Trapped by a Tucker - with Pictures!

[Veronica]

Our two back yard boys are orange tigers. The dad is the most laid back cat I have ever seen. He just loves to be rubbed. The "kitten" is a bit of a curmudgeon though. He likes to bug my out front girls.

Veronica

[indysteel]

Although our heart was in the right place, we made a big mistake with our orange feral cat. When we learned on Christmas night that a blizzard was forecast (the first in Indiana in a long time), we decided to lure the feral into our basement. He otherwise hangs out under our deck and we were afraid he might get trapped from blowing and drifting snow. The luring part went okay. But once he was in the basement, he managed to get from one room to another adjoining room during the middle of the night Our basement is subdivided into three rooms, only one of which our indoor cats are allowed to access. The other two rooms are separated, but there is a small hole in the adjoining wall for some ductwork. Well, the feral cat managed to climb a cinderblock wall and squeeze through that hole, presumably in an effort to escape. From there, he hid himself so thoroughly that when we tried to find him the following morning, it took a long while and, in the meantime, we both went into full panic mode. It was nuts.

We finally located him and managed to get him out from his hiding place and out the basement door. Not without some drama, but we got him out. Poor guy. He quickly disappeared for a couple of days, which totally defeated the purpose of, in the very least, making sure he had food through the storm. But he's back now under our deck and getting his daily meals and water.

We've had other reason to put our strays into the basement for periods of time--generally after they've been spayed or neutered. We've not tried to get him fixed for whatever reason. Now I know that he'll be pretty tricky to handle if we do. He's the only one of our strays that I would label as truly feral. Anyway, we learned a big lesson from this. Sometimes, there's only so much you can do to help an animal survive. I'm just glad that he's otherwise okay and that he didn't manage to escape into our house.

[katluvr]

Is there a "like" button?!
Looks like my Pepper, but he is not much a lap cat, but he sure is a back-of-the-couch-cushion-smusher!

K