A catastrophy!

Yes, it is a bad pun, but forgive me. It was a stressful few hours.

It is supposed to get very cold out tonight (7:30 lessons are for sure cancelled, not sure about others), so when I saw Rolo out in the cold, I thought today might be a good day to bring him into the barn and put him in the blanket stall. I figured I could then take him to be neutered tomorrow to decrease his urges to wander.

So I put him in the stall where he hid behind blankets. I took him food and water and let him be. I then made the mistake of checking on him later. I could not see him anywhere, so I began tossing blankets aside...but he was in one of them. My searching did not sit well with him, so he ran to the back of the stall, climbed up the flower boxes leaning on the wall, jumped over the the blankets hanging up, climbed the blankets to be on top of the stall divider, then proceeded to walk along the back wall above Magnus's stall. I was amazed at his athletics.

But then his fear got the better of him, and he decided to hide...in the nice dark whole that was the wall. And down he went. About a 7 foot drop IN the wall. Fortunately there was insulation to cushion the fall...unfortunately he was too heavy to stay on top of the insulation, so trying to reach in from above was futile.

So now what? That wall is double lined, and would require taking the stall down to get at! Thankfully I called Rob, and he pointed out the obvious; go in from the other side.

So, Natalie, Sydney (who is here from Cold Lake) and I got some tools, and set to work. First we took of a sheet of plywood. This allowed us to pull out the insulation and find which space Rolo was in...but alas, he was still to far to reach. Natalie and I tried to think of a way to scoop him out, but we gave up, and it became apparent more of the wall had to come down.

Rob however did not build those walls to come down easily! Many removed screws and bent hoof picks later and we were able to pry the board enough so I could reach in to get Rolo...but wow, was he wedged! It took some ungraceful maneuvering, but at last (about 80 minutes later), Rolo was free from the wall...and quickly stuffed into a cat carrier.

I didn't want to risk putting him back in the stall, nor could I put him outside lest he is suffering from shock...and locking him in a small space after being locked in the wall seemed cruel...so I now have a feral cat roaming the house.

He thinks windows are escape routes, and flowery curtains are for climbing. Fortunately the flowery curtains are old and unattractive, so not a huge loss.

I think he is hiding in the living room now with Kit Kat keeping watch.

When I have to head back out to feed I will need to lock him in our basement bathroom or something.

At least the poor traumatized kitty won't have to be cold tonight...

Must make a note to pick up some new hoof picks though...the ones I have are all bent now!

Karen