Macintosh went out on a ten-day adventure. But he's back safe and sound.
On Wednesday, February 1st, Macintosh went on an adventure. We don't know exactly when, but he found an open door and went out. He's an indoor cat, has been for an entire year. This was his first real chance to go outside. It wasn't our idea.
In terms of weather, it was the worst decision he could make. We had a series of weather patterns on the horizon. The lake was overflowing (see: Rain, Rain, and More Rain).
He likely went out the front door. He's a big kitty and we have a fence around the front yard (see: Safety Fence). I figured, he must be motivated to exit the yard, but not very motivated to squeeze back in. So we tried leaving the gate open for a few days, but that didn't work out too well. Besides, the neighbor dog was free to guard the area. Mac wasn't coming back that way.
Eventually, we started hearing him out back. One meow, once a night. We started leaving food out on the back deck and I made sure the gate was open. In the mornings, we'd leave the back door open, but we had to close them when the boys got home from school.
When the boys went to bed, we'd open the door again until we went to bed.
There's a tarp in the shed and there were cat hairs on the tarp. Looks like he found a place to bed down. Something was eating the food. Something was making noise. Hannah said she saw some glowing eyeballs once. But last night, I thought I'd try throwing his favorite ball toy. It has a bell inside and he loves to chase it.
I threw the ball from the yard onto the deck. Each time I threw it, I heard a rustling. So I left the door open and got under a blanket (we kept the heater off when the door was open).
At about 10:00 PM, I heard a noise. When I went to investigate, there was Mac, right at the door. I talked to him and he talked back. I didn't want to just grab him because he was likely to bolt. So I crept up and eventually put my hands on him. I picked him up and closed the back door.
So he's safe and sound, back on a fully nocturnal sleep pattern. He'll probably adjust a bit to our pattern soon enough. But being outside ten days will do that to a kitty.
