Wow! It’s Wednesday! The Curious Case of Steve
So one of the many stressful things that happened during last Tuesday’s move was that our cat, Steve ran away.
Background: Steve basically tricked us. When we first encountered him as a kitten at the shelter, he was very lovey-dovey. But after we got him home, he basically took a cue from our other cat, Cornelious, who has never gotten over being slightly feral and only occasionally shows us any affection. Except Steve took it a step further and has managed to act like he is super-scared of us, even though he’s been with us for almost a year and we feed him and clean up his poop. We love him anyway. It’s a choice.
In order to keep him from getting out of the house while all the doors were open for the movers, we put him and his brother in cardboard carriers in our old master bathroom. This is harder than it sounds, b/c it’s rather difficult to wrangle a cat that doesn’t want you to touch him and put him in a box. Then he got out of the box three times and CH kept on having to rewrangle him and retape the box in a way that clever Steve wouldn’t be able to figure his way out of it.
Alas, while I was waiting at the old house and CH was at the new house, telling the movers where to put the first load of boxes, Steve managed to escape again and then when he encountered the movers, he ran downstairs. I waddled after him and even managed to get him into one room and into my arms, but then he scratched my face and arms, drawing blood, in his efforts to be let go. I dropped him and he was off again.
Long story short, we couldn’t find him after that, even after looking for him everywhere.
Fast forward to that night, Cornelius kept us up all night wailing like an abandoned woman from a Greek tragedy. It was terrible, and CH went back to the house to look for Steve the next day. But no luck.
We just had to hope that since Steve won’t let any human being near him that he would turn up with Animal Control and that they would call us, since Steve has an RFID tag. So we waited and Cornelius wailed every night.
Then on Thursday, CH heard a cat mewing in the night, but when he opened his eyes, Cornelius was by the bed staring up at him. So CH followed the mewing to the closed basement door and when he went downstairs, Steve ran out and past him up the stairs. From what we could piece together, Steve must have decided to hide from the evil humans in one of the office moving boxes, which then got moved to the new house. And since we keep the basement door closed, though he got out of the box, he wasn’t able to get out of the basement until two days later.
We’re still a little bemused about this lost and found story. Do you guys have any curious cases of pet disappearances and reappearances? Let us know in the comments.
Holy crap! That's amazing. I once heard a story about a cat that was trapped in a dresser drawer for several weeks due to a move. They thought the cat had run away, but there it was, hanging by a thread when they finally got around to unpacking.
So the moral of the story is… cats secretly love us and they don't run away. Check under the stairs.
Holy crap! That's amazing. I once heard a story about a cat that was trapped in a dresser drawer for several weeks due to a move. They thought the cat had run away, but there it was, hanging by a thread when they finally got around to unpacking.
So the moral of the story is… cats secretly love us and they don't run away. Check under the stairs.
I'm so glad to hear it all had a happy ending. And kudos to Cornelius for trying to let you know sooner.
I'm so glad to hear it all had a happy ending. And kudos to Cornelius for trying to let you know sooner.
That IS a crazy story. Moving with cats requires creativity. We just moved also, and we had to drug our cat because she gets horribly carsick and pukes/pees/craps all over herself as soon as the car starts moving, and then she freaks the frappe out because she's trapped in a tiny carrying case, sick and covered in her own vomit/urine/feces, and the situation generally devolves into a slimy, screeching, disgusting nightmare fairly quickly. So the vet gave us some pink, cat sedative pills which we eventually got her to eat (2 days after everyone else in the household had already moved…) and we got her to the new house safe and sound. So happy endings all around. Glad you found Steve!
That IS a crazy story. Moving with cats requires creativity. We just moved also, and we had to drug our cat because she gets horribly carsick and pukes/pees/craps all over herself as soon as the car starts moving, and then she freaks the frappe out because she's trapped in a tiny carrying case, sick and covered in her own vomit/urine/feces, and the situation generally devolves into a slimy, screeching, disgusting nightmare fairly quickly. So the vet gave us some pink, cat sedative pills which we eventually got her to eat (2 days after everyone else in the household had already moved…) and we got her to the new house safe and sound. So happy endings all around. Glad you found Steve!
My moving/cat story isn't about my cat. We were moving out, and the movers were most of the way through emptying everything from the house. I was sitting in a folding chair in the master bedroom (very back of the house) reading, and my cat was secure in the master bathroom. I looked up from my book to see our next door neighbor's cat staring at me — he had wandered in through the open front door. Every other time he'd tried to come near our house, our very territorial cat had scared him away by screaming and flinging her body against the window, so it was especially surprising to see the neighbor cat actually walk all the way through the house the one time that our guard cat was unavailable.
My moving/cat story isn't about my cat. We were moving out, and the movers were most of the way through emptying everything from the house. I was sitting in a folding chair in the master bedroom (very back of the house) reading, and my cat was secure in the master bathroom. I looked up from my book to see our next door neighbor's cat staring at me — he had wandered in through the open front door. Every other time he'd tried to come near our house, our very territorial cat had scared him away by screaming and flinging her body against the window, so it was especially surprising to see the neighbor cat actually walk all the way through the house the one time that our guard cat was unavailable.
wait…You have a basement?
wait…You have a basement?