Christmas is always an adventure when you have two families who live in the same state. Usually you can work it out so you spend Christmas with one family and New Years with the other. But this year everything aligned and the Cliftons and Mussons congregated on Christmas Day in Monterey and Carpinteria respectively. This convergence lasted only a day, so to be with both families, we started Christmas in Monterey and ended it in Carpinteria.
But this story isn't about us, it is about cats. We left our two cats, Shasta and Yolo, with 4 days of food and water and a hope that they wouldn't kill each other. They didn't.
We arrived in Monterey after dark, about 6:30 PM on December 23, went in to say hello to everyone and then went back out to unpack the car. I popped the truck then heard the distinctive jingle of a cat collar. This confused me. Yolo has a bell on her collar, but I was sure that we left her in San Jose.
A few seconds later I confirmed that yes there was a cat with us, and it wasn't Yolo. It was a very friendly gray and white cat, who was very happy to see us. It followed me up to the back door, where I asked my Mom if she had ever seen this cat before. She said no. The cat had a collar on and a yellow tag indicating that it was microchipped.
The cat was very insistent. It wanted to come inside and get fed. The two dogs at the door were not going to deter it. So I picked up the cat and Michele called in the number. Ten minutes later, the cat's owner called. The cat was an indoor feline that had gotten out on Thanksgiving. Apparently, it had spent the month roaming up and down the hill looking for home.
I am not sure why the cat picked us, maybe we smell like cats, but it seemed to know that we would help. Anyway, we were able to return a lost cat to its owner. That was the best Christmas gift we gave this year.
11:06:42 AM 
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