People have sometimes commented that I have interesting things happen to me. On that note:
A friend of mine recently asked me to oversee the care of her three cats while she went on vacation. This was going to be a long trip, a couple of weeks I think (I never did figure out how many days). My job was to go in, get the mail, make sure the cats had food and water. The best part, only needed to drop in every two to three days. No problem!
These cats have a fancy set up: self cleaning litter boxes, two watering stations that swirl the water for them, and a feeding station that replaces their food as they eat it. And they are Siamese cats, so they hate everyone... no need to pet much. Well, one of them likes to be petted, the others pretty much hide. I went the first evening, stacked the mail, petted the friendly cat, refilled the water... almost had a guilty conscious over not petting the cat more but I was in a hurry (I've been told I should be Catholic with all my guilt issues).
Sunday I had plenty of time to pet the cat. Headed out, beautiful day, good day to be out alone with cats. Walk in the door and my first thought is that they have been bad little kitties. The mail was scattered and there was stuff on the floor. We used to housesit for some people that on the third day the dog would go nuts and tear stuff up to show his disapproval of being left with us. So I *blondly* went on in, blaming the cats for the cd's scattered over the floor until I saw the back door was open. Now, I think my pets are smart, but I'm pretty sure you need a thumb to open a door with a key. I did a quick walk through and confirmed that they had been broken into. I called my friend and made sure they wanted me to go ahead and call the police and do the report. Then I called 911....
Now let me explain something. I am a highly trained ER / Critical care nurse. I'm great if you are dying! I can run a code, shock you senseless, smack drugs into you.... I can make people jump at my command. You need to know this. So I call 911, cool headed, calm.... "This is 911" "yes, I would like to report I'm housesitting, well, not housesitting, more cat sitting and anyway I got here today and they have been broken into." "Okay, what is your address?" "oh crap, uh, I don't know, let me look... (walking PAST the stack of mail....) okay, it's 1234 uh, just a minute, let me look at the street sign, uh, hang on... okay, here it is." So they send an officer out.
I was impressed, kudo's to LRPD. He was very nice and efficient. We went through the house (keep in mind, most of the house I've never been in before so it was a first for me) and then he tried to get some fingerprints from where they came in. He talked to my friend and determined a few things that they took. And then he left me with the cats. The angry cats.... two angry, pissed off cats under the bed. I went all through the house and kept coming up with the magic number two, not three. The homeowner is calling asking me which two it is. I was trying to be so nice, but dang it, Siamese cats pretty much look alike and even more so if they are under a bed and you don't have a flashlight. Well, one got mad and ran into another room and under that bed (I did find a computer they missed, but it was broken). She kept telling me to get the treats and shake them, the kitty would come out for that. NOT. We finally determined that one cat was really gone. Lucky for me, they have a cat trap in the garage.
So now I get to figure out how to work a cat trap. I'm under the impression that most live animal traps have a back door to make it easy to open / load. Let me assure you this one has one, but it's fixed so it doesn't open. I load the trap with nice, juicy canned cat food, find a water bowl for it, and set it out. And reset the trapdoor, and reset the trap door, and.... finally success! I also pray that I am successful in catching a cat.
The next morning I run over, no cat. But one of the other cats shows himself and the other let me see enough to identify which two cats are in the house. Note: if you have three cats that look alike, don't expect the cat sitter to recognize them under the bed or by "do they have claws?" because if we are seeing claws that usually means your cat sitter is not happy.
That afternoon I went over and I did have a cat in the trap. Where I messed up was in not taking the trap in the house and setting the cat free inside, I mean, would they really notice? I digress, this was one angry cat and he was not afraid to let me know! But I did the right thing and let the cat go, resetting it just in case.
Sadly I never caught the right cat. Our friends are back and still looking, so if you see a lost Siamese kitty, let me know. If you need a cat sitter, well.... not sure I'm the one to call.
After I finished writing this, actually a couple of days after my friend called. They came home on Tuesday, this was Thursday afternoon. Her spouse was leaving to go to the store, saw pawprints on the car. Upon further searching he found the lost cat behind the dryer.
This cat, since I had discovered the break in on Sunday, had been hiding in the garage. I had been out there numerous times, with the police, looking for the cat trap, looking under the vehicle and all around several times.... the parents had been there and repaired the window and done laundry.... and the owners had been there shaking treats around trying to get the cat to come out of hiding (in case she was out there).... stupid cat. Owner said they had been worried that the cat was too dumb to find it's way home, seems the cat was too dumb to come in from the garage.
