From: hirschon@ast.saic.com (Donna Hirschon)
Subject: Cat Christmas Tale
Reply-To: hirschon@ast.saic.com
Organization: SAIC
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 17:10:10 GMT

What a Christmas!

It all started out because we had a beautiful Christmas tree - much larger
 and nicer than usual, and of course Tasha thought it was a big, new,
 exciting cat toy.  So.... we decided to take her with us to Ensenada,
 Mexico, where we were to spend Christmas with my mother. Tasha had been
there once before.  She hates mother's two dogs, but the patio is
enclosed, there is a pet door, and she normally spends most of the time 
in a strange place under the bed.

Early on the morning of the 24th we crossed the border, arriving at
mother's around 8 a.m.  In the excitement of unloading everything, my
 husband made a decision he later regretted,to open Tasha's box on the
 patio and let her get used to the environment at her own pace.

The next thing we knew, we couldn't find her anywhere.  Mother says, 
"She wouldn't go in that hole under the house, would she?"

Hole??? We didn't remember there being any hole.  Sure enough, along one side of the house running clear to the other side (that wasn't fenced in)
is a hole, big enough for a scared kitty to run in (and out - lost -
drowned in the ocean???).  We get down on hands and knees in a muddy,
rocky garden with a flashlight.  I think I see her 5 or 6 feet in -
there's an incredible amount of junk under there - old building mater-
ials - it appears to be about 14 inches wide, 4 inches high, maybe,
at the openings on each end, very dark, full of spiders, no doubt.
She appears to be lying on her back in a very awkward position -
I see no movement, hear no meows. She appears to have died.  Perhaps
of fright?  Could she have run in with enough force to break
her neck?

Friends are there.  They work for about an hour, they think they
see her move, hear her meow, but I've seen nothing.  Everyone tells
me she'll come out when she gets hungry.  We block off the end that
leads to the ocean and put out food, water, a little bed, her litter
box, her cat toy.  We go to bed.

The next morning early I take my flashlight - nothing I left for her 
has been touched.  I look under the house and seem to see her in the
 same position.  I talk to her, but there is no response.  He eyes
 appear to be open, but there is no life in them. I'm convinced she 
is dead.

I go in the house and tell my mother and my husband Tasha is dead.
We don't know if she had a heart attack, broke her neck in the mad
dash, got bit by a black widow??? Oh, if only, if only.  A million
thoughts go through our heads.

We have Christmas presents - go out to eat dinner that evening at a
nearby hotel.  The day is ruined.  Will all our remaining Christmases
be filled with the sadness of this day?

Saturday about noon Stan and I head sadly back to Encinitas, Calif. -
about 110 miles from our poor "dead" kitty.

As soon as we are gone, mother asks some young neighbors (two Mexican
brothers probably in their early 20's) to try to retrieve the cat's
body before she starts to stink.  My only request is for her little,
heart shaped kitty tag as a remembrance.

Mother prepares a box for a little casket.  

The boys haven't worked long when they hand her the casket and say
"We won't be needing that, the gato is alive!"

It took them three hours of lying on their bellies in the mud (and
rocks) - prying with crowbars, pulling stuff out, even using an
electric drill, but amazingly, when they were finished, they had
a very tired, hungry, muddy, (and it wasn't all mud) messy happy cat.

Of course we drove right back to Mexico that night.  Spent about an
hour giving her an extra long cat bath. Stayed all night and brought
her home the next morning.

What a Christmas!  I think our kitty used up about 8 of her 9 lives
but I'm so-o-o-o thankful this story has a happy ending.

I hope all of you had happy endings to your holidays too.

Donna, Stan and Tasha - the cat who came back from the dead.