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:



Now, let me put this gap into perspective:



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?