The Dog Who Finds Lost Cats

Whenever I lose a cat, I call my next door neighbor on the phone.

"Miss M, would you please let Tiger outside? I need his help finding my cat."

Yes, Tiger has an unusual talent for a dog. He can locate lost cats. Whenever his services are summoned, I tell him,

"Tiger, you need to find Tibby."

That's all it takes. Tiger puts his nose to the ground and starts tracking. One might think that he is a bloodhound, but he's actually a golden retriever with more intelligence than some humans I've known. He always understands what I am telling him, and he wastes no time getting down to business. Tiger inevitably leads me to the lost kitty. He has never failed to do so. I have used his services on many occasions. Yesterday he helped me locate my black cat who escaped out of my house when some carpenters were doing some repair work on the back of my home. Cats hate noise and disorder. The errant kitty was found on top of the storage shed. Tiger found him in about two minutes.

One of the most unusual canine sleuth jobs occurred last week. Tibby as usual got out of the house and stayed gone all day. Like my black cat, Tibby was spooked by the carpenters. I called and searched for Tibby to no avail. It was late at night, but I made the phone call to the neighbor. She dispatched Tiger. Tiger came to the back yard and began his search. He kept indicating that Tibby was underneath the house. Tiger does this by pointing with his nose and then looking up at me. I surveyed the underside of the house about three times but did not find any indication that the cat had even been under there.

In frustration, I finally threw up my hands and said,"Tiger, you need to fetch the cat and bring him to my front porch."

I then resigned myself to going inside the house sans feline. I wasn't inside the house for more than a couple of minutes when my husband felt that he should open the door. He just had a vague impression that he needed to do that. Hubby opened the door and looked down. Tibby was sitting there smirking at him.

Coincidence? Perhaps, but who knows. As far as I am concerned, Tiger deserves his place on thecanine version of Mensa. That is one smart dog.