Lindsey's Whimsy's: Cat Tales Part 2

Err... Some friends got on the me for my (lack of) blog posting lately so here goes!

My last post was was supposed to be a at least 2 part series about the kitten that got dumped at my house. This is the second and final part of that post so that I can move on and blog about more fun stuff!

So, if you can recall (and I know it may be hard, its been almost a month), I last left off with the cat disappearing into the night. I thought the cat was long gone, which frankly was fine with me because neither Joe or I are cat people. We have never owned cats, interacted in a positive way with cats, or had interest in cats.

Evening, Day 2
Needless to say a day and a half after the cat disappeared, I heard meowing from the truck motor while I took my puppy out to go potty before bed. I am pretty sure I audibly groaned and rolled my eyes for a few seconds before coming inside to grab a flashlight. I finally found the kitten by looking in the space between the wheel and the truck. There was nothing I could do with it so I grabbed a piece of bread, poured some milk in a bowl and went to bed.

Day 3
The next morning, the bread I left the night before was completely covered in ants. Joe needed to take the car so we went to see if the cat was still hanging in the engine. It was, but this time it was in my cars engine. After about 30 minutes of poking the bottom of the car, honking the horn, laying on the ground and all sorts of other fun stuff, the cat ran out... right across the street into a culvert where it continuously meowed loudly. I tried to be nice and call it out but it was having NOTHING to do with me... I am not sure that I wanted anything to do with it either though.

I called animal control they seriously scared me into thinking the cat was going to breed, have thousands of babies and take over my house... but they would not come to get it unless it was captured. Thanks folks. I left it alone thinking it may venture to a neighbors house somehow. That night when I went on my run I made noise to see if the cat was still around (anytime we talked it would meow... so I was a crazy running lady that talked to myself for a few seconds)... it was still in there but no coming out, so again, I left it alone.

Day 4
In the morning I wanted to go to garage sales so I made noise to see if the cat was around. It was in my car engine. In the matter of 30 seconds I shocked both myself and the cat. I opened the car engine, the cat tried to run but it got tripped up on a cord. I quickly grabbed it by the hair on its neck and stood there completely unsure of what to do. Joe was sleeping in so I ran upstairs, and hollered at him that I caught the cat. While this is all going on I am holding the cat far away from my body, it is meowing and I am unsure if it is going to scratch, pee, or something worse on me.

Joe said put it in Mackie's (the dog) crate... which was in a corner in the garage. I ran in the garage (still holding the cat) got the crate, opened it, and dropped the cat in and closed the door. As I went inside to wash my hands I started to feel bad because it was hot outside and probably hungry... I made the mistake of deciding to put a bowl of water and some food in the crate. I shouldn't have been so sweet to this creature. As I opened the crate the cat jumped straight up, and out of the crate... straight to the truck. Apparently vertical jumps are quite common for cats.

UGGH! 4 days of chasing this cat around, I finally caught it (with my bare hands) and then I went and let it go. Not to mention this entire escaped cost me at least 30 minutes of garage sale time (and I can only imagine the great treasures I missed out on). I left the house not so happy. 2 hours later, I got a phone call from Joe saying he had bad news... the cat somehow escaped. I thought about playing a joke on him but decided against it and told him how the whole thing was my fault. The only good thing about this story so far is when I called to tell my Grandma she laughed... and laughed... and laughed about it.

Day 4, 9PMish
That night when taking Mackie (the puppy) out, I heard the cat again. This time it was in Joe's truck. After a few minutes it finally peered out from above the tire. I ran inside and got some milk and dog food for it. I tossed it a few pieces of dog food and it eventually came out. I told Joe to come outside and we spent the night throwing dog food at it, trying to get it to come to us, etc. It was VERY shy and skiddish all night.

Day 30
The cat has been here ever since. It loves to play with Mackie, Boomhauer (the Rottweiler) gives it sloppery kisses daily, and Pebbles (the lab) completely ignores it. I am still a little nervous around it but both Joe and I are getting used to it. We are on our second bag of cat food and I even got it some treats (they were free with coupons from Target). We have seen it chasing bugs around so hopefully it is going to be success at keeping down the rodent, snake and bug population around here. I don't think we will ever be cat people per say but I have to admit, so far it has been a pretty positive addition to the homestead :).