Cat drama

We adopted 2 cats last fall, from my dear friend Laura, who runs an animal shelter in NJ. They are both sweet friendly cats, who mostly sleep with Alana every night. The one, Tally, has taken to running outside when we open the door, but she returns, sometimes quickly and sometimes not, but always stands at the door and cries to come in when she's ready. Rosie, the cat we've had for a couple of years, also goes outside, into the back yard, and usually comes back promptly; she also stands at the door and asks to come in.

On Tuesday, the third cat, CeCe, ran out the back door when I had it open to move the ficus tree onto the deck (which I do every summer, once the chance of frost is past). I didn't even think about it, since the other 2 cats come and go.  But she never reappeared. Not that night, not the next day.  It was hard not to think the worst - our indoor/outdoor cat, Molly, was hit by a car near our house in PA. As more days went by, the less likely it seemed that she would return.  We finally made a flyer, for the neighborhood, hoping against hope that someone had taken her in (she's very sweet).  Alana, her friend Amelia, and the neighbor girl Meagan, took the flyers around Friday morning and put them in the newspaper boxes of the houses around us. (I was absolutely dreading having to tell Laura that we lost one of her very favorite cats that she had entrusted us with.)

Just a couple of hours later, who should I see at the base of the deck, but CeCe, looking quite spooked.  I went out, but she ran under the deck, where she's presumably been all this time.  I was relieved, but also really puzzled - why was she hiding from us? I had gone out onto the deck several times over the preceding days, calling her, and had never seen her.

We put out food and water, and spent the next 24 hours, trying to coax her out.  Caleb was finally able to bring her inside this afternoon.  She settled right back in, and was sleeping on Alana's pillow as usual tonight.

Which makes it all the more puzzling that she insisted on hiding from us, outside during the worst heatwave we've had in several years.

Side note: 2 people called in response to the flyers, one saying they had seen the cat in their yard, and another with the general advice to put our food and a blanket and see if she reappeared (totally prescient as it turned out).  Nice to have gotten such a great and immediate response.