One of our cats kept getting out of our old house - took us a couple of weeks to work out that she’d found an access hatch into the subfloor that we didn’t know about in the back of a cupboard and worked out how to lift it up
Sykes was apparently getting out through a an attic hatch and an airvent in the roof, then it was down the outside of a gutter and the pillar it ran along (the slate/flatrock stuff that’s meant to be uneven?)
he got stuck in my greenhouse when I replaced the paddle latch that he was batting open to walk out with a sliding bolt latch that he couldn’t get open. Anyhow… poor guy was scared shitless and angry at the same time, by the time I found him. Putting out a box for him worked enough to get him down and home, at least.
There was also the window screen, the occasional door getting left open, the basement thingy. probably a dozen different ways that his family still hasn’t found.
I get to watch him now, when they go on vacation (hence calling him my timeshare cat. I’m not at a place to have my own full time, but I can do a week or so on occasion.)
Some cats are escape artists- my timeshare cat is a verified cat burglar.
(He’d steal carrots of all things.)
They weren’t letting him out intentionally. Took a long while to seal up all the ways he found to get out.
But yes, it’s a dangerous world for cats. It’s not safe for them, and it’s not safe for critters they go all murder hobo on.
One of our cats kept getting out of our old house - took us a couple of weeks to work out that she’d found an access hatch into the subfloor that we didn’t know about in the back of a cupboard and worked out how to lift it up
Sykes was apparently getting out through a an attic hatch and an airvent in the roof, then it was down the outside of a gutter and the pillar it ran along (the slate/flatrock stuff that’s meant to be uneven?)
he got stuck in my greenhouse when I replaced the paddle latch that he was batting open to walk out with a sliding bolt latch that he couldn’t get open. Anyhow… poor guy was scared shitless and angry at the same time, by the time I found him. Putting out a box for him worked enough to get him down and home, at least.
There was also the window screen, the occasional door getting left open, the basement thingy. probably a dozen different ways that his family still hasn’t found.
I get to watch him now, when they go on vacation (hence calling him my timeshare cat. I’m not at a place to have my own full time, but I can do a week or so on occasion.)