Last night we switched our trap bait to Jack Mackerel, which, besides poop, is probably the most disgusting thing on Earth.  Strangely, J decided it looked appetizing and took a nibble.  He says it's tasty.  I say he's the grossest thing that ever walked the planet.

No captures last night.

Yesterday I felt a few intense moments, or 13 hours, of total despair.  So I did what every normal person would do.  I contacted a psychic.  Er.  An animal communicator.  I suppose my main motive was to find out if he was alive.  I know it's not factual information, like the fact that men are hairy beasts, but I figured it was worth a try.  I chose an older lady—because God knows young psychics just aren't seasoned enough.  (WTF?  Am I actually talking about this?)  Blah blah blah.  Stuff happened.  She spoke with Sunkist telepathically.  He is alive, he is near us and can see us searching for him, he is wary of the traps, he knows we want him home and knows it's in his best interest to be home, and he is planning to be recovered soon.  I had moments of doubt even though I've always believed in such things.  But two things she said he said (Got that?) really stuck in my mind.

She said he was staying in a "shed" near a clump of trees on the same side of the street as us.  She also said he suggested we put the trap behind our house near a clump of trees.  We don't have trees.  But!  We do have two hip-high clumps of mature sagebrush that I've visited time and time again thinking they'd be ideal Sunkist hideouts.  Hip-high sagebrush is probably akin to a tree in a cat's mind.  And where are these clumps?  On the same side of the street by a house with a "shed" on the bottom.  And one behind our house.  There are only two clumps of these mature sagebrush around.  Yes, I got goosebumps.

She had interesting things to say to me, or rather what Sunkist said to her.  I'm following Jenne's advice above all because I know she knows what she's talking about and she sounds like Lisa Loeb so I think that makes her pretty damn credible.  I'm not 100% on the animal communicator but I'm pretty damn close.  Regardless, it made me feel better to read what he said and if I have to contact 764 animal communicators to keep my hopes up and continue this process then by golly gee I'll do it.

So tonight we're moving one trap to the clump of mature sagebrush behind our house.  It's pretty close to where we've had the traps anyway, so hopefully he'll get his ass in one.

Send thoughts his way. 

It's been 14 days.