blogcutter: (cat grammar)
This morning we returned Crystal to his rightful ownee... and we're looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight!

Unlike the grammaticat in the icon, Crystal was not one to lie on the couch all day and certainly not all night! After a couple of days of hiding down the basement, he did have his affectionate moments with us but unfortunately he was at his most playful at about 3AM.

I still keep thinking I can hear him miaowing and warbling somewhere from a distant corner of the house!
It's been over 50 years since this song came out:

https://www.metrolyrics.com/crystal-blue-persuasion-lyrics-tommy-james-and-the-shondells.html

Tommy James and the Shondells were invited to play at Woodstock but turned the invitation down, something any surviving members of the band may still be regretting to this day! But today's story is not about finding religion or even missing out on Woodstock, it's about finding Crystal the cat.

Crystal is a young cat, a dark brown tabby with a white bib and stockings and gorgeous green eyes. As mentioned in a recent post, he's not ours for keeps - we're just looking after him for a while. When we brought him home in a carrier in the car, he was completely silent and still, though he looked awake. When we first brought him home last weekend, he was initially confined to one bedroom, where he mostly hid behind the bed or the record rack. But on Monday we let him out to explore a bit. Our own cat was curious about this feline newcomer too and circling the wagon a bit to figure things out. We still kept him in the bedroom overnight up to and including Monday night but then on Tuesday evening when the two cats had sniffed around each other a bit, Crystal managed to bolt down to the basement. So we let him be, figuring that he just needed a bolt-hole and would emerge once he got hungry.

Wednesday morning he still hadn't re-surfaced but I wasn't too concerned at that point. I usually do laundry on Wednesdays and I knew I'd be up and down the basement steps several times over the course of the day. Surely I'd spot him at some point.

Except that I didn't. Wednesday evening we both had a good look around the basement but eventually conceded defeat. Cats can hide in pretty small spaces and a cat who doesn't want to be found can be pretty wily.

So Thursday was a worrisome day. We were pretty sure he couldn't have escaped the house altogether although we did look in the yard and the garage just in case. During a pandemic, it's difficult to just go up to people on the street and ask, "Have you seen our cat?" My partner set up an i-pad down there with cat noises and bird-calls in an effort to lure him out of hiding. When his main human phoned to ask how he was doing, we got her to talk to him long-distance, which used to be the next best thing to being there. All to no avail.

We set to clearing out some of the main storage and junk-collecting areas of the basement, particularly under the steps. We're a bit architecturally challenged in that there's no door at the top of our basement steps to block off the basement from the main floor. In the basement itself, there is a door between the laundry area on one side of the steps and the rest of the basement on the other. It separates the two areas for humans but not necessarily for cats.

The steps are... well, steps but not really what you'd call stairs. More like the steps on a stepladder, open at the back. We or possibly an earlier owner had put rudimentary risers on the back of each tread but over time, some had managed to detach themselves, leaving plenty of room for a cat to jump through into the storage area behind, and into the laundry room. So on Thursday, Dianora nailed missing step-backs back in place in an effort to divide off the two areas again for all but the most determined cat.

Around 4 PM, I thought I might have heard some timid mewing coming from the basement. I armed myself with a bag of Crystal's favourite kind of cat-treat as well as a sprinkle-shaker of catnip. I sprinkled it throughout the basement, focusing on areas close to where we figured he might be inclined to hide. I tried rustling the treat-bag and calling the cat and listening carefully.

After perhaps 20 minutes or so, a streak of tabby-and-white sprang out from behind a pegboard in the workbench section in the laundry area and headed under the steps. I tiptoed about trying to keep tabs on him but he was elusive. It looked like he was definitely in the laundry area however. I made sure he had food, water and a litter box there; the area was inaccessible to Nanook even if she wandered down the steps, so if food was eaten and the box was used, we would know by tomorrow.
After a fruitless stalking the cat in his lair, I decided to abandon the search for now and have some supper.

