Day 1: Animal Control

Doesn't he look cute?

Yeah...see what you think after 6 people have spent 5.5 hours trying to get this guy, scared and immobile out of an attic spanning the width of an entire duplex!

I showed up at my own home around 12:30 this afternoon. The thought was Romeo had been hiding in the shower wall in the bathroom yesterday. Last night we left him a litter box, food, and sprinkled cat nip over the entire bathroom. My friend Dave and I left him in their and went to dinner, then to the hospital to say goodbye to the nightshift. This afternoon when we opened the bathroom none of the food, nip or litter had been disturbed. Thus, the cat must not be in their.

So the attic was our next destination. For the record, I am claustrophobic. This was my cat though so I bravely entered the dark, cramped, dirty space which is an attic in a house built in 1938 to see if I could find him. I looked between every floor joist row to see if he was there. He was not. I could not fit past the pipes to the remainder of the house. However, we did learn there are certain portions of the floor joists which run from my side of the house to the neighbors side of the house. Montana proved that!

My friend Paul then came over with his friend Chris. Chris is very, very tiny. Chris was able to fit over the pipes. She found Romeo. He was about in the middle of both sides of the building. She was able to scare him over to the side of my house on the "close" side of the pipes. Then the neighbor threaded tent poles to help "encourage" him to the other side where my friend Paul was waiting to catch him. Paul caught him! Romeo scratched him to hell but Paul and Dave got him trapped in the third floor bedroom. They put a pile of stuff in front of the attic door so the cat couldn't get back in. I took to tending Paul's wounds. Several deep scratches and one puncture. Damn cat pushed the stuff out of the way and got back into the attic.

SOOOOOO....Chris crawled back over the pipes. Brent, the neighbor, cut a whole into the sheet rock on his side of the place and we found Romeo hiding in the far, front end of the building in a joist space going the full length of the house. I crawled into the attic for the neighbor's side (Have I mentioned I'm claustrophic?) while Brent and Chris taped one pole after another together to scare him. We got him within 4 feet of my hand and Brent drove a screw diver between two floor boards to also make noise and scare him. Romeo came within 1 inch of my face as I was hanging upside down watching him come towards me. I reached for him with my gloved hands (I didn't want to have another scar on my face or hands from a cat!) and as soon as I touched him he jumped over my head and was gone again!

Round Three: All THREE guys crawled into the attic on the neighbor's side of the house. Romeo was now between floor joists which did not run the entire width of the house. Oh, this should be easy. Get something behind him, pull him towards us, grab him. Yeah no! I'm in tears by this point. Heidi, Brent's wife, has ordered pizza and then decided I needed a glass of wine. The three guys have a live trap wedged between the joists and we have all agreed to tape a fork to the end of the hockey stick and "poke" him out.

Did I mention I called the police animal control number and they don't work on weekends? Or that I called a private animal control number and he wanted $170 to set up and then $40 an hour?

So after pizza and fresh air, the guys were back in the attic with a hockey stick with a fork taped to the end. Live trap in place. About 15 minutes later the three of us girls here a "whoo-hoo" and then trampling down the stairs. Brent is hollering to call dave and tell him to come back. I guess Dave had been sent to get a shop vac with a long hose to attempt to blow the cat out of the attic. They had the cat, he was trapped in the live cage, and all was well!

So...
Miles Traveled: 7.14
Gallons of gas bought: 0
States crossed: 0
Cats caught: 1

Romeo is now been give a dose of animal sedative and is locked in the bathroom with the two other cats along with a litter box, food, and water. All 6 of us are showered. I'm half looped on Koonunga Hills Merlot.

Dave and I are thinking of watching the Packer game our friend Tim recorded. My Broncos edged out San Diego in a 2 point conversion attempt!

Plan...Go to bed at a normal hour. Get up at a normal hour. Load cats. Load Plants. Drive to Isabel, SD.