Do cats really have 9 lives?

Well, today had me wondering.

A bit of background info...last year when we moved in our new house, our cat began "marking his territory" so we had to put him and his sister outside. They had always been inside cats so we felt really bad. My daughter started to take interest in them so we decided to give them a 2nd chance. We cleaned them up and let them back in the house. A few weeks later, the unmistakable smell came back-on furniture, in my daughter's room, NEXT to the liter box...anyhow, back outside they went.

So today my husband, Carlos, came home from work and asked if I had seen Jackson at all this morning; I hadn't. Carlos said that he was sure that he saw Jackson on the road at the entrance to our subdivision- it was a big, gray, fluffy cat. It had to be him. I immediately began crying. Not only did we rescue the 2 cats together about 5 years ago, but I felt this huge pain of guilt for making them go back outside. (It was me pushing the idea that they needed to go back out) I cried and cried and cried. Carlos left with a shovel and came back shortly after removing the cat from the road and giving him a proper burial. I felt just awful that Carlos had to do this- I think he liked Jackson more than me.

Not 10 minutes later as I was feeding Charlie lunch and Carlos sat down on the couch to watch Sports Center, JACKSON walked up to the backdoor meowing for food! WHAT THE HECK! As happy as I was to see that he was alive, I wanted to strangle him! So my cat is okay. And my sweet husband gave someone else's big, fat, gray cat a proper burial.

So, Jackson, you still have 9 more to go! You little booger!