Wednesday, December 03, 2008

For Jason: Our Escapee

Emma's kitten, Stanley, is as mischievous and curious as any cat that ever appeared in fairy tales and children's stories. We never know where we may find him and he gets into places we think impenetrable. In order to keep the peace between him and our other cat, we have always had him sleep in a basement bedroom (which is being renovated). If the door isn't completely latched, we'll find him on the stairs leading upstairs, meowing in indignation, when we get up in the morning. Today was such a morning. But, when I glanced over at his bedroom door, I realized that it was still closed! The case of the magically escaping cat had begun!

So this afternoon, I went snooping, trying to find the weak point in the seemingly sealed room. My first clue was a few pieces of chewed up insulation laying on the floor. I looked up to the one piece of exposed insulation in the entire room and, lo and behold, there is a small gap next to it:

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Now, let me put this gap into perspective:

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That gap is in the corner of the room at nearly ceiling height! The only way he could have gotten to it would be to scale the built in bookcase on the right side of the room (just outside of camera range), then walk along the very skinny top of that stair-step wall, and up into the hole. Once there, it would be easy for him to leave the room: the panel at the top of that left wall hides a large shelf that runs the width of our basement; the dividing wall of the bedroom does not extend into it.

So, mystery solved! But now? Hoooonnnnneeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy, I need you to fix the waaaaaalllllll!!!!! You know, when you have a spare minute?

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhh! The kitty's face says it all. What a great story, Meg. I had a cat that would tiptoe along a railing two stories up in the air, then leap about 10 feet over thin air to get to his favorite spot in a second story window. They are nothing if not resourceful! :) TFS.

Stephani said...

Oh my goodness Stanley is so stinking cute! And apparently very very intelligent. You should send your story into the Ellen Degeneres Show. She is obsessed with the fact that black and white cats are smarter then other cats. She showed a clip on yesterday's show of a cat riding on a Roomba... one of those self vacuuming thing's. It was so hilarious! Anyway... she said for owners of black and white cats to send there stories into the show. She finds black and white cats especially fascinating because she says none of her other cats are as smart. Who knows Stanley could be a T.V. Star... lol! lol! lol!