The Case of the Disappearing Cat

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed that I like reading animal tracks. It's especially fun in winter, because the snow holds tracks so well.

Yesterday I saw a set of cat tracks leading away from the house. The tracks disappeared after four or five feet. Just stopped. There are no trees or bushes there for the cat to jump into. No place a cat could have gone. And yet the tracks just stopped.

The cat didn't backtrack, retracing its steps in the old footprints (pawprints?). The tracks just stopped. Was it snatched by a bird of prey? We do have those here.

The other night our cat Ringo started suddenly barking. Well, not barking like a dog, but making a short, sharp eck sound. He never meows. We've never heard him meow. He either yowls, chitters (at birds), or barks. Except for one time, when it sounded like English.

New Year's Eve, when we moved up here, we'd gotten about a half hour from home when Ringo said, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah."

And then he ralfed. In the back seat, down the door. Before he did, he said, "Oh, yeah." It sounded just like that. "Oh yeah!"

Anyway, the other night he started barking, and when I went to see what he was upset about, I found a white cat with dark markings, somewhat like Ringo, staring at us from the backyard. I'm wondering if it was that same cat that left the tracks leading away from the house into nowhere.

I don't think the disappearing cat was eaten by a hawk or raven. I think I've figured out how it could go from leaving tracks, to leaving not a trace. I would have never figured it out if I hadn't discovered all the different ways that snow can manifest itself.

Have you figured it out? If you want to know what I'm guessing happened, keep reading.

When I've been walking around the backyard, I can usually manage to walk around a bit without sinking up to my knees. Sometimes I leave just a shallow impression, and sometimes I sink in a few inches, but sometimes I hit really soft snow and then I'll sink to my knees.

I don't think the cat disappeared. I think it merely transitioned from walking in soft snow, that held its prints, to hard-packed snow that didn't take prints.

At least, that's what I'm hoping happened. What do you think?


Blog Tag: Chatter