Missing pets

When I left the house this morning, Vlad had not returned from his Sunday afternoon saunter. I think the last time I saw him was when I went out to get the paper Sunday morning. I was not home most of the day, so he might have been around at other times.

He normally returns home around 10 p.m., although he's been returning more promptly since Mercuri went missing.

Saturday morning I went out to look at the local pet adoption agencies for someone to fill the hole that Mercuri left. I'm now concerned that I might have to fill two spots.

I found a couple of contenders: "Charcoal Charlie" at Bay Area SPCA and "Clancy" at Second Chance Pets. I think "Charcoal Charlie" is the name, but I'm not certain. There were 3 cats in the cage I checked out and all three were male. The label on the cage said 2 were female and 1 was male, so who knows who I held in my arms?

CC was a brave little kitten. He was quite comfortable riding around on my shoulders while I was at full height. He was also a terror running around the area.

I also held "Blue Grass" a Japanese Bobtail mix. He was happy to just lay in my lap and be scratched.

I was hoping to be able to get to know "Bill", "Notch", and "Whimpy", but I think they were off at a local Petsmart being shown.

At Second Chance Pets, "Clancy" was happy to be held in my arms and had a charming meow. He sounded a bit like he'd been smoking cigarettes, a nice gravelly sound. I was hoping to meet "Friskies", but they'd not brought him with them.

Here's hoping we only have one spot to fill.