Katze Vermisst!

Well, we’ve had our first mini-crisis in Germany…

Our shipment from the US was delivered on Monday (more on that later!) and we’ve been slowly unpacking and putting things away. Last night, we were putting clothes away in the bedroom.  All of the windows in the apartment are actually full-sized doors that can be tilted open from the top or opened the whole way as a normal door. There are, however, no screens. This week it has been in the high 70s so I opened the door the whole way as we were working.

Sophie, the adventurer, saw this as her opportunity to explore the Rhineland and JUMPED out of the second floor window. We heard a thump and thought, “That couldn’t be Sophie!” When we looked out the window, a man below said, “She jumped and ran THAT way!” 

We bounded down the stairs, nearly knocking over a neighbor, but by the time we got outside the man who saw Sophie jump was gone. We walked in the direction that he mentioned but didn’t see her anywhere. We were really scared because there is currently construction beside our apartment since they are building a new courtyard. We thought for sure Sophie must be hiding somewhere in the piles of construction supplies.

We searched all through the construction site and through the adjacent apartment complexes, but there was no sign of Sophie. It began to get dark and Will started calling some of his German friends to find out how to write a “Lost Cat” notice in German. Just as we were about to give up for the night (three hours into the search) and I was copying down the German translation, Will took one last lap around the apartment building and construction site. Lo and behold, Sophie poked her head out from the yard of the apartment directly below us. It turned out that as we were crawling around in the dirt, she was lounging in the grass probably having a good laugh at us.

Will grabbed her and we brought her back inside as quickly as possible. She was completely unfazed and we were a frazzled, dirty, smelly mess. I’m not sure what motivated her to jump: a stroll along the Rhine or an after-dinner espresso with the downstairs neighbors, but we know that we will NOT be opening the windows completely anymore! Lesson learned.

Window from where she jumped

Construction site where we thought she was

Yard where she actually was

All that adventuring is tiring!