Post date: Sep 26, 2020 2:19:59 PM
I will keep this brief, for now...
But to note, for any readers, his disappearance occurred a few blocks away from our usual spot, in an area neither of us had really explored before. It was *really* hot that night, and I had to buy some water [spigots and fountains shut down due to... yeah.] So we did the whole "ready to go?"-hide-n-seek routine at our regular spot, just an hour or so earlier than usual,. Headed to the store just barely making it before closing-time, got water and a pint of ice-cream which had to be finished before it melted, then debated for an hour about whether it was cooler to leave the barely-warm engine to cool, or heat it up to run the AC, and face hours of its cool-down later.
Butthead was sitting under the open door most the time, he's not fond of most human food, including dairy, though I always try to convince him to try it. He hopped in and back out a few times, probably for critter-checks, but I was on a roll with project-research and "critters don't live on pavement, buddy." He did a tiny bit of exploring the "island" of bushes and a tree, but was mostly in-view and seemed bored with that early-on...
Twice he sat under the door, the third time he was about to hop out, I caught him on the way out saying "we ain't moving in here, buddy... stick around!"
Nothing seemed unusual about that hop-out, except that he vanished. Three blocks from familiar territory... and... he scares pretty easily from cars and people and loud noises like shopping-carts being corralled, and island-sprinklers...
There aren't, really, many reliable hiding-spots in the area, believe me, I've checked *numerous* times. The nearest place I think he might've felt safe is across the street and across a wide-open park. But I've been checking the whole area regularly, and there have been *many* things since which might've scared him even further.