Return of the MACK!

Without a doubt, I am the luckiest bastard in the whole wide world. I went out to the house first thing this morning and noticed that the stinky wet food I'd left last night had been eaten, and something had urinated in his litter box. That latter fact instilled some hope that Mack was somewhere in the area still. I know, I know...taking heart in cat urine, how much nmore crazy-cat-lady could I get? I headed over to the library and got to work on last week's lectures. I finished my studying at the library around 5:30 and headed out to the new house with a heavy heart--the forecast called for thunderstorms tonight and it was starting to look a little overcast. I wanted to do all my checking up on his food/water/etc. before the skies opened up.
I roll into the driveway with Bjork blasting, and grab a water bottle and a can of stinky tuna cat food out of the backseat of my car before getting out. I hear something--maybe a faint meow, probably my imagination playing tricks on me, but I turn and yell out "mack-mack!" into the woods as I've been doing three times a day for the past few days.
And in return I hear another meow, unmistakeable and plaintive. And then I see my little furball strolling out from behind the shed, looking like all the world like he just woke up from a nap--sleepy eyes and all. I'm almost crying I'm so relieved.
I walk over and he deigns to let me pet him just like he usually does.
He even lets me scoop him up and run him over to his carrier, though he's clearly not overly thrilled at being unceremoniously stuffed into it and rushed straight home.
He wasn't even seemingly that excited to be home--he slurped up his bowl of milk, chewed on his new asian food treats a bit (from my crafty stalker! I'll post about those in a bit...), then flopped down at the foot of the stairs and stared at me.
I'm baking him a cake as we speak...I know baked goods aren't good for kitties but he loves them much more than a nice rotisserie chicken!
I'm so happy and relieved. Thanks to everyone who gave me reassurance in these past few days--you were right, he did come back--but it was so awful to think that I'd never see the little guy again. I wanted to do something nice just to somehow try to thank the powers that be in a karmic sort of way, so for the next 2 weeks I'll donate the price of anything that sells in my store to a no-kill cat shelter in the area. I know, it seems sort of a silly thing to do, but...I'm just so grateful and I can't think of a better outlet for it.
Just look at this face:

Speaking of which, I saw a little flea on there just now...I'll have to schedule a vet appointment to get him all checked out, and maybe give him a dip...