“Dad, don’t you think you should close off the vents in here too?” said the 12 year old boy as we were getting ready to release a pregnant semi-feral cat into her “birthing suite”, a 3rd story bedroom that is currently in remodel phase.
60 seconds, that’s all it would have taken.
But did the dad listen to his (then more wise) 12 year old?
Nope.
What ensued was a series of frustrations as this cat had found herself through a 3” by 10” vent into our HVAC system. She stayed there and didn’t come out. But, who was to blame her? She had been living in a 60,000 sq. ft. factory where she only let a couple of people come close to her. She had been captured and taken 45 miles away and now had found an escape portal. We tried to woo her out. A live animal trap at the end of the line baited with a can of tuna had proven useless.
So, I was planning on “recovery” phase rather than “rescue” phase. I left the trap set in the aforementioned birthing suite. Closed up the HVAC system except the one hole, the one she has escaped thru, and walked away.
The next morning, the 12 year old son came downstairs with an escaped convict securely trapped in the cage. Alive, and seemingly well.
I was dreading the smell of dead kitty in our HVAC system.
And now, pregnant kitty is safe in her birthing suite, being treated like a queen, and probably happier than she’s ever been. Now, the wait for the little ones…
I suppose “all’s well that ends well” with this one.
Except I’d rather trade those hours I spent trying to get her out for the 60 seconds I could have spent on the front side.
