. Many, many calls for look-alikes, and a lot of near-misses, but not a single call that I know for sure is Bender. I'm doing a lot of walking and have made a lot of new friends, but still no Bender. By no means are we giving up, though -- the search continues. Some of the big signs are starting to disappear, so we're busy keeping those in shape and making sure people know that he's still gone - in short, annoying everybody. Two days ago I received a call from a woman who was sure she had found Bender in a field - I went out there, climbed through a barbed-wire fence and found, not Bender, but this little girl - quite lost and afraid, but well-fed and friendly. Because none of the local neighbors knew who she was, I took her home - temporarily. Just for a few days. I swear. Until we find the true owner. And, until then, we've named her Cow-Cow.

Bender breaks his toy.

And you wonder why we're looking for him?

Even the little ones are helping.

The calls continue to come in. Today I received a call from a woman who lives in Morgan Creek, who thinks she has seen Bender in her backyard twice in the last few nights, although the cat she saw was wearing a different color collar. On the small chance that someone has changed his collar, or put a new one on him, I asked her to detain this cat briefly next time she sees him so I can drop by and take a look. I also received three calls yesterday, on Christmas Day, and two on Christmas Eve, most about "close but not quite" cats, one who looked like mine but was named "Spidey," and one who definitely wasn't mine. I also received this note this morning from a little neighbor child - I went to check it out, and, well, at least it was a cat. :)

What we've done.

Having never lost a cat before, this was quite a new experience for us. We started with just a few signs posted in our immediate neighborhood, but when Bender wasn't home in a couple of days, we moved to widespread posting of laminated flyers, mailings of "lost pet" postcards, and large signs at local intersections - we even found a "telephone calling service" which calls local homes and leaves an automated message (lost pets are apparently a big industry). We've registered him with every lost pet service I can find on the web, and we've been visiting and checking with the shelters and other animal people regularly. We've posted ads in the Sacramento Bee and Craiglist, and begged real estate agents to open up nearby empty houses. We've run down every tip and every sighting, knocked on doors, and talked to almost a hundred people. We've searched the creek and the fields, climbed a few fences, and even trespassed a few times. Still nothing. While we haven't yet found Bender, we've discovered a huge community of people who love their animals and who have gone well out of their way to help me find him - to all of you, I am grateful. Please keep looking - he's out there somewhere!