i posted the below story on blue when it happened, but thought i'd put it up in this thread, too, since it is a good reminder to me to value the time i have with all my pets even when they're being assholes.
one of our ferals above, blackie, was really quite mischievous as he grew up. he would go on nearly-week-long dalliances and we would worry, but he always came back. then a few years ago, he went almost two weeks without showing up and we thought for sure we'd lost him. we put up flyers, posted on facebook/twitter/etc., put out the word to local feral cat people - the works - but eventually resigned ourselves to the fact that he just might be gone.
then one day, jennifer was walking around (i think actually looking for bruce who had escaped the fence) when she heard what she thought was a cat cry. eventually, she figured out it was coming from the duct work attached to a building near our house. the place is a severely neglected out-of-commission cabinet shop seen from the rear here.
i got on the roof to check it out and sure enough, the duct wasn't grated to keep out animals/children/etc., so i decided to put a line of sheets down to give whatever animal might be stuck a chance to climb out.
then i decided to lower a tin of cat food down so that, if it was blackie trapped down there, he could at least eat if he was too weak to climb.
lowering it down, i looked closer at the inside of the duct and saw scratch marks in the thick dust that coated the inner walls. it was pretty obvious that something had been trying unsuccessfully to climb out.
obviously we couldn't know at this point whether it was blackie or another cat or another animal altogether, but it was really disturbing to think of him trying in vain to get out.
so we went back the next morning and the cat food had been completely cleaned out, but i could tell by the way the sheet laid that nothing had climbed out of the duct. we tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with the owner of the business to get permission to go inside or perhaps to cut (and patch) a small hole at the base of the duct to let out whatever animal was trapped in there.
animal control said they couldn't do anything until the owner was contacted and the cops said they had no more information about the owner than we did (an apparently out-of-date telephone number). after the cops left one animal control guy said that while he didn't have the business owner's contact info, he had known the guy well enough to believe that if we had to get into the duct that the owner would be fine with it so long as we repaired anything that was damaged. however, it was memorial day weekend and none of the local sheet metal guys we would have otherwise called in were available to cut the duct.
so with not too many immediate options, we borrowed an emergency rope ladder from a neighbor and dropped it down the duct.
i got in and climbed down the 10 feet to the bottom and sure enough, there was blackie. he was on the other side of a wood-encased fan and it was basically impossible to reach through and grab him safely. he was completely freaked out after having spent almost two weeks in this hellhole and she he wouldn't let me grab him. i had my neighbor up top throw the sheets down the duct so i could wrap them around him and pull him out of the fan against his will.
of course, he didn't know what the hell was going on, so he clawed and bit me like a motherfucker and got me pretty good. i had scratches all over my arms and legs (he got loose a couple times before i was finally successful in wrapping him up) and he also bit down good and hard on my right index finger. one of his canines went all the way in and i felt it hit bone. ouch!
i was bleeding pretty bad, but we got him out of the duct. my neighbor grabbed him swaddled in sheet and tried to hold him down, but he escaped his sheet prison.
he wrangled free and then escaped the roof as well. i took a trip to the ER to get a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. the PA said the wound would ordinarily take a few stitches, but that they don't close up bite wounds. he wrapped it up, gave me my shots and antibiotics, and sent me on my way. when we got back home, we found blackie back in his normal spot in the yard acting like nothing had happened.
he was dusty as hell from the duct, but not much worse for the wear initially. i was glad that he wasn't hesitant with us even after we have put him through the trauma of the duct rescue.
he must have been totally exhausted from the stress of being trapped, though, because for the next week he did basically nothing, but lay in the garden and puke up dust and eat and drink. we eventually got him to the vet (i think we had a home visit, actually, iirc) and they said he was totally healthy.
