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On the evening of April 6, Terlingua resident Jim Carrico returned home around 10:30 pm, and had just barely opened his front door a few inches when their family cat, Spoke, bolted out into the desert. “He was wound up tighter than a tick, and out he went,” said Jim.
Out he went indeed; Spoke has spent most of his life leading the indoor, pampered life with Jim and Ginny, adoring cat people who offered Spoke love, shelter, security, crunchies, wet food, and water – after he showed up as a stray years ago at Desert Sports. Spoke’s only known outdoor adventures since the Carricos adopted him have been on a leash, in view of either Jim or Ginny.
At first Carrico thought that perhaps Spoke went over towards neighbor Bill Mobley’s place, or maybe towards Terri Thate’s, or maybe over to Sue and Earl Beach’s?
That evening’s intense thunderstorm only complicated matters. Carrico searched high and low: “nada” said Carrico of the search. “Maybe the storm disoriented Spoke? That first week was cold, not much above 40. I thought hypothermia would get him.”
The month of April dragged on, as did the Carricos’ searching. Jim and Ginny traveled to Terri’s, to Bill’s, to Sue and Earl’s, down across 170 to Desert Sports. No signs of Spoke.
April slipped into May, May into June, and the search continued. As the pain of the loss of Spoke increased, so did the late spring temperatures. Down at the Warnock Center in Lajitas, the nearest weather -recording station, high temperatures for April, May and June were 100, 103, and 108 respectively. Could Spoke the housecat still be alive?
How would a cat accustomed to regular and easy food, shelter, love, and water survive wandering in the desert in 108 degree heat?
Coyotes, owls, bobcats, lions, rattlesnakes – how could Spoke outwit, out-run, out-compete these denizens of the desert?
In late June, 79 days since Spoke’s dart and disappearance into the desert, the Carricos received a call from Sue Beach, telling Jim that during a brunch with the Frickers (who live several miles west of the Carricos, near Long Draw), a new cat was mentioned: it had recently been seen near the Fricker place – and it fit the description of Spoke. Sue told Jim the Frickers had been feeding the cat and thought he would be easy to find.
Carrico sprang out the door just as fast as Spoke had almost 3 months earlier, and headed down 170 towards the Frickers’, just below Reed Plateau. Jim started looking around the Fricker place: “No cat” said Carrico. Then he headed to Terry Anderson’s place: again no cat.
Carrico moved west to the Pinkstons’ place – still no cat.
Carrico returned to the Frickers’ and again started looking: to his amazement, he saw Spoke, called to him, and Spoke slowly came near him, but when Carrico attempted to grab Spoke, the cat bit him and ran down into an arroyo. Carrico returned home to enlist the cat charmer herself, Ginny. They returned to the arroyo with food for Spoke and sure enough, Ginny’s charm worked and Spoke was soon on his way home.
After 79 days wandering in the desert Spoke was back in the safe and loving Carrico home. After about 16 hours readjusting to his home – replete with two new kittens– Spoke finally relaxed enough to sleep (below) – and then did so for most of the next several days.
Carrico said he hoped “Spokey would take on the role of elder
statesman with younger cats, and encourage them to behave and stay
inside.”
