This Week: How To Lose a Beloved Pet and Almost Get Stabbed By Not Having Enough Cash To Tip the Pizza Guy

Tiki the cat is an indoor cat, or was before Tiki’s owners in Alexandria let in the pizzaman on Sunday night. Realizing too late they did not have enough cash to tip him, Tiki’s mom ran to an ATM, leaving the pizzaman holding the door ajar. Tiki’s owners then proceeded to dispatch with the pizzaman. They enjoyed their pizza and went to bed. But in the morning, only Peaches, their younger cat, arrived on their pillow to get wake them. Where was Tiki—Tiks, if you will—their beloved, gray cat who makes a small chirping noise instead of meowing (“erp, eep, burp, ark, etc.”)?

Several sightings have been recorded. Jackson Thomson, who, along with his fiancee, brought Tiki home to their former apartment in Michigan two years ago, found out his neighbors in Orleans Village saw Tiki in the building at 8:30 p.m., 10, and 12:30 a.m. One guy stumbled home after the bars closed around 2 and claimed to make out the visage of Tiki before passing out. “He’s, like, my boy,” says Thomson of Tiki.

So Thomson got serious. And then he (almost) got mugged. Upon realizing Tiki was gone, Thomson distributed some 375 fliers around his neighborhood. But then he figured something out: His fliers were in English. Many of his neighbors speak Spanish. So he had a friend print up a Spanish flier and he and his fiancee went about handing them out Wednesday night on and around Southland Avenue. One man approached him and “I went into my spiel,” Thomson says. “I told him there was a reward—mucho dinero—and he said, ‘Give me.'” So Thomson gave him a flier, which wasn’t exactly what the man was looking for. He grabbed Thomson by the coat and said, “Give me all your papers,” meaning money, and then he pulled out some sort of knife, maybe a Leatherman.

Thomson took off, the would-be mugger took off after him. Thomson tried to flag down cars on busy Southland. “Of course, this being Washington, no cars stopped,” he says. “Still, I figured I’d rather get hit by a car than stabbed.” His fiancee had been talking about Tiki to a large man originally from Africa. They heard Thomson yelling and ran toward him. Then Thomson and his new African friend turned and ran after the mugger. They didn’t catch him and, evenutally, the cops came. They picked up a minor whom Thomson says is “99 percent the guy,” but since he’s not 100-percent sure, the cops held the kid, then let him go.

Meanwhile, Tiki is still out there. Have you seen Tiki? If so, e-mail Thomson at savetiki [at] gmail.com.