Dom and I spent last weekend (July 10 - 11) in a small town in Central Indiana visiting his parents and also attending his nephew's wedding reception held in Bloomington, IN at his sister's and her husband's new home in a brand new subdivision. The home itself is pretty nice with a lot of open floor space. The party itself was cool and everyone was nice even with the brief political conversation that went south. Dom's family is predominantly republican and one strongly missed 45 and felt ill will on Biden. Dom of course argued back as I sat back and tried not to laugh. But what can you do?
It was nice having a weekend off from Amazon even though I did work two extra Tuesdays to try and make up some of the missed pay since I took Unpaid Time Off. Speaking of UPT I was so pissed losing two hours of it both Tuesdays due to missing second half of shift by a minute. Not realizing that I needed to deduct a minute of my vacation time to make the difference, the system instead automatically deducts an hour of unpaid. I'm really praying a better job comes along.
But back to the story at hand. The original plan was for Dom to drive both his parents and I to Bloomington. Unfortunately though his Mom was experiencing leg pain and was suspecting a possible blood clot. So not wanting to risk anything she opted to stay home.
So the 2 1/2 to 3 hour ride to Bloomington took almost 5 hours due to stopping at McDonald's for breakfast, Walgreens for last minute party favors. and some hole-in-the-wall truck diner for lunch that served the best fried mushrooms. And then there was food at the party.
Driving back to his parents did take about 3 hours thankfully. The trip to and from took the whole day which was draining even though Dom did all the driving.
So we left his parents for our own home on Sunday morning. Dom and I wanted to stop at the Walmart near his parents to get a tower A/C unit like his folks had that blasted. Then he wanted to meet an old college friend of his that currently is a den Mom for a school in Culver. Finally we wanted to pick up dinner before getting home.
Everything went as planned. We didn't find the exact unit but a close enough replica. Dom and I both enjoyed hanging out with his friend and them catching up on their lives. Dinner pick-up went ok even with the way overpriced chicken wings I got at Quaker Steak & Lube while he opted for a burrito at El Salto.
Monday came and I wanted to get a card and a gift card for Tasha's 50th birthday. (OMG we're getting old...*LOL*). Dom was having issues with getting his metaformin refilled from the clinic that he goes to. He was hoping to run to Costco and then the clinic to find out why they haven't responded to refilling his prescription for the last month.
I go out to the garage to get to my car. I unlock the door and hear something scurrying somewhere inside. I freak out wondering if it's a mouse or a rat. I stand silent for a minute and then open the main garage door. I walk up to my car and just when I'm about to open it, I hear a cry that sounds like a cat. The only thing is I have no idea where he is.
There's a bunch of branches and items on the floor near Dom's caravan and I don't want to spook it. I try to call Dom and message him but he's not responding. I finally run back to the house to find Dom asleep. I tell him what's going on and he's a bit unfazed by the situation but I tell him that we need to find the cat. At the same time I needed to get to the store so I could mail off Tasha's card before the mail pick-up.
Confirming that the sounds were not coming from my car, I slowly back out and run my errands. I get back and the cat is still crying. I rack my brain trying to figure out where it's coming from. I feel hot and the mosquitos are unfortunately in full force so I go back inside to cool off. Dom in the meantime is napping totally unfazed...*LOL*.
I return to the garage and I have the idea to go on Youtube via my horrible T-Mobile MotoG7 phone and play a video of kittens meowing. I start to play it and then he starts meowing. Something tells me that the cat is actually a kitten. I begin to wonder if perhaps he hitchhiked his way back to our home underneath Dom's engine.
I look underneath Dom's caravan and do not see anything underneath. But the crying persists. It's a
bit frustrating since I can't seem to find the source of the sound. I begin to think it's all in my head when it dawns on me to open up the hood of the caravan. It takes me a few minutes to find the lever to push it open. I finally do and then I get a glimpse of the little fella. He's sitting snug as a rug inside of the engine crying out still. I'm in a state of shock. It's a relief to see him and know I wasn't going crazy. I try to do everything I can to convince him to come out. I try to reach for him but the engine is too tight to safely pull him out and he also backs away when I try to get him.
I take a break and go back inside. I tell Dom about it and he's shocked. I share my theory about the kitten hitching a ride. Dom expresses disbelief that he could've been in the engine the whole time we traveled since we made several stops along the way and any hitchhiker would've hopped off as soon as the car stopped. He believed the cat came in from the narrow opening of our garage doorway.
I go back outside later on to try and convince the kitten to come out. This is to no avail. I get frustrated because I unfortunately needed to retire soon. I also felt like Dom wasn't taking the situation seriously at all. I finally get Dom to come out to the garage to try his luck. Unfortunately it didn't work and rather than continue to be bitten by mosquitos, we decide to retire for the night.
