You'd think that a bunch of blind, three-legged and wobbly cats wouldn't be capable of -- or have any interest in -- escaping from their nice, safe, outdoor enclosure. But you'd be wrong.
I was in my office yesterday afternoon responding to emails when Alayne came in and said, "Herbie got out again." What?!? We had already fixed the top of the enclosure after his last escape, and I couldn't believe he had managed to get through it again. On my way out to see what was going on, I grabbed the camera to document blind Herbie's latest adventure.
There he was, walking on top of the enclosure, carefully picking his way across the fencing material we lay from end to end to seal it off. Herbie! I checked the edges of the fencing where it meets the wall, because this is how he got out before. Nope, it was tight against the wall. I was perplexed. How did he get out?
I opened the gate to the isolation yard ... that's what is on the other side of the wooden fence in the photo -- and found another cat, three-legged Honey Girl, lounging in the sun. What the @%#?! I walked over to pick her up and she scampered off. Around and around we went, me trying to pick her up, she bolting away. She was clearly enjoying being out. Note: A three-legged cat who doesn't want to be caught is just as fast as a four-legged cat who doesn't want to be caught. I finally got her back in the enclosure and then resumed the inspection.
Finding Honey Girl was the clue, because a week ago we had found her out in the isolation yard, along with wobbly Mink. She had dug under that board fence, in the one short 18" section that isn't lined with 4" x 4" posts. So we had dutifully filled her hole with big rocks and lined that gap with more rock.
I looked over at the original point of escape -- by now I was feeling like Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes, trying to figure out how those pesky GIs were always digging out of their POW camp -- and was dumbfounded to see Honey Girl had somehow tunneled her way right past those rocks, pushing them aside and digging a new tunnel. Bear in mind that this cat only has one front leg!
Herbie, meanwhile, being true to form, had no interest in exploring the ground. No sir, he only wanted to go up ... and up he went. So once he followed Honey Girl out her tunnel, he turned right around, climbed up that board fence, and headed for the top of the enclosure. Bear in mind that this cat has no eyes in his head!
If he had just climbed all the way up onto the cottage itself, I could have titled this post, "Cat on a hot tin roof." Dang.
Herbie made his way over to the edge, meowing at me the entire time -- I don't know if he was simply letting me know he was coming over to me, or complaining that the fence material was swaying underneath him. He got to the edge of the enclosure and I lifted him off with one hand. He is so nimble and smart ... and such a world-class climber ... that I didn't for one minute worry about him falling.
We have now lined that gap at the bottom of the fence with a board and about 50 pounds of rocks. If that doesn't keep them in, well, I guess I'll have another "blog moment" to report!
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To follow up on the post about Spinner's seizures: She is doing fine and has not had any more seizures since last week. All of her other tests came back looking good. So we don't know much more right now.