Cat in the Hat, and in the bookcase and under the desk...

Every Thursday evening after work I head for the SPCA shelter to spend time both in my capacity as president of the board and as a volunteer. I start off by having a casual meeting with Stephanie our executive director to catch up on business and then help around the place interacting with visitors and doing odd jobs. Sometimes it's busy but last night was insane. There was a larger-than-usual group for volunteer orientation so Stephanie was tied up with that. Dianna our treasurer was there as well, busily feeding motherless baby kittens a bottle. I was out front when a lady came in with a feral (wild) cat she had caught (apparently she brought in the kittens a few days before.)

She had worked very hard to trap this cat which when I peeked in her crate, was staring at me wildly, scared to death. The lady tells me this feline is quick to bite and scratch.

Okay, so obviously this woman wants her crate so we have to plan a transfer. I go find a decent-sized crate and get some dry food bits which I put in our crate and I set the two crates together with the doors open. Hopefully crazy cat (and I say that with respect) will be hungry enough to move into our crate and I will shut the door. Easy optimistic plan.

Well the crazy cat is more scared than hungry apparently and just moves more tightly against the back wall of the original crate. We tip it slightly hoping she will move forward and make her way into crate two. No luck. I put our crate on end and we pick up the one with the cat and try to carefully drop her in. But before we could lift if all the way up... crazy wild cat is loose. She's tearing all over the lobby, up walls, across windows sweeping things off counters as she goes. I run to make sure Hugs our new shelter cat is safely in her room and come back to find that crazy cat is now under a computer desk back against the wall.

Dianna has finished feeding and cleaning the ultra-young baby kittens and gets down on the floor to assess the situation. We decide to get a big blanket and try to coax the cat out and I'd throw it trapping the cat which we will then scoop up and into the crate. At the point the lady who brought her in has gladly left the building.

Dianna unplugs all the computer equipment and I have a big old puff blanket waiting and ready. She pulls on the desk and out scrambles the cat faster than anticipated. I miss her with the blanket and she's doing laps in the lobby again! This time she wedges herself into the brochure display cabinet. We peek in and see the big wild eyes. Dianna and I get some towels and start pushing them in the top hoping to force her down but she inches her way in the other direction so I put the big blanket up so she won't escape. This cabinet is located by the front door so now people are arriving and expect to get in. I stick my nose out and ask them to please wait as we are trying to trap a feral cat. They look at me kind of strangely but now we have an audience through the glass partition.

We coax crazy cat back over to the other side where the crate is sitting on end again. Dianna reaches down and is successful in grabbing her by the scruff of the neck but she can't pull her up or down. So we resort back to the towels. I can see the cat's back paws but I'm afraid to grab then in case she attacks me. But we finally get enough of her exposed that we push her body into the cage and slam the door. Bingo! Everyone breathes a sigh of relief and the people waiting finally come in. Stephanie still has her volunteer orientation group, but pauses to say grinning, "this is the type of stuff our volunteers deal with!"

We get crazy cat's crate back down on the floor and cover it so that she can calm down before we add food, water and a litter box. I left that task to Dianna! ;-) I'm one smart cat!