Hide and Seek with Gargamel

I'm a volunteer for Brother Wolf Animal Rescue here in Asheville (http://www.bwar.org/), and what I mainly do now is take care of the cats who up are up for adoption at our local PetSmart every other Sunday.  I feed and water them, scoop their boxes, clean their condos and play and cuddle with them.

One of my charges, Gargamel, an enormous black and white buddy with funny markings on his face, almost gave me a heart attack today.  I double-scooped his litter box, since as soon as I put him back in the condo he used it at least two more times.  I let him out for a bit while I scooped then put him back in and securely closed the door.  I swept, took the trash and water where it's supposed to go, then went back to refill the water container, and when I got back, he was gone.  I noticed when I was behind the condos, so then I went around the front to see if he was on the top level, and he wasn't.  By now I was pretty alarmed.  His bed looked a little lumpy, but he's probably about a 17-pound cat.  My thoughts didn't even go to the bed, because I immediately dismissed it as an impossibility of physics.  

I had noticed one of the managers outside the habitat talking on the phone about one of the BWAR cats right before I took out the trash, but couldn't tell who he was talking about.  I had called our volunteer coordinator earlier and left a message because of Gargamel's frequent trips to the litter box, so I wondered if maybe she'd called him and he'd taken Gargamel to the vet across the store.  I tracked the manager down, and he said he hadn't, and asked to come see.  I showed him Gargamel's condo with no apparent Gargamel in it.  He pointed to the bed and said, "he's under there."  Skeptical, I went around and opened the condo door and pulled up the bed, and sure enough, there he was, looking at me like I was nuts.  Color me embarrassed.  The customers who had been watching the drama unfold were really amused though.  

By the way, come down to PetSmart on Swannanoa Road in Asheville and meet Gargamel.  He's an awesome, sweet, loving cat.  He's also really good at hiding, so if you adopt him, be careful where you sit.