This is a long story, but bare with me and you might get a chuckle out of it..
Last night we were all playing in the living room and we kept hearing a cat meowing, quite loudly. Matt assured us that he had put Tawney outside and had seen her go. He said that she was probably underneath the house. Although Tater and I kept saying that it sounded like it was coming from the hall, we finally conceded that to the fact that that she was under the house & never gave it another thought. Until... the kids went to get their
jammies on & all of a sudden we hear an awful scream from Tater and he comes running (stumbling) into the living room, white as a ghost, with a look of true fear on his face, (I've never seen that look before.) After a minute of reassuring and trying to calm Tater down, what we got from him was that there was something big, black, and scary in the house. I don't think Riley saw anything, she was just reacting to Tater. (I'm dying of laughter just typing out this story!) Matthew went to investigate and discovered a big black cat in the doorway of our bedroom at the end of the hall, starring him down. Apparently the kids came around the corner and it was sitting in Riley Jo's doorway and when Tater turned on the lights, that's when he saw it. So there it is, at the end of the hall just sitting there watching Matthew. Later I did get Matt to admit that he was a little nervous about this wild cat that's loose in the house and how in the H E L L is he gonna get it out!?!? The whole time we're thinking that it's not running because it feels threatened and it's gonna attack. So Matthew calmly squats down & calls it to him. The darn thing comes right to him. BIG sigh of relief!!! Matt picks up the cat and totes it out to the mudroom. The poor thing is starving, so we get it some food and water. This cat is NOT wild at all. Out theory is that it was someones house cat and it got dropped off out here and found us. It obviously doesn't do good surviving on its own. The poor thing is skin and bones and had one ear that had gotten frostbite and lost the tip. As for his (her?) size, it's not nearly as big as it looks. It's a long hair fluffy critter, SUPER friendly cat.
Once we got the kids calmed down and the cat locked up in the mudroom, one big question remained... "how in the world did this strange critter get into the house?" So we started our investigation and quickly discovered the port of entry....
This is the bathtub in the master bathroom and on the side there is a panel that is removable to allow access to the pipes for the tub. Apparently the cat pushed his way in through a not so tight panel. As you can see, the panel is now secured tightly with duct tape. (gotta love trailer houses!) Upon strong persistence and heavy supervision from the kids, this was done before they could even think about going to bed. We made it through the night without anymore visitors!!! And, amazingly enough, without any nightmares. As for me, I'm just grateful that our visitor picked a night when Matthew was home to make his appearance, and during waking hours. Just imagine... sound asleep, safe and warm in your bed when a big black furry critter with glowing green eyes jumps on you and jolts you back to life from your peaceful slumber! (or brings you to near death just from its presence?!?) I guess, it could have been worse. We'll all be laughing about this for sometime!!
