Stake Out #2

After my first attempt at luring the cats out of the kitchen failed, I made a strong cup of coffee, and began my next assault. I left food out by the front door--but I surrounded the dish with a square yard of tinfoil, for a warning signal. I once again turned off all the lights, and this time I sat in my bed, silently--listening. And I tied a string from the kitchen door running over to my bed. Only, I didn't have any string, so I had to use long pieces of folded-over packing tape.

The first time I heard the foil crinkling (after about half an hour), I waited about 30 seconds, hoping that whichever cat it was would be closely followed by their sibling. Then I yanked the string, and slammed the kitchen door shut. Racing into the hall, I discovered--nothing. Somehow they knew something was up and disappeared before I started to shut the door.

After that, they became more cautious. I had to wait about an hour and half, in darkness and silence, until I heard any more noises. I was about to drift off to sleep with the string in my hand when I heard it. This time, after the kitchen door slammed, a streak of fur shot past my bed into the living room. Newton raced all around the room and couldn’t find any good place to hide, so he went back in the hall. He threw himself frantically at the (now-closed) kitchen door, dismayed to find that he was cut off from his perfect hiding place. When I came into the hall and turned on the light, he was so terrified that he began throwing himself at the hall closet door, in a futile attempt to get in there, too. Then he climbed up my coats, and perched himself on the highest coat hook like he was sitting on a tree branch. So I pulled him down and shut him in the WC with some food (I figured he deserved some reward after his trauma). Then I turned off all the lights, had a few more sips of coffee, and began the last round.

This time I waited about 2 hours before I heard the telltale crinkling in the front hall. I pulled the string, slammed the door shut, and she was trapped. She climbed up the coats too, and when she saw me, she jumped literally up to the ceiling and landed by the front door.

My first act, once I got them out of the kitchen, was to tape cardboard all over the underside of the oven so that no cats will be going in there any time soon. Then I shooed them into the living room, firmly closed the kitchen door, and settled down to sleep—after only about 4 hours of waiting.