So Boxing Day came with a bonus… wee Zoe pranced into our lives.
My suave debonaire partner can be caught showing off pet pics! Yes… we are completely in her spell – hook, line & sinker.
We even ‘cat proofed’ our home with pigeon netting so she could play in the plants, bask in the sunshine, feel connected with the outside without the perils of actually getting out.
Or so we thought…
Except she is a remarkable little escape artist.
Zoe, climbing queen
1st time
First time she showed off her climbing abilities we thought “Aw… how cute!” Little knowing this would lead to creative ways of escaping!
I was working at home and noticed she wasn’t keeping me company. Generally she curls up in the chair across from me… but was no where to be found.
I called out and faintly heard panicked howls…. outside our home!!
Ran downstairs called out all around the building til I spotted her a full floor above, stuck on the balcony grill of our upstairs neighbour, their windows tightly shut. She could neither figure out how to go down or get in.
Grabbed her cat carry case, dashed upstairs to beg our bewildered neighbours to let me in and rescue our munchkin.
She was completely traumatised. As was I.
Bird… must get bird… must.. must!!!
2nd time
Thinking this was a one-time, lesson-learned type of scenario we didn’t yet take seriously her capacity for climbing.
Sure enough… She managed to get out… again! This time no trauma, just sauntered around, pleased with her abilities to conquer the outdoor world.
Again, had to knock on our upstairs neighbour’s door to drag our cat in.
This time we figured how she escaped – wriggled through a small gap in the netting of one balcony then must have leapt from there, scrambling up the A/C to jump across to the upstairs balcony railing.
Neatly closed the gap, giant sigh of relief… confident we would no longer need to disturb our neighbours and could keep our adventurous kitten safely at home.
Innocent until proven guilty?
3rd time
Oh yes… there was another time. Different balcony, different exit…
This time it was to a ledge below our balcony which offered a fabulous unobstructed view of her universe.
This time she could easily hop in and out of her little hatch between the planter and wall… on her own… quite proud of her accomplishment.
That spot also was tightly closed off.
She was rather miffed with us – not pleased her secret route was shut.
Me? Escape? Oops!
Impossible, right?
We looked with now very educated eyes at all possible exits. Knowing we have a talented escape artist on our hands.
Closed all potential avenues. Practically a gazzilion twist ties later every possible way to get out completely shut. We thought…
Then along came scaffolding. You see… a year after the building repairs commenced, it is finally time to do the external painting.
Smart pet slaves that we have become, we re-inspected all potential avenues of escape. To realise we will have to keep our living room windows shut as the scaffolding has pushed into the pigeon netting and there may be a possible way to get out.
Went to sleep, secure in the knowledge that we are responsible pet parents.
Woke up… without a kitten gently patting us awake.
See me?
4th time
Yes… she really did get out… again.
You see the scaffolding created a giant jungle gym! And those pesky pigeons need to be chased… our little darling found another secret way out.
Except this time she was stuck. On the scaffolding. Between balconies. Being taunted by a cluster of crows.
Panicked howls for rescue… three stories up!
Knock! Knock! By now our neighbours have lost their tolerance for our wayward cat. It took a half hour of coaxing, encouraging, begging and pleading to get our wee rascal to inch her way along the scaffolding, brave the cawing crows, to come closer to a possible re-entry point.
Not so easy to come inside, it took two of us to bridge the gap between scaffolding and window grill to somehow drag her in.
Neighbours gruffly informed us we must keep all our windows shut. 3rd strike. Our kitten rescue escapades will not be tolerated again. I don’t blame them. Who knew we would have a Houdini cat?
I can stay close! Really! You just keep tapping on that silver laptop thingy. I’m not going anywhere… honest!
The exterior painting is supposed to take 45 days (translation 90 days…. minimum!). So scaffolding will be in place for a couple of months.
And us? We will be tightly shut in as our adorable adventuress is clearly a clever brat… I mean cat!
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Everyday Asia 
Great stories. Glad your new baby is safe.
For now… she’s being extra cute and adorable at the moment. However… one never knows what she will get up to next! 🙂
She’s too skinny. Feed her up a bit, then she wont be able to defy gravity, never mind slink through any gaps in the netting 😉
We know. How did we end up with an anorexic cat??
We despair of her very un-catlike lack of interest in people food. When she was in heat would barely eat her food and had complete disinterest in all things fishy, chicken, etc. Will only eat her crunchy crumbles – fresh if you please. If they are out too long, not sufficiently crunchy. Wonder where she gets her ‘princess’ tendencies from?
Can’t wait til she goes for her little operation on Friday – hopefully will reduce the escapist tendencies and increase appetite. 🙂
What, no hankering for fishy, meaty, cheesy things? Only after … dick?! Roll on Friday 😉
Crazy, eh?? First sign of her ‘heat’ abating was could coax her into having a little tuna juice. Who ever heard of a cat not interested in tuna???
Indeed! She’s all Tom Dick and no Herring! ….I thought of this one a bit too late, but just had to get it in there 😉
Groan!!! Only you!! Only you could come up with something like that!! 🙂
It’s a birth defect…
LOL! She sounds like she can give Houdini a run for this money indeed! You clearly had lots of trouble ‘rescuing’ her, not that she sees it that way. She most probably thinks you are just spoiling her fun. She is totally adorable and I am glad she has such great parents. 😀
I laughed at ladyofthecakes comment. Very good advice. I think. 😆
This morning she definitely knew it was a rescue! Was quite desperate (like the first time) to come ‘home’ just couldn’t figure out how to accomplish it. 🙂
This entire afternoon she’s been extra affectionate and very cuddly. Had a ‘meeting’ at home with a purring cat on my lap. Thankfully my guest loves animals and was most amused at the bonding moment. 🙂
Well, that is how she is going to learn … I hope. LOL!
