Dirty Wow Wow

On Halloween, our cat Atticus decided to “dress-up.” Well, not dress up in the traditional sense—he assumed the character of Houdini. Shortly after 9:00 PM, he escaped from the house and started his 40+ hour adventure in the big wide world. My husband noticed he was missing about two hours later and spent the next several hours trying to find him. The next morning, Atticus still wasn’t home. Frantic, we printed up flyers and posted them around the neighborhood and in nearby stores. We walked the neighborhood, calling his name, looking in bushes and under cars. We even drove through the surrounding streets hoping NOT to find him on the side of the road.

By Saturday evening, it started to rain—HARD! We were terribly worried about our white cat that spends all of his time indoors. Where could he be in the midst of all this rain and bad weather? We put his basket out on the front porch hoping that he might find it and know he was home. Saturday night turned into Sunday morning and still, no Atticus. We couldn’t imagine where he was. We printed and put up more signs to replace the rain-damaged ones. Around 3:00 PM, I said to Elrond, “I am starting to lose hope that we’ll find him.” Not 30 seconds later, the phone rang. It was one of our neighbors calling to say they saw the sign at Safeway about a lost cat with a gold ID tag. They thought the same cat was under their car because he had a gold ID tag, too.



We ran down the block to their house. Under their car was a dirty gray cat. At first we didn’t think it was him. Our daughter crawled on the ground under the car to get a better look at the cat. She called out “Atticus?” He turned to look at her and cried “wow!” Not “meow”, but a frantic “‘wow’ you found me!” It was our beloved cat—the cat that makes our house a home with his purring and rubbing and “wowing.” He was filthy, to say the least. We thanked our neighbors profusely and took Atticus home to have a bath. Fortunately, he doesn’t mind water much so this was easier than you’d think. Kat donned her bathing suit and helped get him clean again. After sleeping for nearly two days straight, Atticus seems to be back to his old self.



You may be puzzled by the title of this blog—Dirty Wow Wow. Last summer, we took a trip to Portland, Oregon. At Powell’s City of Books, we saw a display about a book called “Dirty Wow Wow and other love stories: A Tribute to the Threadbare Companions of Childhood.” This adorable book is about beloved childhood stuffed toys (one being named ‘Dirty Wow Wow’). Although Atticus is not a stuffed toy, he is our beloved pet—our ‘Dirty Wow Wow’ who adds so much joy to our lives.