Work Out - House guest

By Nancy Leasman

We’ve had a house guest for nearly three weeks. One whom we’ve never seen. She’s been reclusive, elusive and stealthy. She’s left signs of her passing but has spoken not one word.

Child #7 and her fiancé live in St. Paul. They have two cats. Then a third one appeared outside their patio door. They fed it. As the weather turned cold, they took pity on it. They made a shelter but she refused it. One cold morning, they brought her in. That process wasn’t without injury to her captor. He required bandaging and antibiotics. 

The black kitty was given residence in their downstairs bathroom to isolate it from the two upstairs cats until she had medical clearance. She escaped into the space above the ceiling by way of a small space around a pipe. They tore out a ceiling panel to retrieve her.

Kitty’s medical appointment was painless. A scan revealed a microchip registered to a pet rescue that had been closed due to abuse and neglect. She was seven-years old and neutered. Had she been adopted without the new owner updating the chip? Or had the rescue released her into the wilds of St. Paul when it closed? No one can tell.

Kitty, whom her new owners named Neytiri, became friendly with them. She purred and sought affection, while still isolated in their bathroom (escape hatch closed).

Her owners had a trip planned and pet checkers were scheduled for the upstairs cats. To simplify the cat care, they asked if they could bring Neytiri to stay with us so she would get attention and be isolated from the resident cats while her parasite treatment was completed.

She came to our house and stayed in the downstairs bedroom the first two days. When her owners headed out for their trip, we moved Neytiri to an upstairs bathroom. Though we didn’t see her, her food was eaten (including her final dose of anti-parasitic medicine) and the litter box was used. Until it wasn’t. There was no sign of her.

I was downstairs doing the laundry when I heard some noises in the ceiling above the downstairs bathroom. Apparently her modus operandi was to again squeeze around the drain pipe, this time going down, into our heated garage, across the ceiling structures the full length of the house, stopping when she could go no further. We removed an access panel for the plumbing in the bathroom, but couldn’t see her. A phone camera held at the end of a fully-extended arm revealed glowing eyes, but there was no reaching her.

We provided food, water, a cat bed, a cat toy, and a litter box in the bathroom. Her cat carrier was there, as well as a live-trap in which we offered her food, leaving it open, but moving the food dish further into the trap each day.

Ron positioned trail cams at key sites. Reviews of the stills and videos showed her chosen hidey hole to be under the bed in one of the bedrooms. She was active at night but generally stayed hidden during the day even though we cooed to her, tempted her with toys, and let her know that a chin scratch and a belly rub were within reach if she so chose. 

On day fifteen, with her owners having returned from their trip, we activated the live-trap. It failed. Enacting plan B, we upturned the bed. No cat. We checked the second bedroom. No cat.

It’s now day 20 and she’s still winning the “you can’t catch me” game. One week from today her people are coming for her. We will dismantle the house and find her. I expect to wipe out cobwebs and dust bunnies in the process.