When he disappeared on us

Oscar (left) and Andy (right)

Huck disappeared, he was just gone. Everybody, including Oscar and Andy kept a watch out for him. The yard just seemed so quiet, even with the raccoons visiting at night. Every time I went out back I found myself looking for him. After a year’s worth of visits, we realized just how much he had impacted our lives. We missed him, a lot. I kept his bed out for him, and looked for him every morning and evening. I knew he hadn’t gone “home” because our woods was Huckleberry’s home. If anybody would have gotten permission to handle the little Prince, it would have been David and I.

It was a long three and a half weeks. At that point I was certain I would never see him again. Then one evening after dinner, we went out to the back deck and I could not believe my eyes. He came crawling over from under the fence into the yard. He looked like hell. The way the late afternoon sun hit him you could see he had lost a considerable amount of weight. The sunlight showed his little ribs, and he was very skittish. He sat for a long time instead of coming over like he used to, and I ran inside to get him some food. When he finally came over to the food bowls, we noticed he had a bad limp. I tried so hard to get closer but he was so afraid that he just kept jumping back. Afraid to scare him totally off, I made sure his bed was down low enough and then we just let him be. I didn’t take pictures then, I was just so excited to see him. Yes.. I totally mushed out and cried.