Found my cat ... again.

I'm glad my life isn't boring. @_@


I found Tiber today.  HE'S ALIVE!!!!
My brother-in-law got married on the East Coast on Friday (more about that later) and we left on Wednesday.  On Thursday, my neighbor who is caring for our cats called me in a panic and said, "I went to your house today to feed your cats, and I CAN'T FIND TIBER."  I told her not to worry, and I'd take care of everything when we got home if he didn't turn up.  It's not her fault my dumb indoor cat likes to play escape artist.

We've been praying a lot this week for Tiber's safe return.

Now, THE STORY.

This morning, as we were all heading off to run a bajillion errands, I thought I heard a cat meowing outside.  I had to drop off the recycling, buy groceries, and pick up all of the snacks for Mark's work, so I knew I didn't have much time to investigate.  We got all of the errands done that we needed to do and I dropped Sadie off 10 minutes early, woohoo!!

When we got home, I heard the cat STILL meowing and wondered what was wrong.  I walked over to the fence to figure out where the noise was coming from, and I said, "Tiber?  TIBER?!  Is that you?!" and the poor cat kept meowing and meowing.  I looked between the slats in the fence and still couldn't see anything, so I figured he must be stuck back there somewhere.

I felt a little awkward about trespassing into someone's backyard, BUT THERE'S A CAT BACK THERE, I THINK IT IS MINE, AND I MUST RESCUE IT.  I strapped Carmen back into her car seat and drove one street over to see if I could figure out what backyard he was in.  The house was ... um ... trashy ... and the backyard was a total junk yard (3 cars, a big shed full of crap, an air conditioning unit, random barbed wire, it was yuck.)

The meowing was coming from the discarded air conditioning unit and I peeked inside and there was this little squished gray cat in there.  "TIBER!" I screamed.  "Tiber!  I'll get you out of there!  Just wait and I'll find a way!" and he yowled and meowed and squirmed ... but there was nothing for his claws to catch onto and the a/c fan kept spinning and he would slide back to the bottom every time he tried to climb up.  Plus, he was pretty squished down there and he could hardly move.  I tried tipping it over and tearing it apart, but I didn't have enough leverage to do much.  Plus, I was squished up against the fence (which backs to our townhome complex) with these random piles of barbed wire ... I tried knocking on the door to let the home owners know my cat was stuck in their yard, but nobody was home.  I was shaking and my adrenaline levels were through the roof.

I ran back to my house to get the tool box in case I could disassemble the unit and get him out.  I also called Cat to see if she could help me (and then I was going to call the cops as a last resort) and we found a neighbor to hold the baby monitor while Braxton slept.

We managed to get the air conditioning unit tilted over enough that Cat could pick up Tiber by the scruff of his neck.  I had a wool emergency blanket in the back of my car (yay, emergency preparedness!).  We wrapped Tiber up in that because he was matted and dirty and covered in urine and Cat held him while we drove home.  She gave me several cans of wet cat food that her cats won't eat and I gave him a bath.

We got home just as the Jehovah's Witnesses arrived and Dana agreed to come back later, after I'd taken care of my cat.

Carmen and I took Tiber upstairs into the bathroom and I stripped down to my underwear (woo-woo!) and wrestled Tiber into our bath tub and sprayed him down with the shower hose.  The water was completely black and he was NOT HAPPY but was too weak to scratch me or jump around much.  I shut the door to the bathroom, told Carmen to not let Tiber out, and grabbed some towels, a bowl for water, a can of food, and Carmen's baby wash.  I went back into the bathroom, let Tiber eat for several minutes, then washed him up a few times.  Finally, the water came off clear and I didn't want to torture him any more.  I squeezed out what water I could and dried him off a little bit and let him eat and shake himself out.

Wet cats look so pathetic and skinny.

Now he's dry and looks pretty normal.  Still traumatized, still probably hungry.  I'll keep my eye on him for the next few days to see if he's acting funny or sick.  He doesn't look like he's in any pain, just lonely and hungry.  He has a little gash in his thigh, which I shaved and cleaned out and put Neosporin on.  I'm going to call the vet to see if he has any advice of anything more I should do for him.  Really, there's no point in taking him IN to the vet if the vet's going to do exactly what I did.



I'm so glad he's okay.

It would've been so horrible for him to ... for him to have died in that awful air conditioner.  Ugh.  Why do people let their yards turn into junkyards?

Stay tuned for even more dramatic wedding stories!!  Murphy's Law is alive and well!!!