Hiding in Plain Sight

   In an effort to keep the cats' weight down and to force them to use their hunting instincts, we put their dry food in a treat ball. The is a plastic ball with adjustable holes in the sides. The cat rolls the ball around and food comes out. We have a blue one and a green one.
  When we left for South Carolina, I filled both balls with treats and put them out. I told the cat sitter to refill them once a day. When we came home from our trip, I found the blue ball, but not the green one.
  I did a half heated search for it, but was too busy unpacking. I thought it would show up sooner or later. A few weeks went by and the ball was nowhere to be found. C and I looked around for it. We could not find it.
  I went to the vet clinic where I bought the first one, thinking that I could get another. That's what usually happens to me. I lose something, buy the replacement and then the thing I lost just seems to pop up out of nowhere. The vet clinic was no longer selling them. I couldn't find them in any pet store.
  Fortunately for me, I have other things that I can put their dry food into. I have a puzzle box and a wobble toy. I also took to hiding small mounts of food in a small dish in various place.
  I still wondered about the green ball. Where could it have gone? When C cleaned the carpet downstairs he did not find it. I was puzzled, where could it be? I looked under and behind furniture. There weren't a whole lot of places where that ball could go. Maybe it just disappeared like socks  in the dryer. Ten years from now we'll be cleaning something and there all of a sudden the green ball will be there.
  Sunday C sat down to play his guitar. Before he took the guitar off the stand, he said he really wanted to find that green ball. The words were just barely out of his mouth when he got out of his chair. He walked over to the window and picked up something on the floor between the cat trees. It was the green ball. The very green ball that we were looking for.
  For two months that ball had been sitting on the floor between the two cat trees. Neither of us saw it. I felt sure that I had looked over there in my search for the ball. C thinks he may have too, although he does admit that we could have looked mostly around the curtains.
  For two months hiding in plain sight was the very thing we were looking for. Isn't that just the way things go. I don't understand how that happens. I sometimes wonder if there is come kind of strange force field generated by your desire to find something that prevents you from seeing it until later.
   I was very happy to have to ball back again. I still use the puzzle box and wobble toy, but now I have more options as to where I can hide their food. I'm not sure how the cats feel about it. I'm sure if they don't like it, they'll let me know.