Fun fact: If you can’t find your cat anywhere in your house, she could be trapped inside an HVAC duct, drop-down ceiling, wall, or sub-basement.
The house was in a frenzy. All of our out-of-town relatives were arriving, along with my sister’s closest friends. Extra tables were brought in, draped with elegant tablecloths and filled with fancy hors d’oeuvres in pretty dishes. We were hosting a bridal shower for my sister.
When we hosted parties, we usually let Snickers, our adorable, but un-trainable cat, partake in the festivities. But this time we had to exclude Snickers because Kathy, one of our guests, was afraid of cats.
It is rare that we have to confine Snickers, but when we do, we usually put her in the basement or in a bedroom. But we figured some of the cousins would want to use the ping-pong table in the main room of the basement, and the house would be so chaotic someone would forget and open the door of any bedroom we tried to put her in. So we decided to fix up a storage room off to the side of the basement with her litter box, food, water and her softest bed.
Just before Kathy arrived, Mom carried Snickers down to her room and closed the door. But not long after Kathy arrived and walked into the dining room, so did Snickers.
Fortunately, Mom noticed Snickers before Kathy did, quickly scooped her up, and took her back down to her room.
“We need to keep Snickers locked up for the party. Don’t open the door to the store room,” Mom called to all of us as she came back upstairs. She figured that one of us kids must have opened that door and that was how Snickers got out.
But just a few minutes later, we heard Kathy say “Eek, a cat!” Sure enough, Mom looked and saw that indeed, Snickers was back!
Now Mom was embarrassed and apologized profusely to Kathy. She had told all of us that this guest was afraid of cats. Was this someone’s idea of a mean joke?
“Who keeps letting the cat out?” Mom hollered in exasperation when she saw Snickers.
When all of us kids swore we hadn’t let her out, Dad decided to stand watch outside the door. He didn’t have to watch long before he saw Snickers walking in the ceiling rafters which extended above the door of the storage room and led right out into the main room of the basement. When she made it out to the main room, she just jumped down to the floor and ran upstairs!
When Dad reported this, everyone, including Kathy laughed. We had lived in this house for eighteen years, ten years longer than Snickers, and we never knew about this secret passage in the ceiling rafters. When we saw it, we were also amazed that Snickers had jumped so high.
Ever since this incident, I look at Snickers with an increased sense of wonder. I always imagined that she just slept all day while we were at school and work, and I am still sure she does a lot of that. But I wonder if she also takes advantage of this time alone to explore every nook and cranny of her world. If she could talk, I would love to ask her what else she knows about this house that we don’t.
As for that bridal shower, and every event thereafter when we needed to confine Snickers, we went back to locking her into the main room of the basement. She hasn’t found a secret passage upstairs from this room, at least not yet.
~Allison Nastoff
