So this week, and for the first time in several years, I got some cats after being catless for quite some time. I got an adult pair who seemed even-tempered enough, though they meowed quite pitifully and at length on the drive home. Once in my house, I opened the carriers and one of them emerged quite promptly while the second stayed put. Fine, take your time, fellas.
A little later, the more reserved cat somehow disappeared. This was distressing, since if he managed to somehow escape the house, it was highly unlikely I’d ever get him back or find out what happened to him. He’s chipped, and my address is registered, but that’s assuming he gets recovered. Then my mother noticed the second cat hanging around on the basement steps and, rather to my surprise, I found out they could duck under the first step and run around above the basement ceiling, one of those drop-types with the framework and the big tiles. The bolder cat was near the step and I thought I saw a cat-shaped smudge further back, so I took out my cellphone and snapped some images.
I have friends who years ago succeeded, eventually, in taming a fully grown feral cat. He spent his first year or so in their house hiding in the basement ceiling, though.
I suspect that yours will come out a lot sooner. Have you tried the Tuna Technique?
– and congratulations on being Cat-Possessed once more!
A very strange woman I know had a cat that found its way through an access area for the bathtub plumbing and made its way behind the wall.
She heard it meowing in the wall and freaked out. She had a hammer, so of course she began tearing the wall open. After doing significant damage to the wall, she saw the cat behind her. It had found its way out.
– I once had a cat disappear while I had someone working on the house, putting in the upstairs bathroom. In the process, the bathroom floor was opened up.
Hunting around for the disappeared (and very shy) cat after the plumber/bathroom constructor had left for the day, I had an idea; I got down on the remains of the bathroom floor with a flashlight, and peered into the space between the floor and the downstairs ceiling. Way back there, all the way against the outer wall and under a bedroom closet, I saw eyes shining back at me; very like the photo in this thread.
The Tuna Technique worked; and I made entirely sure of where all the cats were before the bathroom constructor came back the next day to close in the floor. I told him it was lucky that I’d realized where the cat was while the floor was still open, as otherwise we’d have had to tear it back up again to let the cat out. He gave me a funny look – but of course we’d have had to tear it back up again to let the cat out!
[ETA: if the Hammer Woman was dealing with drywall, she could have cut a nice neat square out with a sharp knife, and might have been able to paste it back in again neatly enough to not be noticed by the landlord. But she might not have known that; or it might have been plaster.]
We have a huge back deck under which live groundhogs. There are maybe 3 separate holes next to the deck where they enter their underground den. I’ve captured and relocated 4 groundhogs in the past, but they never stop coming, so I basically gave up.
One day one of my sons was going outside through a doorwall to the deck, when one of our cats saw a groundhog and bolted outside after it, pursuing the groundhog underground.
I had no idea what to do. Both my kids were freaking out. Was the cat stuck underground? Did he get in a fight with a cornered groundhog? I removed a board from the deck but quickly realized the groundhog den was further underground than immediately under the deck-- there was just dirt. I’d have to dig if I wanted to get to it.
Suddenly, after about 10 minutes, the cat popped out from a different groundhog hole than the one he went in, not a scratch on him and seemingly none the worse for wear. We’re very careful about letting that doorwall open now.
Yes, it was her cat. I heard the story not from her, but from her landlord. She had used me as a reference, which was why he rented to her. I told him that had he called me I would have told him not to rent to her. I knew her and she was nuts.
I would have ceiling cats. But the ceiling is beams.
So I have Monkey cats.
They are either stalking the beams watching the commotion underneath. On top of doors. On the transoms or their feeding ledge. They don’t like the dog cooties on the floor. They come down if we have fires when it’s cold to roast awhile.
Well, it’s been a few weeks and the bolder cat is somewhat friendly, though any sudden moves and fft, he’s gone. The shyer cat can be lured out with laser pointers and other toys, though he’s still skittish overall.
Due to an unfortunate sequence of events, we had to re-home one of our cats several years ago. We lucked out finding a younger couple who lived only a few blocks away. The cat did not react well to his new circumstances, disappearing from sight somewhere in the basement of his new house, but the couple knew he was there because the food they put out was getting eaten and the litter box was being used. A few mornings after taking him, as they were getting ready to leave for work, they were puzzled to find that several of their lights and outlets had stopped working. After work they discovered that some of the circuit breakers on the main panel had been switched off. That’s when they discovered that the cat was hiding on top of the foundation wall between the rafters, and was using the switches on the panel to climb up to his hiding spot.
