Monsieur le Chat arrived Friday night, heavily sedated. The accessories – enough to fill several bags were unloaded and spots designated. Dinner was served, wine was poured. Then came the ‘after dinner show’. Someone in a Mercedes parked directly across our driveway, blocking our guest’s car from being able to leave! My neighbourhood has a very active FB page so I posted a message there to see if the owner could be found…no joy. So, we had to get it towed so that our guest could leave! It was quite exciting. How long for the parking enforcement to show up? Would they tow? The office was kind enough to look up the address of the owner and walk over to their place to give them the chance to move before getting towed. But as luck had it, the address was for a building under construction with no occupants in site! So, the car was towed and our friend was able to leave.
Now back to Le Chat. He was shown the litter box and food areas in the morning, before the sad departure of his Human. He was hiding under the couch at the time, so he didn’t realize he was missing his chance to say farewell. He had the guest room to himself for 2 nights. It’s actually my office. With the COVID lockdown we realized it was not reasonable to have a room taken up with a bed and me squeezed in front of the computer trying to work. It’s not like we are having lots of overnight guests. Especially considering I had an audiobook to record. So, the normal bed was converted to a wall bed. So much more space!
Early Sunday morning (4 am) I had to get up to pee and the cat was lounging in the bathroom doorway. Now, I hadn’t actually seen much of the cat up close and in person. All I saw before was a glimpse under the sofa, as I shoved in a plate of wet food to entice him with. And now I had to walk past him to get into the bathroom. I had been warned that he can be a bit ornery… he had hissed at others before. I very gingerly walked around him into the bathroom. Success! No hissing, no bolting away in fear. He just sauntered back to ‘his’ room and let me have the bathroom to myself. What a gentleman!
Sunday afternoon I had to get the office back in shape as I needed to be on video for Monday morning work. I had no idea where the cat was. I lifted the bed… didn’t see him underneath and very slowly closed the bed back up. Maybe he is exploring the basement. By Monday night it was just a bit too quiet, so we installed a ‘cat cam’ with night vision to see where he was hiding. The camera was aimed at the water dish/food dish area. We also heard from the owner of the Mercedes! They posted in the neighbourhood page owning up with appropriate shame to their oversight of our driveway. They even brought over a bottle of wine as an apology. My neighbourhood is the absolute best!
Tuesday morning… no litter box use. No food eaten. Hm…not a good sign. A video chat with my friend leads us to look inside the bed. I was so sure that there was no way he would have stayed there while the bed closed up over him…but there he was! Poor guy was there for over 24 hrs!
Now the details of getting him out of there are the stuff of many sitcom plots. He refused to budge. I couldn’t wedge him up through the opening (a portly fellow is Monsieur Le Chat). There was a broom and lots of cardboard boxes and towels involved. Much hissing. Post extraction cleaning and airing out was needed. He is thoroughly pissed with me now.
He is currently in the main bathroom (thank goodness we have 2). He has lots of catnip, food, water, litter, toys, soft things to curl up on. Not sure how long it will take for him to forgive me. I will have to leave him in the bathroom overnight, just to make sure he properly eats/drinks/bathrooms before I let him run off to find a new hiding spot. I feel certain it will not be in the wall bed again. After all, it is closed now!
Stay tuned for more adventures!
Esther Thibault Voice 