I wake up at 3:30 AM Tuesday morning to slowly get myself ready for work. From the kitchen window I can hear the kitten crying out loud. He's so loud in fact I wonder if he actually left the garage. I step outside and since it's dark I use the flashlight from my phone to see if I can spot him. I didn't see him so I went back inside to eat breakfast, try to relax, and then get ready for my early morning commute.
I get ready to leave and try to make sure that he's nowhere near my car. After feeling sure that he's not in or near my car, I back it out of the garage. I go inside to make sure that he's still around and after a minute, he does cry out. So since he's there I proceed to head to work and send Dom a message letting him know that the kitten is still in the garage.
Dom tries his luck during the day to try and lure him out. But similar to how he acted around me, he moved deeper into the engine area and kept crying. Dom wanted to go to Costco but he's afraid to start the car with him inside. He contemplates walking to the fire station (which is only a few blocks from us) to see if they could help get him out. He also found out that there's a Humane Society not to far from us. The rub was that they were closed on Tuesday and wouldn't reopen till tomorrow.
I got off my work shift at 3pm and I tried to see if there was another Humane Society open still. There was one in Munster but they were only open till 4 and I knew I wouldn't get there in time. So I started to think about where I could borrow an animal trap to catch him. Unfortunately Snow (the name I finally gave him) was skittish around us and wouldn't let us touch or lift him without running back under the caravan.
When I got closer to home I first stopped at an Ace Hardware. I asked if it was possible to rent an animal trap but they said they don't rent them but I could buy one. A few doors down I saw there was a veterinary clinic. I took a chance that maybe I could borrow a trap there. Unfortunately they didn't have any either. I was getting tired but decided I'd just have to buy a few pet items instead. I went to Big Lots and purchased a couple cans of cat food, a small pet bed, litter, and a small toy. I also purchased some catnip at Meijer's.
Before going in the house, I try to get Snow to come out from under the car. But he doesn't budge. I decide to place the cat mat along with an open can of cat food and some water. I also put some cat litter nearby and then retreat inside. I came out two hours later and I saw that he did eat some of the food and his little paw prints were in the litter box. But he still doesn't come out. I decide to call it a day and take back the cat food for the night so other vermin doesn't get in it.
Wednesday morning Dom calls the Humane Society to see if they have people that come over and take pets away. They mentioned not doing that service but recommended a few animal control folks. Dom proceeded to leave a message with one service but wasn't sure if they'd call back. After not hearing back from them, I wonder if perhaps the Humane Society may have traps that we could borrow. I called them and they said they had one available for a $40 charge which they pay back once you return the trap. I go get the trap and after looking up some instructions on Youtube (yes you can find anything on Youtube it seems), I set it up just besides the caravan.
Just as I'm getting back in the house to tell Dom about the trap, we get a knock on the door from animal control. I answer the door and tell the lady that I was able to obtain a trap and already have one set in the garage. She asks me what I plan to do with Snow once I capture him and I tell her that I'll take him to the humane society. She is okay with the answer and leaves.
In all honesty I was starting to catch feelings for Snow and wanted to keep him. Dom wasn't feeling it but said he was willing to have Snow be an outdoor cat. I wasn't keen on that idea but figured it was better than nothing. But then Dom changed his mind and said once we catch Snow we should set him free into the neighborhood. I objected to that idea as well.
It took a couple more hours but I waited patiently in the garage for Snow to come out from under the vehicle. He kept crying throughout while staying hidden. He finally slowly came out and I did my best to stay still as one slight move and he would run back under the car. He walked around the outside of the trap, smelling the canned food I left in the corner. Finally he made his way into the trap itself. I hoped that his body weight would be enough to trigger the trap. It was.
He was momentarily stunned and then began crying some more. I moved him into another corner of the garage. Dom and I were hungry for dinner and went out for a bit. I had left my own car outside overnight but was able to bring it back in safely without having to worry about running over Snow.
I was finally able to send pictures of Snow to Dom's family to confirm identity. Dom had finally convinced me that there was no way Snow could've been riding inside our engine the entire time. But Dom's sister confirmed that it was indeed Snow, except she called him Flash because of the small patch of black on top of his head that she thought was shaped like a lightning bolt. We were shocked.
His sister learned of our plans to take Flash to the Humane Society and immediately was against the idea, suspecting that they would put him to sleep. She implored us to find someone that would take him. I tried again to appeal to Dom once more thinking we could keep him in the laundry room. But Dom pointed out how that wouldn't work in the winter since we kept the basement closed to keep the cold weather out. He was thinking we'd have to build small trap doors for Flash to get through. So that was out.
I tried looking at options online for homes for Flash but nothing panned out. In the end Dom let me know he talked to the family and they agreed to meet at a halfway point to transfer Flash back to his home. And that's just what we did. Flash has quite the story to tell his posse once he gets over the trauma.
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