It has been a crazy month. Hard to believe that April is almost here. On February 18th I wrote about our attempts to capture one of Wanda’s outdoor kitties, Harley. His brother, Pumpkin, had been successfully taken to live out in the country with Nancy, who had been trying to catch Harley before Kevin and I joined in. We built a cat house in which we hoped to catch Harley but it became clear it wasn’t going to work, he was too smart for us. I started to worry that time was going to run out because they were having an online auction for all the stuff in Wanda’s house and I speculated they’d put the house on the market in the spring. It was maddening to think of not getting Harley.

But then I met an awesome animal rescuer, Rachel, who had a trap that she felt would be just the thing. It was an incredibly heavy wooden box with a sliding door on one side that would slam shut if the animal stepped on the trigger plate in back. Kevin and I picked it up from her on Wednesday, March 9th and lugged it into Wanda’s back yard. We didn’t set the trap because we wanted Harley to feel confident about going inside.

And he did. I think he liked it because it was so spacious. He went in and out a few times, and here he is on Saturday March 12th.

We set the trap on March 13th. He arrived minutes after we left…

And it breaks me heart to say that’s the last we’ve seen of him.

Nancy and her husband went to Wanda’s to retrieve the trap right after he was caught and brought it home to their place outside of Edinburgh – and when they opened it, Harley wriggled free.

It’s been exactly two weeks now that he’s somewhere, who knows where, I don’t like thinking about it.

The day after it happened I spent the day moping around but finally called Rachel. She’s not a moper, she’s a doer! She said we should set up trail cams around Nancy’s property, and post signs up around Edinburg.

We couldn’t use our camera that we’d used at Wanda’s because they don’t have internet out there in the country. So we set up the trail cams and there have been some issues with them, but I think they’re finally capturing lots of activity. The last time we checked, we saw plenty of deer, a couple of Nancy’s cats, a pheasant, a coyote, a raccoon, birds, squirrels, a possum’s tail…but so far, no Harley.

Did he run far away from Nancy’s? Did he run all the way to Edinburg? We haven’t put up flyers yet but I finally finished them today and we’re taking them around tomorrow.

The horrible, horrible thing is not knowing where he could possibly be. Somebody suggested that since they’d heard about animals traveling long distances to get back home, maybe he’d show up at Wanda’s? It’d be good if he was in the neighborhood there because at least people would feed him, but I bet a realtor wouldn’t want a cat hanging around when the house is up for sale. And it seems unlikely that he’d be able to travel that far anyway.

So, bummed. Bummer.

However, there is a silver lining…when I thought about Harley being missing, I thought about Pumpkin, sitting in a cage in Nancy’s garage. She has a fantastic set-up for many, many cats, but the few times I’d seen him when Wanda was still alive, I thought that Pumpkin should be an inside kitty.

So when we went to Nancy’s on Wednesday to set up the cameras, we picked up Pumpkin.

He was a good boy on the ride to our house and he’s been living in our second extra bedroom upstairs ever since. Here he is a few days ago.

There are a couple of issues – there are always issues – his eyes are red and swollen and now it looks like there’s a bubble on one of them, which he keeps closed. We took him to the vet and he’s on medication which will hopefully clear up the problem. And today I realized that he’s been using the carpet for a litter box. He seemed enthusiastic about the box initially, but this morning it finally dawned on me that he’s not using it. Oh boy.

But like I said, always issues, and I’m sure we’ll get it straightened out and meanwhile he’s incredibly happy to be here. I’ve opened his door so he could explore the house but so far he prefers to remain where he is, which is just fine. We’re up to six cats now, quite a few.

And maybe we’ll find Harley, stranger things have happened…

ok then,

Mrs. Sunday Hughes.