So I decided to just go home and maybe try to nap a bit, hang out with my wife.

But I pull into my parking space and see a cat.

A freshly groomed cat, no collar. The kind of cat that really does not look at all like an outdoor cat. I got out of the car and chirped and the cat trotted up to me with great enthusiasm bordering desperation. So I thought, Goddamn it, and I texted my wife asking them to bring a cat carrier outside.

I sat petting the creature for easily ten minutes, and honestly, if I didn’t have cats I’d have been mightily tempted to keep this cat because I’ve so seldom met a creature so lovely.

But I do have cats and moreover someone cared enough to groom this lovely creature and was probably missing them.

So I loaded up the carrier amidst a storm of the cutest tiniest mews ever and drove to a cat shelter.

Name: Parker

Gender: Female

Age: 11.5 years

Weight: 12lbs

Last seen: near Alliance Town Center in Fort Worth, Texas, 76177.

Mystery got out on 5/31/26 - Denver near Leetsdale & Oneida

I put together a missing flyer. I'm working on getting some up in my area. (if anyone has notes on the Spanish I just used google translate bc I need to get these up)

I'd been gearing up to unpause my Patreon, trying to establish a rhythm, settle into a regular posting speed/schedule, which is something I needed to announce in advance anyway.

And then my cat slipped out the window the night before last.

I love this little cat. All Sunday and Monday, he lay flopped out, every atom of his body relaxed next to me all day as I drew. He sleeps beside me at night. He worries when he thinks we're staying up too late, and asserts bedtimes. He is soft, and sweet, and a little bit of a ditz.

And Monday night, we didn't realize that our window didn't latch. German windows usually don't have screens. None of the windows in our current apartment have screens. We're on the second floor.

But there's a tempting bush right outside our window, and though it doesn't have enough structure to hold a cat, this is the boy who likes to stand on my shoulders and try to climb up onto the molding around doorframes to try and stand on them. It has never worked, but hope springs eternal, and he always loves to check.

So it is fully in character for him to realize the window was cracked, push it open just enough to slide his little body through, see if he could jump down to the tree and explore...and plummet to the ground when that didn't work, panic, and run to go hide.

My mate discovered he was missing at about 6am yesterday, and we've been scrambling to find him ever since.

He's chipped, so we've reported his absence through the local services, printed fliers, and searched. I am officially annoying my neighbors by calling out, "Where is my Gray? Graaaaayyy-son! Gray-bie! Grabie-baby!" 500,000 times. We've each walked hours. Random people on the street are asking if I'm one of the ones looking for the lost cat. My neighbors are giving good tips about where to find posters.

All with the looks on their faces that they don't expect us to ever see him again.

Yesterday...I also expected to never see him again.

But...I've done more research since then, and apparently it's not as hopeless as I always thought. It's hard. It's scary. There are quite simply too many hiding spaces for us to find one small, scared cat who's good at hiding. But there also aren't any coyotes here. Everywhere I've lived before this, a cat getting out was almost an automatic death sentence. But if we can help Gray help himself be found, we might be able to get him home.

But it might take months.

Which is really fuckin' scary, cuz I know he's scared, I know he's lost, I'm sure he's hungry, and I don't know whether or not he's hurt. He fell from a two-story window. One of the neighbors heard a cat fight the night he escaped. I've seen cat fight wounds, and helped treat them when they've been infected. Chaos, even the heat and dehydration are huge dangers.

But either way, the only way out is through. I can't stand not looking for my boy. None of us can. So all of us will be looking, and calling, and trying to get him to come home until we have him.

...Or until March and we have to move again.

But...there is hope. it might take weeks or months, but apparently there's a 70% chance of return, based on one of my mates' research. We've contacted local shelters and vets to keep any eye out. We've reached out to a local org that helps find lost pets. We've set up places for him to hide and eat that smell like us and home. We've scattered some used cat litter (not a lot...actually I want to scatter a bit more, since we set up a second little base for him tonight).

I can't stomach not looking. So I'll look. And keep looking. Until he's home, or it's March.

So...how does all this affect you?

Well. This is certainly going to cut into my drawing time. No idea how much time and energy I'll have to draw, between Intensive German Language Program and cat search. I don't know how much I'll be able to make in a week. My general plan had been to do a stand alone illustration and progress on It Doesn't Matter for each week, posting as they finish for the illustrations and on Fridays for IDM. That's still the plan...but we'll see how well I can pull it off. Shit's fucked.