Two walls in our family room now have three-inch holes in the drywall every few feet. Why? Escape routes for mice? No. The latest in wall design? No. Holes in which to insert a mirror and see whether a small Russian Blue cat is wedged in the wall? Yes.

On Thursday morning, around 6:15, I put Garcie in the papasan chair in our family room. A little over an hour later, Rich went downstairs to bring Gracie upstairs for breakfast. She was nowhere to be found. Throughout the day, every hour or so, he’d look for her, hoping that she’d emerge from her hiding spot. No luck.

Upset with Rich’s ability to find the little rascal, I left work early to search every inch of the house, including tipping over our sofas and bed, checking in all the cupboards, looking behind bookshelves and on top of the books, and crawling around on my back to see if there were any holes in the walls (under cupboards and kitchen appliances. No luck.

After an hour of searching, I was frantic. When Rich commented that she could have jumped on top of our stacked washer and dryer, pushed up the plastic over the florescent fixture then climbed into the attic, my angst turned to hysteria. I was convinced that she’d fallen down a wall and was trapped with no way to climb back up.

Rich decided to do an experiment where he placed a piece of drywall along side Pu’Yi then used a stud locator to see whether the instrument could detect the presence of a body, just as it does for a piece of wood. It worked, which gave me some hope that we could definitively determine if Gracie was trapped in a wall.

The problem was that the findings were inconclusive and I was horrified by the idea of Gracie being trapped in a wall and slowly starving to death. Rich decided to ease my torment by drilled holes in the wall then use a mirror to see if the cat was there.

No luck. Devastated, I took two sleeping pills then climbed under the covers. Rich joined me. As soon as we settled down, we heard some noises, but decided not to investigate. Around 3 a.m. Rich nudged me awake. Gracie was on top of the dresser. As soon as we sat up, she jumped on the floor and darted out of the bedroom.

In our birthday suits we followed her down the hallway. I spotted her on top of a corner cabinet in our living room. Earlier, we had both looked behind the cabinet several times, including opening the cabinet doors.

With a flashlight in hand, Rich peeked behind the cabinet and this time, noticed an itty-bitty tail. The cabinet has a small, open space that is only accessible from the back. There’s no doubt that Gracie had been hiding there all day… and had no intention of coming out.

After Rich pulling her out from her hiding space, we put her in bed with us and closed the bedroom door. We weren’t going to chance having her disappear once again!

The picture above was taken this morning. Pu’Yi likes young women. I’m not sure that Gracie is necessarily amore with an older man.