We didn't manage to capture him on Thursday or Friday during the day, but we had a few more sightings of him which was certainly a relief. And we knew he was a nocturnal beast too, most apt to make himself known in the wee hours.

So Friday night I dozed off but awoke around 1 AM, unsure if I had heard him or not. I tiptoed down the basement steps and sat at the bottom outside the laundry area, listening for any catlike sounds. No success for quite a while. But I was determined.

Then I very quietly opened the door and entered the laundry area, closing the door quietly behind me. I tried standing for several minutes at strategic locations near where I thought he might be lurking. I didn't want to risk sitting on a squeaky or rickety chair or stumbling over a box or anything. But after awhile I decided to sit down on the floor (hoping I'd be able to get up again!) thinking I might be less intimidating at something closer to cat's eye view.

Persistence paid off. Soon I noticed a pair of wide green eyes observing me from a pandemic-era distance. No sudden moves for me! I extended my fingers towards him, inviting him to sniff. Eventually he approached, cautiously at first, then allowing me to stroke and brush him. I was rewarded with throaty purrs and moist nuzzling.

After taking our time over these steps, he at last cuddled into my shoulder, still purring as I maintained a firm hold on him. The final step - or steps actually - was to spirit him out of the laundry room and up the steps through the kitchen to the hallway to the bedroom. We'd made it!

Needless to say, I didn't get much in the way of shut-eye Friday night. For Crystal, 3 AM is the absolute best time to play chase-the-bird or the laser dot or the string. I dozed off again but kept being awakened by plaintive little cries. It's a good thing he's such an appealing little creature. It's also a good thing this isn't a permanent arrangement. It's like having a new baby in the house again, except that we're not as young and energetic as we were back when we had a human baby around!

He and Nanook are still negotiating personal (kittenal?) space with each other. I don't suppose they'll resolve all their differences before it's time to take Crystal back home, but we'll settle for wary watchfulness for now and catching up on our sleep in a week or so.
This morning we went to Chesterville to pick up Crystal the cat. He'll be staying with us for a couple of weeks while his human is in Montreal.

It can be challenging to corral a cat at the best of times, but it's even more so during a pandemic.

He escaped from his human's arms and shoulders twice before said human managed to wrangle him into the carrier, which we had ready and waiting for him just outside the door to the apartment building. At least our carrier is well designed for skittish creatures. It has a door in the top and another in one end. Leaving the escape hatch in the end firmly closed, you simply insert the struggling cat through the top entryway, keeping a firm hold until a split second before final closing and latching. And at least cats aren't required to wear masks!

Our own cat, Nanook, has always been very talkative ever since we brought her home. Crystal, on the other hand, has not uttered a sound. During the car trip home, he settled down in the carrier and watched me through wide-open green eyes.

When we got home, I let Nanook sniff at the carrier with Crystal still shut inside it. I saw a little ridge of fur stand up slightly along her spine, but mostly she just seemed curious and they didn't really interact much. There was no obvious hostility though, which I took as a good sign.

Then I took the cat-in-carrier into one of the bedrooms, equipped with a bowl of water and a litter box, where I set it down and opened the end door of the carrier. He continued to stare at me from the carrier but didn't look inclined to venture out. So I went out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me, leaving him to explore his surroundings at leisure.

When I returned to the bedroom a bit later, the carrier was empty but not too surprisingly, there was no sign of Crystal. I had a short nap in there and when I got up, he was still nowhere obvious but I eventually noticed him peering out from behind a rack of LPs. I let him sniff my hand a bit and left again. The next time I went in, he had evidently found a new hidey-hole but I expect he'll emerge at some point when he wants his supper.

Nanook has been pretty clingy with us this afternoon and I suspect she's a wee bit jealous. But overall, I think it's going to be OK. If anything, the main risk is that we'll all be a little too attached to Crystal when it's time to take him home again!
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