Switch the kitty?

Switch the kitty. [link]

The back door got left open somehow last night. I went out to have a cigarette and noticed Switch running off the back porch and Elliot laying in the drive. We herded Elliot in, found Ollie in the front yard and got him inside and then spent the next hour and a half chasing Switch all over the backyard. We almost had him a couple of times and he let his displeasure and reluctance to be caught by biting, scratching, and hissing. He's been gone for almost 24 hours and no one has seen him.

I'm trying very hard not to lose my shit.

Wow. That sucks. But remain calm. He may be hiding out someplace really close by -- cats are sneaky that way.

Does he have a favorite treat?

Perhaps if you just hang out on the back stoop and have that treat with you, you can lure him to you.

Does he have a favorite treat?

Human flesh, it seems. Other than that, no.

Perhaps if you just hang out on the back stoop and have that treat with you, you can lure him to you.

I've been doing that, too. Every time I reach for him, he bolts.

Then, do that - when he approaches, you retreat. Can you secure the other animals so that they won't run out the back door if you leave it open?

Then you can do the lure, approach, retreat thing until you get him into the house.

Good call, Sumi. I'll try that.

I hope it works!

Good cat-wrangling-ma!

Thanks!

Sumi. I owe you. Huge.

Locked Elliot in the bathroom. He immediately got into the window and started meowing. We heard faint meows coming from below the building - we have a crawlspace and there's an access panel next to the back stoop that Joe blocked off the other day when Switch got out and Joe had to retrieve him from there. Joe moved the access panel, I put out food, and opened the back doors.

I came back in and all of a sudden, Elliot starts meowing again. Elliot is not, despite being half Siamese, a vocal kitty. I got out and see Switch's tail go under the building. I tell Joe. Joe starts suiting up for another bout of cat wrangling - infantry crawl style.

I peek back out and Switch is half on the stoop. He spots me and goes back under.

Joe goes under, corners him in the furthest corner of the crawlspace and drags him out.

We get him into the house and he is COVERED IN DIRT AND MUD. But otherwise, no worse for the wear, as seen here: [link]

He has sought solace in Emeline's bedroom window where he has been given his own bowl of food and water and he can gaze into the open air and dream of his 24 hours of being Switch: King of the Ferals.

Little does he know that tomorrow, he will be Switch: King of the Bathtub Bathing Kitties.

Also, I have decided that the Miracleborns are not in fact leaving California. It's true that on Tuesday they will be making a long drive to a vaguely Michigan-shaped location, but they will in fact be remaining right exactly here in California, just in an inconvenient, vaguely Michigan-shaped suburb of LA.

THEY WILL SO. DO NOT CONTRADICT ME.

And you doubt that I need a "What JZ Said" t-shirt.

Aims, glad you got Switch back. I've been packing all night, so I didn't catch up until now. I find the lure, retreat, let-kitty-think-it's-his-idea routine to be extremely effective. If he kept coming onto the stoop, he wanted to come back home. I'm guessing that he, like Mia, just gets scared and does the kitty-bolt thing when startled. Poor kitty. Poor Miracleborns.

In happier news, Em is SO FRIGGIN' CUTE! Those pictures are priceless.