I had a great plan.
Some of you may remember me talking about Freddie. Freddie is my cat at the office. He is deathly afraid of people but I have been feeding him and changing his litter box for about a year and he has gotten used to being in the same room with me.
That photo is as close as Freddie has ever gotten to me. I have never touched him.
So I had this great idea to trap Freddie and bring him home for Christmas so he could live with us from now on. Cheryl and I talked about it and we really didn’t want another cat at this time… but I got all wrapped up in the spirit of giving and decided it would be really cool if I gave Freddie to Cheryl.
I’m an idiot.
I made a few phone calls, then a few more, then a few more and finally found a place called People And Cats Together who, for a small deposit, will loan you a “humane” trap to catch your cat in. I didn’t mind spending all that time making phone calls. After all, it’s Christmas and I was working on a Christmas present for my wife.
I’m an idiot.
Steve and I went and picked up the trap and they showed me how to use it. Pretty cool. Cheryl is going to be so excited.
I’m an idiot.
I set up a web cam on our network and pointed it at the trap. It has a motion sensor that captures five seconds of video then times out for two minutes before capturing more video.
Freddie checked out the trap. He could not resist the smell of canned tuna.
Got him. I’m sorry Freddie.
Wow he hissed at me. He must be really scared. It’s okay Freddie you’ll be fine once we get you home.
I’m an idiot.
I got Freddie home and put the trap in our small bathroom. Steve kept Cheryl occupied while I did this so she had no idea what was going in on. The nice people at PACT told me to leave him in the trap for a hour so he would calm down. We all went out to look at Christmas lights on Candy Cane Lane.
After about an hour we went home and I told Cheryl to check out her new gift in the small bathroom.
She was very excited. She could not contain her joy.
We let Freddie out of his trap and he quietly hid behind the sink. We gave him food, a litter box and some space.
This morning I woke up about 4:30 and went to check on him. He was right where we left him. He was still hissing at me. Hmmm.
I decided to Google “How to tame a stray cat”… the Internet is a wonderful thing… that is where I learned the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat.
For those of you who don’t know, here’s what I learned:
“Feral cats are homeless cats, many of whom were born in the wild; strays are pets who were abandoned or have become lost. Feral cats are for all intents and purposes wild animals and may not ever be tamed.”
For the record, if you plan to do something like this, research it first.
I am idiot… why you ask?
Not so much because I didn’t know the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat but because even if we can’t tame Freddie Cheryl knows I am open to the idea of having a cat in the house… I am such an idiot!
Love and Merry Christmas to all!
Jerry
