Perseverance (part 1)

Sometimes, when roadblock after roadblock is thrown in front of you, you just should accept fate and give up. Other-times, you can see the absurdity of the endless parade of ridiculous crap conspiring against you. If you can have the perspective to realize that the fates are just entertaining themselves at your expense, bet the farm against them and you'll achieve a new level of wealth.

So she and I had been chatting via email and on the phone a bit after our first chance meeting and we had a Sunday afternoon date planned. I was a good boy the night before and had gone to bed at a reasonable hour. Despite this, my cat woke my up meowing. Now she was typically a quite animal, so I got up to look and see what the commotion was. Her feline form was facing directly at a wall in my hallway right where it took a 45 degree turn for 5 feet before another 45 degree turn to complete the corner. Befuddled, I picked her up and brought her into my room. She ran right back to the spot and meowed again.

The wall meowed back.

I'm not a morning person, and I'm quite used to being completely perplexed at simple concepts prior to a cup of coffee. Maybe the meowed echoed. Wait, meows don't echo do they? Or is that a quack?

Meow.

Not from my cat. So I look at the wall. No holes, no marks. Walk around the other side to realize that since the wall made two 45 degree turns, and the other side is 2 walls that meet at a 90 degree angle in a closet, there is a small triangular space in-between. But there isn't any access to this space from within my apartment.

I remember the landlord telling me the previous tenant was a bit off since she claimed to hear cats in the walls. Am I a bit off? Well a bit more off than normal for me?

Meow.

I call the landlord, but it's Sunday so I hatch a plan while waiting for the answering message.

"Yeah, there is a cat stuck in the wall and I'm going to cut as small a hole as I can in the wall to get it out. Please call me when you get a chance."

I grab a big putty knife and cut a 6" x 6" square in the closet wall and shine a flashlight beam into the void.

MEOW!

It was a cat, in the wall, very frightened, on top of the desiccated remains of the previous feline who used up life number nine in what must have been a horrible fashion. The ceiling of this void was open to the attic where the unfortunate animal must have been exploring.

The animal was too scared to come out, so I lured her out with water and food and then called Animal control who eventually came and took her about 20 minutes before I was due to leave for my date.

continued next time...