A couple of months ago, we adopted 2 feral cats from the shelter. We had been having a pack rat problem in the garage, and thought the cats would help. We've not named them. We've been able to get close to the cats, but not enough to touch. Bottom line -- they're not pets. They have a job to do.
We assumed that sooner or later the dogs would get into a scrape with the cats, but, being feral cats, the dogs would probably go running for cover once they got close enough to figure out they're not pets.
We woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Dean, our plumber, came up to the house today. I was working on a closet organizer while Les was doing paint touch up. I began to wonder where the dogs were, so I walked over to the garage. I saw Mindy, acting a little strange, but nothing serious. No Lucy. I called, I whistled, still no Lucy. I went back to work, but had this nagging feeling. I walked back to the garage and Mindy was in there again.
So after finding Mindy in the garage again, I began to wonder. I called for Lucy, and only heard some puppy whines that I thought was Mindy. Called again - same thing. Then I could clearly hear a tail bumping against something in the garage. Since Mindy has no tail, I knew I found Lucy.
Now, our garage is filled with all of the stuff we couldn't fit from our 5 bedroom house into our 1 bedroom house. It's been sitting in storage in the garage. The cats found little nooks and crannies to hide in. So there is a block that's about 25' x 25' by 7 feet high with furniture, boxes, crates, etc. and it's packed pretty solidly.
I called for Les and Chuck because I knew that Lucy found her way into this block of stuff, and couldn't get out. Each time I called her, she whined a little bit, but we couldn't figure out where she was. After about 1/2 hour of digging, Les finally located where the sound was coming from. Lucy, and one of the cats, had fallen behind my mom's cedar chest and were stuck in a hole. He dug them out. The cat took off running around the block of stuff and came right back to the hole, with Lucy in hot pursuit. I was able to grab her and throw her out of the garage. Then we stood back and surveyed the damage.
There is a hole in the insulation on our steel building that's about 8 square feet big. There is a massive pile of rodent poop mixed with kitty kibble. (So much for giving these critters a job to do.) It took Les about another hour to put things back together and clean up the mess.
And if that wasn't enough, Dean intended to hook up all of the sinks, showers and toilets today. The first sink didn't have an overflow. Thank you Lowe's for selling me something that is not up to code. The drain for that sink doesn't fit it. The trim for one of the showers is supposed to come with 2 bolts, but you can clearly see a hole in the bag where some kind soul opened the box, poked a hole in the bag and took one of my bolts. There seemed to be pieces missing from every bathroom.
But the good news? Lucy is alive and well. The cats are alive and well. And I have a working toilet! Woo-Hoo!!!
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