Notes from the Playground – Finding Hugh

(Our new contributor Sharon continues her series of vignettes, revolving around the Wallingford Playfield)

On the way out for our nightly family walk a few weeks ago, I found a flyer in our mailbox about a lost cat. Hugh, an adorable gray kitty, lived a few blocks away and was greatly missed by his family. I was reading the text aloud when our son came bounding out of the house and snatched the paper away. “Why do you have a picture of Maia on here,” he asked?  Maia is our own gray cat, who bears a strong resemblance to Hugh. We got her at a garage sale in Ballard so I can’t be sure of her pedigree, but I’d guess that she and Hugh were the same type of cat. Or, if not technically, then at least they shared the most important traits – both were gray, full faced, and obviously adored. I told him that the cat was named Hugh and he was lost. That’s all it took. He was immediately off and running, looking for Hugh.

He was halfway down the block when I called after him – “don’t you want to go to the park?” No answer. I caught up with him at the end of the street (he knows, most of the time, not to cross alone) and asked him again about the park. He didn’t respond to my question, but looked deep in thought. “I think he went that way,” as he pointed towards Corliss. Thus, our visit to the park was canceled for the night and were we off in search of Hugh.

“Hugh…Hugh…Hugh” my son yelled out at the street. He was like a miniature detective, firing off questions. Where had he gone, did he know how to get back home, did he need snacks, was he out visiting friends when he got lost? I didn’t have answers to his questions but volunteered to be part of the search party. For the next several blocks, we looked up driveways, poked our fingers into bushes, checked in trees, and most importantly, kept calling out his name. We were on a mission. Along the way, we ran into a few people and he asked them if they’d seen Hugh. No luck.

During the search, we saw several cats – one of them was even grayish with white markings. But no Hugh. Then, a few blocks away, he found Hugh on a telephone pole. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a flyer, with a picture of Hugh on it. My son was disappointed. We had been looking for ten whole minutes and Hugh was nowhere to be found. Maybe he was still at his friend’s house, my son said. Maybe, I replied.

I started wondering if the owners had heard about this new amber alert system for lost pets. Our neighbor had mentioned it the other night – it’s an online service that allows people to text or call their neighbors in a certain radius with pet descriptions and contact information. I guess there’s data out there that says pets usually stay within a mile of home for the first 48 hours. I think it’s called FindToto.com and sounds like a great idea – especially for pets like Hugh.

We ended up running into some neighborhood friends, so the search for Hugh went on temporary hold. And after the impromptu play date, we wandered back home, looking for Hugh, but in a more mellow manner. “Maybe he went home for dinner,” my son finally said. And that concluded the official search for Hugh. Over the next few days, he mentioned Hugh as we walked to the park but didn’t look for him in earnest.

Later I read that Hugh had actually been found! I was excited to tell my son that Hugh was back home with his family. For some reason, I thought it would mean a lot to him after all the effort he’d put in. But when I finally broke the good news, my son replied, without even looking up, “who’s Hugh?”