Kessy learns how to read

It may not have been the flyers this cat read, but she sure read the love put into it

By Pamela McLoughlin

A beautiful thing happened this week when my daughter Kathleen's beloved cat Kessy returned after a week AWOL.
Kessy, a sweet, gentle, affectionate purring machine who can easily withstand sudden tail pullings by toddlers, had never been out for more than a night
The skeptics among us thought she had fallen prey to a coyote, been hit by a car or catnapped because she's so nice.
But Kathleen kept believing and on Friday after school she created flyers with Kessy's picture, then went around the neighborhood with her best friend Jackie to distribute them.
I picked them up at dusk by the community center after distribution and as we pulled into the driveway Kathleen opened the door and jumped out of the moving car, as Jackie and I looked at each other, perplexed.
Kathleen had spotted fur in the deep grass, ran up to the cat and it turned out to be a black and white cat - not Kessy - who likes to hang out by our door.
But just as Kathleen saw it wasn't Kessy, she heard a meow from behind that she recognized and all Jackie and I could see was Kathleen's elated expression (car had just stopped moving) - something usually reserved for favorite band or boyfriend.
She picked up Kessy who was atypically skittish and smelled, we decided later, like dog, cigarettes and gasoline.
The first thing I said to Jackie was "Kessy must have seen the flyer!"
Jackie chuckled and said that when they were distributing the flyers, Kathleen had said, "Maybe Kessy will see the flyer."
Anyway, I keep going over the scenarios in my head and am wondering if anyone who knows anything about cat behavior or catnapping behavior can tell me: Was it just a coincidence that she came home minutes after the last flyer was distributed?
Did someone holding her captive see the flyer and let her go?
Was she just out on an extended romp with the other cat (Kathleen says they're friends!)?
Was it the prayer Kathleen's sister, Debbie, said two hours before Kessy came home? Or did Kessy indeed see the flyer?