• Anna Bettina Johnson
• Anthony Holloway
• BL Ochman
• Bridget Pilloud
• Janet Roper
• Dr. Jill Elliot

Karen Quinn’s Jewish Christmas Miracle

My friend, author Karen Quinn tells this tale of what she calls her Jewish Christmas miracle. What she learned, she says, “is that you have to tell EVERYONE when you lose a pet.”

A week ago Friday night, I came home from a business trip only to find that someone working in my apartment had left the door to the service elevator wide open and my beloved cat, Cookie, was missing. I was inconsolable. Cookie was my sweet cat that always curled up by my feet as I worked. We looked everywhere in the building, put signs up all over the neighborhood, organized search parties, put out internet alerts, visited shelters, you name it.



I even hired a renowned pet detective who traveled all the way from Georgia to interview witnesses and try to shake Cookie out of her hiding place! Carl Washington came to me with his poodle (who was trained to – and did – catch Cookie’s scent on the beach), along with two other terriers who were trained to find animal cadavers and hear sounds from barely mewing cats. That’s his actual picture with the poodle who came. But alas, he did wasn’t able to find Cookie.

Temperatures drop to freezing. Did an alligator eat Cookie?
For a week, I did nothing but weep pathetically and search for Cookie. I felt terrible because she’s an indoor cat that doesn’t know how to survive outside. The temperatures dropped to freezing. It poured buckets over the weekend – all I could think of was my baby out there alone and scared in Florida where alligators and other wild predators live and hunt!

In my sorrow, I kept asking myself, why is this happening? What is the lesson here? Call me weird, but that’s what I do when bad things happen. I like to believe that things (good and bad) happen for a reason. I decided that Cookie was lost to remind me to appreciate all the things I have in my life that really matter. Maybe I had been taking her a bit for granted lately – just assuming she’d always be there. But when she disappeared, she left such a gaping hole in my heart. All I wanted was my life back as it had been before I went on that business trip – my life with my sweet blue-eyed cat by my feet as I worked. Nothing more.

The cat in the pot
Saturday, while I was out searching for Cookie at a nearby park, my neighbor looked out on her first floor patio and happened to glance in a pot. There, sleeping inside, was a cat. She knew right away it was Cookie as she’d seen the flyer. She called me, got Sam instead, who ran down and identified her and brought her upstairs. When I got home and was told Cookie was found, I couldn’t believe it. I truly thought we’d never see her again. But there she was, thinner, a bit raggedy, with a story to tell that (unfortunately) we’ll never know. Even though I’m Jewish, I consider this a Christmas miracle – my first ever.

Tips for finding a lost cat
Cookie was a house cat and she ended up staying pretty close to home. She was spotted in the grass on the beach behind both buildings next to us. Maybe house cats will do this – try to stay close to where they started if they’ve never been outside. I was looking up and down the beach and all the while she was probably pretty nearby.

So if you have a lost indoor cat, focus your search nearby but let everyone know. I also offered a $500 reward which I couldn’t afford but was willing to pay to get Cookie back. Apparently this motivated people to actively look for the cat to get the reward. Several people called with questions who were out searching.

The lessons learned
Meanwhile, I am ending this year having learned a lesson of appreciation and gratitude for all the things I have in my life right now. I share it with you in case you might want to make your own gratitude list for all that you have and appreciate without having to go through the pain of losing something dear like I did last week.

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