Kitten adventure

It seems that I had underestimated a feral kitten's determination and resourcefulness when trying to escape a confined area. Yesterday morning, sometime in the 15 minutes between one check and another, she managed to move the heavy body pillow that was laying across the heating vent, pry up the vent cover, and escape into the duct system. It had never even occurred to me that the vent might be a problem. If you had told me that this little kitten was capable of prying up the cover I would have laughed at you. Just shows what I know.

The duct system is, of course, a series of nice, soft, warm, dark, enclosed tunnels -- in other words, a frightened kitten's dream. So pinballsorceror and I spent much of yesterday afternoon in the crawl space under the house trying to drive the kitten back up through the vent. We locked the other two cats in the laundry room and removed vent covers in the rest of the house as we tried to figure out which vent she was closest to. After several false starts we finally found her near the kitchen vent so I hovered over the vent ready to grab, while pinballsorceror went down in the crawlspace and constricted the duct to drive her out the vent. Soon as I saw head and shoulders I grabbed. She got one good swipe in that took strips of flesh off my palm, but once I got her in close she calmed down some. So she's back in her room, kitten and duct system appear none the worse for the wear. And now the vent is sealed with duct tape, with a heavy litterbox on top of it and the heavy body pillow on top of the litterbox.

By last night and this morning she was much calmer, still a little nervous about being cooped up, but isn't really scared of me any more. She will let me pet her without flinching, and while she tenses if I pick her up, once I have her in my arms she relaxes and seems content. The only thing that worries me is that she shows no inclination to eat the food I set down for her, nor does she seem to be drinking much of her water. I'm hoping that will change soon.

As for her littermates, I was happy to see one back by the hedge today on my way in to work. The trap and some food pretty much live in my car now, so I will be attempting to trap a sibling tonight. Since they were together for so long, I'm hoping that the presence of siblings will make them all more comfortable.

(no subject)

Someone stole my trap!! I went back to check it and it was gone. They'd actually taken the food -- untouched -- out of the trap and left it there, and took the trap with them. I'm just hoping there wasn't a kitten in it when they took it -- although the fact that they left the food suggests there wasn't. I know from experience that removing the food can while the cat is in the trap is impossible. At any rate, someone who would walk off with a trap and not even leave a note isn't really someone I want looking after one of my kittens. And I really wanted to keep them together if possible. I left a note taped to the wall with my phone number in case the person comes back, but I figure it's a slim chance. I'm very upset -- I was so excited to see the other two back again today, and confident that before the night was over I'd have rescued at least one more sibling. Now I'm back to where I started and without even a trap to use. And I can't really afford to go buy another trap, although if mine doesn't show up and I still see the other two hanging around I may say screw the cost and do it anyway. But it's not cheap. Grrrr.