So on Friday morning, while I was packing my food for work, I started to hear a repeated meowing. I followed the sound to behind a door that leads to a stairway that goes both to the basement and the garage. I thought one of our cats got caught behind the door. I opened it while pondering how they snuck around us when we got home. No one was there, but the meowing continued. I walked down the stairs and found it was coming from the garage. Even worse a neighborhood cat somehow got stuck in our garage last night!
I walked into the garage and heard the meowing coming from under my car.
“Hi kitty!”
“Meow!”
“Hello kitty!”
“Meow!”
“It’s okay. You can come out.”
“Meow!”
The cat was content to stay put and not come to me. I tried to call my husband who was upstairs on his cell to tell him the news. He didn’t answer. So I walked back upstairs and yelled up the frantic news. Giuliano told me to just open the garage and let it out. (I was worried it didn’t have food or water all night!)
When I got back to the garage, all was silent. I called out and no meow. I opened the garage door, but I didn’t see anyone run out. I left the garage door opened, left the room, and went to finish packing my food. Maybe it needed time alone to feel safe to flee. When I was done packing my food I told my husband to please check the garage again before he left work to make sure the cat was gone. I went back and I looked all around my car. I looked under it. Nothing. I looked over each tire. Nothing. I put my stuff in the car, got in, rolled down the driver’s side window, and did the slowest reverse you have ever seen. No meows. Nothing. It must have got out. (I found out later that my husband forgot to check the garage before he left home for work.)
So I did my day of work, thinking of the poor cat and its poor owner that missed it! I felt so bad. When I got home I peered into the garage before slowly pulling the car in. Nothing. I closed the garage door and walked up the stairs. When I opened the door to the main floor I noticed Emily there. She ran down the stairs and was very interested in the basement door. That didn’t seem like a good sign. I called my husband with the news. We agreed to have him park outside and we’d both look in the garage. We did, and we didn’t find anything. Cat must be gone.
Forward to Saturday morning. For some reason my biological clock thought sleeping in was giving me an extra hour. I woke at 6:15am. Thanks I grumbled to myself. I listed to some music on my iPod as I started to plan out my day. As I did I swore I heard Emily meow. I lifted off my headphones, but didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see her down the upstairs hallway either. Now worried I decided to check downstairs. I paused in front of the door that led downstairs. I swore I heard meowing but at this point it could have been my imagination getting away from me. I slowly turned the knob. It was definitely meowing. The same meowing. Now I’m in a full panic. The poor cat’s been in there since Thursday evening! I run yelling to my husband Giuliano again and having him get up and help me find the cat. Meanwhile I grabbed some food and water for the poor thing.
When we got down the stairs and turned the knob, I heard something scamper away. Again the meowing came from under my car. Giuliano looked under it with a flashlight. We didn’t see anything. Worried now I asked him to open the hood, hearing in the past that cats like to hide there. I didn’t check it Friday morning and now I feared I took the cat for a ride! He popped it and I lifted it up. He looked around with the flashlight and we saw a tiny bundle of gray. A kitten! Oh my God. It was under the hood. Giuliano reached for it but it ran away to the other side of the garage. I went over there, got a bit of a hold on the kitten but it ran away. We tried to get it there, but it went back under the car’s hood. Then it ran to the back of the car over the muffler. Back and forth. This was a losing battle. Any grip Giuliano got on it, it got away.
At that point I suggested getting Emily down there. She was interested in the cat the previous day. Maybe she’d help us find it. She didn’t really help. Our cat Boo did. Every time Boo cried behind the closed main door for us, the kitten mewed back in return. Finally we chased it to the stairs. My husband ran after it, shutting the door behind him. Emily was on the stairs and “pointed” out the kitten to Giuliano. He finally got it, but was scratched and bitten in the process. I grabbed the small cat carrier and Giuliano put the kitten in it. We brought the carrier and kitten upstairs.
Some of our cats went to see the visitor. And yes some of them hissed. Others ignored the kitten like it didn’t exist. Kero just stared and stood like a statue from a safe distance.
We waited for the vet’s office to open at 9am. While we waited Giuliano went and got some cat’s milk we had and a dropper. He fed the kitty and it lapped it up! Yay! A good sign.
At about 9 we left and told the story to the vet’s office. I told them my nickname for the kitten: Little Mousie. Cause well the kitten’s gray and it ran around everywhere hiding like a mouse! So they put down Mousie on the kitten’s papers. Heh. I swear it’s a nickname only! The vet says the kitten is 6 weeks old, a good age, about 2 pounds, and a boy! He got his first shot and was tested for leukemia and feline AIDS. The test was negative. But they didn’t get a fecal sample to test for anything else, so until then we have to keep him apart from our other cats. They gave us some flea medicine and gave him a sample of some canned food. Boy did he eat! I’ve never seen a cat so hungry. The vet plopped the can in the carrier with the kitten and he ate and ate like crazy. More good news!
So we took him back home. He’s been shaking a lot. He’s still very scared of everything he’s been through. He has no idea what humans are. He likes to hide and meow, probably hoping his mom will find him. Poor thing!
We have to keep an eye on him. If he gets sick, we have to take him to the vet. Giuliano was bitten, as was a tech assistant at the vets office (probably when they drew blood). So we’re hoping the kitten doesn’t have anything that can pass to people.
We’ve been giving the little kitten a lot of love. We also set aside one of our bathrooms for him. A bed, a box, a litter box, food, water, and a place to safely explore. If we let him into the house we’d never find him!
