To Gracie With Love.

It's October, a month of helpless sadness.

Gracie left home last Thursday. Days passed and with them the hope she would return. Sleepless nights of dispair as our family, one by one, kept vigil. Just yesterday, or was it really October 26,2002, when our family fell silent, never again to feel insulated from pain and suffering after our conversation with death.

Gracie appeared in late November of that year. A gift from a loving friend she was small comfort for our tragic loss. However, over time she brought love and sympathy to one and comfort to the others. At times she must have felt so inadequate but she never gave up. On the contrary, she played 2-person games of hide-n-seek and ride-the-pony in her never ending mission of unconditional love. She answered telephone calls and faithfully greeted visitors at the door. She set the alarm clock each night and walked her mistress through her morning routine: they brushed their teeth and groomed at the same time. She accepted the creatures in and out of their lives with aplomb and sophistication, always in control.

I wondered if she felt her mission was accomplished and she was no longer needed to quiet the desperate spirits in her inner circle. I wondered if she planned to leave her home on Florida's Gulf coast without a word. I silently asked, "Gracie, whose heart needs mending now?"

Anguished journeys. Flyers, phone calls, advertising, rewards and tears. Little children, old men & women: a neighborhood of blended nationalities joined the yellow ribbon search for Gracie. Prayers were lifted by all with knowledge of the loss. Guilt settled in. Sleepless nights of remorse that Gracie's devotion was taken for granted and that she felt she was relegated to a back seat, ignored by her inner circle.

A "Voice" in my head told me she would return. I never quoted the voice fearing I'd be misunderstood - and (shudder) maybe wrong.

Yesterday a maintenance man entered a newly renovated condo and discovered someone who would later be identified as Gracie. It was speculated she followed workmen and was locked inside when they left

She seemed traumatized last night there on the sofa with her legs crossed, a pillow under her head watching TV surrounded by anxious neighborhood children. Drinking huge gulps of love from her soul mate, G.G. she ascended to her rightful place - her throne. I can see her now: mimicking G.G.'s Nanny, a cigarette in hand and pistol at her side thinking, "That'll teach them".

Oh Gracie, my dear cat - surely you know now.