sparky returns!!

The good news is that Sparky came back recently. It has been an ongoing struggle since then to get a picture of her in her newly-returned state for the blog. Since there is no picture, you will all simply have to imagine her. To aid you in your imagining, I wanted to include the messages my pa sent to his neighborhood listserv about this whole situation. I found them to be completely delightful. First:

"Missing Cat"
My little gray cat with white paws--white also underneath on chest and belly; short hair, sleek and small, a little gray 'panther' named Sparky--went missing sometime after 11 pm this past Saturday night from the 5900 block of Hampton (betw. Highland and Euclid).
I can't believe she ran off or got lost. I imagine she was kidnapped, perhaps by some of those kids who routinely walk on Hampton from Highland toward Negley in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, walking often noisily down the middle of the street, homeward bound from weekend revels. Sparky just had her first birthday, but she's still small enough to be taken for a kitten, awfully cute and with a fateful friendliness. So I imagine she's now being held captive somewhere between Highland and Negley on, or just north of, Hampton, hopefully by kind people, but you never know. And indeed, this is all wild speculation on my part, the only certainty being that Sparky is gone and her sister Blue and I miss her most grievously.
Any information would be gratefully appreciated.

And second:

"Sparky's surprising return"
I want to thank those of you who contacted me about my missing cat, Sparky, even though the messages mostly reported sightings of wild geese. I was actually on the verge of adopting a gray-white kitten one neighbor had been sure was mine when Sparky returned by herself, trotting into the backyard one afternoon about a week and a half after disappearing, looking very emaciated, starved for affectionand quite dirty--her white paws were a shade of gray lighter than the rest of her, and, after a few moments of joyful, hyper-ventilating affection, I realized my mouth and eyes were taking in quite a lot of grit. She got a bath she did not like at all and then some rare culinary treats prepared especially to her taste. She's been meowing more than she used to, but she's still too dumb to tell us anything about her adventure. To my relief, she's been staying quite close since her reappearance. I guess she's down at least to eight lives now.Thank you again for the messages of aid and interest, one of the nicest experiences in my 37 years in this fine neighborhood.