Nine lives

[auntiemeesh]

I was sitting here minding my own business when an awful, mournful yowling started up right outside my apartment. I did a quick headcount to make sure neither of my guys had somehow escaped into the cold, but they were both accounted for. The yowling continued. After ducking out to see where the sound came from and not seeing anything, I grabbed a flashlight and tried again.

Yep, there it was, a large black cat in the snow right beside the porch. Or, to be more exact, lying on his side in the snow with his head disappearing under the porch. Oh, that can't be good. A closer look showed that he had his head through a hole in the lattice that made up the wall under the porch. I'm guessing he was looking for a warm spot to spend the night - it's relatively cold here, temps in the low teens fahrenheit. Somehow he managed to get his head through the lattice but his shoulders were too big, and then he couldn't get his head back out again. Poor thing was terrified and freezing.

It took a bit of doing just to reach him, as he chose a protected corner of the yard - wall of the house on one side, lattice on the next, and then bushes on the other two sides so that I was pretty much sitting on one of the bushes as I tried to pull the little guy's head out of the hole, terrified that I was going to kill him in my attempt to help him. One of the neighbors across the street came over and held my flashlight for me, but took off as soon as the cat was free, trying rather successfully, I'm sure, to avoid any further responsibility for the cat.

After a bit of tugging I did get him free (I put on gloves before touching him, and made sure my sleeves were long, in case he decided to fight me, but he didn't fight at all) and he sat all huddled up beside the house, continuing to yowl dismally. I couldn't tell if he was hurt or just cold and scared. So it was back into the house to get a bowl of food and water to take out onto the porch, and then once more into the bushes to gather the little guy up. Once on the porch he quickly ate up most of the food and then planted himself in front of my door, still crying piteously.

Oi, I'm such a soft touch. I called ani_no_mouse for advice and after talking with her I took one of my cat carriers out, with a towel inside it, hoping he could at least shelter in there for the night so he wouldn't freeze to death. But one of the neighbors came out and voiced her concern that it wouldn't be enough on such a cold night. She made a few calls to different animal shelters and such, but at nine o'clock on a Sunday night, no one is open. So for the moment, he's in my carrier, in my bathroom, carefully sequestered away from the other cats. In the morning, my neighbor and I are going to take him to Animal Friends or somewhere (she wants me to come along because she's afraid of cats but I don't have a car so I can't do it myself). I still have no idea if he's hurt or sick (I really hope he's just cold and scared because the last thing I want to find in the morning is a dead cat in my bathroom). He looks pretty healthy for the most part, glossy fur with no obvious scars or signs of being a wild cat, fairly large and looks well-fed. No collar or tags, though, and no way to know who he might belong to. And, really, no way of knowing if he's a he or a she. I'm not asking and he's not telling.

So, I know bringing him inside may not have been the smartest thing to do, for me and my own two cats, but I couldn't stand the thought of letting him sit outside my door all night, crying. And I really couldn't stand the thought of waking up in the morning and having a kitty popsicle on my porch. I've made sure my two don't have any contact with him and I'm not letting him out of the carrier. Plus, I've put all the clothes he came into contact with in the laundry so if he's got any fur-bourne pests or illnesses, my two shouldn't come into contact with that, either. Hopefully.

Anyway, if anyone has any other suggestions for what I should do, or how I could do things differently next time (although I hope there isn't a next time, this is a little stressful) I'd really appreciate your wisdom.

ETA: Mal just gave me a scare. I was checking on him and Tookie, making sure they were okay after all the fuss, and I couldn't find Mal anywhere. I double checked to make sure he hadn't ended up in the bathroom, then even looked outside. Finally, I checked under the sofa, his retreat when he's really freaked out. Yep. That's where he is, and he ain't budging. He didn't even twitch when I called to him and tried to entice him to come out.

Tookie, on the other hand, is taking advantage of his disappearance to eat all the food I put out for them.