Jasper - Lost and Found

Our family has a gray and black stripped tabby cat. We rescued him from a shelter about four years ago. He is the kind of cat who is happier curled up on your lap rather than chasing toys around on the floor. Jasper was an indoor cat and we had never known him to try to make an escape.

The first Christmas Jasper was part of our family he got lost. My husband Drew and the boys brought home a gigantic Christmas tree. It was a beautiful tree with full deep green branches. I couldn’t wait to have the tree set up. It was going to be a magnificent Christmas tree once it was covered in our ornaments and twinkling lights. The problem was it was going to be tricky getting it through the front door.

I got the kids to start writing letters to Santa while I tried to help Drew get the tree in the door. It wasn’t an easy task. I think the kids thought it was humorous to watch us struggling with the tree. Jasper must have slipped past us while we were wrestling the massive tree in the house.

No one noticed that Jasper was missing until the next morning. Jasper always came looking for his breakfast when I put the coffee on. At first I didn’t think much of it but when lunch came and went with his bowl of food untouched I became worried. The kids and I looked all over the house.

We posted signs around the neighborhood about Jasper. Some of the local shops in our town let us put posters up on their bulletin boards. Sally decided she was going to write a letter to Santa and ask if he would help bring Jasper home. My daughter had become real attached to Jasper. She walked up and down the street several times a day calling his name to avail.

Days went by and we still had no sign of Jasper. We put food out on the front and back porch. I worried that Jasper might not know how to deal with the cold weather. In our area the temperatures often drop to well below freezing during the winter. I hoped that he was resourceful enough to find a place to keep warm. Sally thought that maybe Rudolph would know what to do so she sat down to write a letter to Rudolph.

On Christmas Eve Sally came running in the house with Jasper in her arms. She was overjoyed that Jasper had come back home. She thought that because of the Christmas letters she sent to Santa and Rudolph our pet was home. We never found out where Jasper had been or what finally prompted his return home we just assumed that maybe Santa used a little of his Christmas magic to bring Jasper back to us.