Awwww, that is so sweet. Yep, she knew what she did was actually wrong. It’s great that your guest was so forthcoming. There should be more folks like that. 😀
It was great – my guest shared tales of her dog and I had this snuggle monster who never left my side the balance of the day! Clearly she was traumatised by her little escapade.
That’s awesome Carissa. Always great to hear about other people’s love for their furry kids. 😀
Awww shame. Clearly she was. I hope she is feeling better today. Please give her lots of hugs and kisses from me. ♥
Folks with furry friends get it. 🙂
And she’s back to herself today! Just normal affection vs post-trauma “I won’t ever leave you!!!” 🙂
That’s a fact! 😀
Oh, that is so good to hear and that is a good sign. Looks like she learned her lesson. 😆
For now… She has her operation tomorrow so hopefully that will help curb her wandering ways… however now that she knows there is an outside world, suspect we could have another ‘catscape’ caper. Hope not though!!
Let’s hope yes and for her sake, I do hope she decides to not ‘wander’. Some of them are not bothered at all, but most of them want to go on adventures. 😀
I looked at GPRS tracking collar but its rather pricey in India. We’ll put a microchip in munchkin when she’s under for her wee operation tomorrow but that may not help much.
In N America there are few genuine strays, so if an animal is found it is largely assumed it has an owner and one simply takes the pet to the nearest vet to check the microchip.
Not exactly the expectation here. We do indeed hope she curbs her wandering ways. 🙂
I can only imagine and yes, that is a very good idea, but I am confident with you that she will not wander off again. 😀
Hope not! It is the temptation of all the birds and how much she enjoys climbing. She’s quite miffed that even her balcony outdoors are ‘cut off’ currently.
Yes, that is a great temptation for a cat and I am sure she will behave. Did you get a scratching post for her? They do love that. 😀
I am sure she is. LOL!
We do indeed have a scratching post that remarkably she actually USES! It also has a stretch cord with a ball that she enjoys batting around.
We also have 2 kitchen chairs we have ‘donated’ to the cause which she LOVES. She gets oodles of praise when she scratches those chairs and taken away if the wee claws get at the sofa or other living room furniture.
So far it is working and friends with cats wonder how our lovely sofa has escaped being shredded! 🙂
Awesome! hahahaha! I am sure she does. That is a good way to teach them where they are allowed and where not. She is so lucky to have you as a parent. 😀
In this area, she’s actually pretty good. While our furniture may be safe, I fear we may not have seen the last of pissing off our neighbours with more cat rescue efforts. Let’s see! Doing our best!
That’s awesome and maybe the neighbours should be more tolerant and understanding, but I guess that is too much to expect from some people. 😀
Well… it does literally mean our barging into their home, disturbing their naps, etc.
Well, if it was me, I wouldn’t mind, especially if it was a little animal in danger. I would even be on the lookout to see that she doesn’t get in too much trouble. 😀
Trust me… our upstairs neighbours look upon our precious little darling as little better than a rat! Keeping cats as pets is not exactly the ‘done’ thing…
That is sad. I think I must come and have a chat with them about what is the ‘done’ thing. Little darlings like that just enrich our lives more. 😀
Wow haha, determined and definitely talented.
Oh very very determined. She would love nothing better than to freely roam and return.
Alas with the dangers just outside our doors, that simply isn’t possible.
Heck – the rats and bandicoots alone are double her size and would chew her up!
And the rough n tough tomcats roaming our building compound would trounce our pretty little lady in seconds!
I understand. We have a cat that really wants to go outside, and we’ve had several others with the same desire. But sadly for various we just don’t allow them.
In Winnipeg, in the summers I did ‘supervised’ outdoors time with harness and leashes for my two cats. One I could have let roam free as he had no desire to run off… just wanted to chew some grass then come back inside. The other, let’s just say she had no survival skills but was a curious cat so….
Prison Break: Catscape 🙂
Hehehe!! 😉
Reminds me toooo much on our first pet, a dwarf hamster. We had two cages connected with each other and to this day we could not figure out how on earth he got out of there so many times. As they are night active we heard once a while some weird noises from the living room…really really small noises but in the end it was always our hamster, getting from somewhere his food and piling it up under our sofa
Haha! How peculiar! I wonder what motivated his stock piling food under the sofa? We know our little girl is happy with us, just the temptations of the big bad world beckon too!
Hamsters surely are strange animals. Our one took every chance to stockpile food in hidden corners
How adorable! Our cat Pan de Sal is the opposite. He is always trying to get inside the house… to steal food. An Houdini in reverse?
A reverse Houdini?? Love it!
What a story! Good thing she’s so cute 🙂
Alison
With this little girl, I highly doubt it is the end of the story. 🙂
Haha what a cat! Mine was the opposite. Getting her out of the house was impossible sans scratches
My goodness! Our little munchkin would love to be able to climb all over yet then come back. Problem is when she escapes, she also gets stuck! The challenge with apartment living. 😉