i think the whole ordeal did have some lasting effects, though. he doesn't stray far from the house any longer and he's a bit more reticent with people. i honestly think he has a little feline PTSD. but i'm just glad he's still in the land of the living. we eventually immortalized him in an 8X10 painting (done by elizabeth fraser)
one of our ferals above, blackie, was really quite mischievous as he grew up. he would go on nearly-week-long dalliances and we would worry, but he always came back. then a few years ago, he went almost two weeks without showing up and we thought for sure we'd lost him. we put up flyers, posted on facebook/twitter/etc., put out the word to local feral cat people - the works - but eventually resigned ourselves to the fact that he just might be gone.
then one day, jennifer was walking around (i think actually looking for bruce who had escaped the fence) when she heard what she thought was a cat cry. eventually, she figured out it was coming from the duct work attached to a building near our house. the place is a severely neglected out-of-commission cabinet shop seen from the rear here.
i got on the roof to check it out and sure enough, the duct wasn't grated to keep out animals/children/etc., so i decided to put a line of sheets down to give whatever animal might be stuck a chance to climb out.
then i decided to lower a tin of cat food down so that, if it was blackie trapped down there, he could at least eat if he was too weak to climb.
lowering it down, i looked closer at the inside of the duct and saw scratch marks in the thick dust that coated the inner walls. it was pretty obvious that something had been trying unsuccessfully to climb out.
obviously we couldn't know at this point whether it was blackie or another cat or another animal altogether, but it was really disturbing to think of him trying in vain to get out.
so we went back the next morning and the cat food had been completely cleaned out, but i could tell by the way the sheet laid that nothing had climbed out of the duct. we tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with the owner of the business to get permission to go inside or perhaps to cut (and patch) a small hole at the base of the duct to let out whatever animal was trapped in there.
animal control said they couldn't do anything until the owner was contacted and the cops said they had no more information about the owner than we did (an apparently out-of-date telephone number). after the cops left one animal control guy said that while he didn't have the business owner's contact info, he had known the guy well enough to believe that if we had to get into the duct that the owner would be fine with it so long as we repaired anything that was damaged. however, it was memorial day weekend and none of the local sheet metal guys we would have otherwise called in were available to cut the duct.
so with not too many immediate options, we borrowed an emergency rope ladder from a neighbor and dropped it down the duct.
i got in and climbed down the 10 feet to the bottom and sure enough, there was blackie. he was on the other side of a wood-encased fan and it was basically impossible to reach through and grab him safely. he was completely freaked out after having spent almost two weeks in this hellhole and she he wouldn't let me grab him. i had my neighbor up top throw the sheets down the duct so i could wrap them around him and pull him out of the fan against his will.
of course, he didn't know what the hell was going on, so he clawed and bit me like a motherfucker and got me pretty good. i had scratches all over my arms and legs (he got loose a couple times before i was finally successful in wrapping him up) and he also bit down good and hard on my right index finger. one of his canines went all the way in and i felt it hit bone. ouch!
i was bleeding pretty bad, but we got him out of the duct. my neighbor grabbed him swaddled in sheet and tried to hold him down, but he escaped his sheet prison.
he wrangled free and then escaped the roof as well. i took a trip to the ER to get a tetanus shot and some antibiotics. the PA said the wound would ordinarily take a few stitches, but that they don't close up bite wounds. he wrapped it up, gave me my shots and antibiotics, and sent me on my way. when we got back home, we found blackie back in his normal spot in the yard acting like nothing had happened.
he was dusty as hell from the duct, but not much worse for the wear initially. i was glad that he wasn't hesitant with us even after we have put him through the trauma of the duct rescue.
he must have been totally exhausted from the stress of being trapped, though, because for the next week he did basically nothing, but lay in the garden and puke up dust and eat and drink. we eventually got him to the vet (i think we had a home visit, actually, iirc) and they said he was totally healthy.
i think the whole ordeal did have some lasting effects, though. he doesn't stray far from the house any longer and he's a bit more reticent with people. i honestly think he has a little feline PTSD. but i'm just glad he's still in the land of the living. we eventually immortalized him in an 8X10 painting (done by elizabeth fraser)
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