So, after multiple more days of seeing Meeps outside daily and trying to tempt her inside, we have achieved success (again).

C saw her hanging about outside while he was getting the cat trap ready for another round of trying to trap her. Morganator opened the door and was good about stepping away then I put a bowl of food on the floor inside.

After multiple teasing attempts of wandering close, sticking just her nose in the doorway, then retreating, I finally gave up and sat down on the couch while trying to keep an eye out for the other cats who may try to take advantage of the open door to make their own break.

Suddenly she decided to come inside and sniff one of the other cats and I was able to slam the door shut. She is MOST offended and is now wanding around meowing LOUDLY at us.

Tough Tuna, Cat. You’re in now.

Just hope no one lets her out on the 4th of July.

Damned Feline.

So – yesterday evening I’m in the living room with the Morganator and C is upstairs playing City of Villains for his game night when there’s a HUGE boom and the entire house goes dark.

Now, it could have been worse, since it was still light out at this time of year at about 8:30 or so when it happened. And it wasn’t terribly cold…. But still.

No power. No phone…..

C went out to see what was going on just as I was calling the power company on my cell phone to report the outage.

Two huge cedar trees had fallen and landed on the power and phone lines across the road from us. They took out the lines to the pole beside our house and that of everyone up the road (only 3 houses, but still).

There are power and phone lines on the ground. Our neighbors have driven down to check and the fallen trees (+ wires) are blocking the road.

Just lovely…..

We end up going to bed since we didn’t know when the power company might get things fixed. Morganator squirmed for HOURS in our bed because he’s scared to sleep alone in the total darkness and no way was I giving him a candle or oil lamp.

At one point I woke up to hear chainsaws. At 3:15 the power came back on.

Phone company didn’t get their stuff fixed until this morning….

SHeesh – we’re on a roll of some sort!

So – after bragging that Meeps came back in a few days after the burglary, she’s escaped again.

Apparently while C had the front door open a little ways (and was standing there) to measure for new locks, she darted by him. He says the next thing he knew, she was standing on the porch and laughing at him (metaphorically, of course).

We saw her under the house that day (Tuesday) but nothing since. Hopefully she’ll come up for food when I can see her and (again) work at getting her back inside.

Sigh

So – Today I ordered a perimeter alarm system to be installed. A lovely $1200 but I do get money off my homeowners insurance for having it and I think I need the peace of mind right now.

Adding up just the replacement value of the items that were stolen is depressing. I was appalled and really depressed. And still worried about my cat, Meeps.

But things got a little better today. I found some personal items that they didn’t get which I had feared they did.

And, best of all, at just after midnight I was getting ready to go to bed and I saw a little black cat outside the sliding glass door. Now, mind you, the feral colony we caretake has about 10 little black cats but this one didn’t appear to have the ear notch we use to indicate we’ve caught and fixed the cat.

So I sloooowwwllly go over and open the glass door to see what said cat would do. Instead of running which would be normal for the ferals, she meows and sticks her head in the door.

Several of the other cats come over and sniff at her and don’t hiss and she just meows at them. At this point she’s about 2/3 of the way in the door so I try shutting it. She bolts back out.

So I open the door again. Any feral wouldn’t even come close…. She comes in again, meowing. This time I (barely) get the door shut in time and actually get her head in it (don’t worry, not hard) and she struggles and fights but pulls back until she’s inside.

She heads for the hills… But when I put out some squishy food in the kitchen, she’s eating it like the first meal she’s had in days (which it may be) about 5 minutes later.

MEEPS IS HOME….

Well, a slight possibility it’s one freaked out and confused stranger cat, but not likely.

Hallelujah. That’s a big load off my mind.

I got home from work early today in order to do fun things like wrap a present for a birthday party Morganator is going to on Saturday. I walked in the door and noticed a door open that we don’t generally leave open. At first I assumed that Morganator had left it open and was just hoping the cats were not into mischief.

Then I noticed the spot on the coffee table normally occupied by our laptop was empty.

Yep – we’d been burglarized.

So I call C who was on his way home, then call the cops. I just get agrier and angrier as I looked through the house.

It looks like the got in through a window in the playroom.

Missing (so far):
– Laptop
– Digital Camera
– 2 drawers of silver & amber jewelry (I make jewelry)
– my custom made platinum engagement and wedding rings
– 2 handguns and their carry cases
– collector knives – including the one we used to cut Morganator’s umbilical cord when he was born.

They totally tossed the bedroom around and the office. They had to be on foot because they didn’t take the fancy monitors or anything.

What a mess. I’m upset and angry. I’d like about 5 minutes alone with whomever did it with my 3 foot crowbar.

One of the cats is still missing. I’m hoping she’s just stuck somewhere and didn’t actually get outside.