Things are taking a spooky turn today…
I thought I’d share a scary story all about the day we almost lost Binx.
Now if you didn’t know, Binx is one of our cats, and is a quintessential Halloween cat. (Make sure to check out the post from last year where he was introduced.)Not only is he black, he has a bright orange collar, is named after the cat from Hocus Pocus (you know, just in case that wasn’t obvious already), and we officially adopted him and brought him inside right before Halloween last year – we were a little worried about his safety and wanted to make sure about he was safely inside before the big night. We love him, and while it took some time for him and the other boys (Orion, George, and Shadow) to get used to him, he quickly became an integral part of the family. He loves playing, cuddling, and often enjoys stretching out on his back on the couch.
Yet, he still caused us all the biggest scare we’ve experienced this year!
It was early morning. Monica had left for work, and I was at home getting ready to leave when my mom suddenly ran inside and exclaimed that Binx had run out the front door. He’d run out, and while she tried to catch him, our outside cat, Fluffy, got scared and chased him around the corner of the block (we live on the end of the block, just for reference). Immediately, after telling me what happened, my mom ventured back outside and found him hiding under the abandoned house about a block over from our house.
By this time, Monica had returned home from work to help catch Binx. She tried crawling underneath the house where he was hiding to reach him, but he always seemed to stay just out of reach. We were at a loss for what to do…thinking that we know where our cat is, but not knowing how we were going to get him back. What were we going to do?!
It just so happened (let’s call it a Halloween happenstance) that about two weeks prior my mom had run into an old friend of hers (one she hadn’t talked to or seen in years), and in talking, her friend mentioned that she’s become involved in TNR (trap, neuter, release) of feral cats in her neighborhood. So, we immediately thought that this friend had traps that we could use to get Binx. My mom made the call, and in less than half an hour we had two traps at our disposal.
By this time it was the late morning, and we had located and blocked all of the entrances/exits around the house where Binx was hiding so he couldn’t go anywhere. We had left some water for him, and once we had the traps we set one up at one entrance with some food inside. We were hopefully that it wouldn’t take long to for him to be lured into the trap.
We checked on the trap about an hour later, and found the food was gone, but there was no Binx. It seemed the trap was a little too small, which made it easy for him to reach the food and not set off the trap door. I really can’t describe how upsetting it was to see our attempt foiled. We were all scared out of our minds that Binx wasn’t going to come back, or that he might get hurt. Sure, he used to be an outside, feral cat that we ended up adopting. But, seriously, he’d become such a pampered inside cat, how could he survive being outside again?! How?!
So, we reevaluated our plan. We used the bigger trap, dug out some dirt from the opening into the underneath of the house to fit the trap, and got a can of tuna to put in the back of the trap as a lure. We set it all up, and checked back multiple times throughout the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, each time we checked on the trap nothing looked like it was touched and Binx was nowhere to be found. Honestly, I was starting to question if he was even under the house still, but we had closed off the other holes, so there was nowhere else he could be. Finally, after one last check on the trap that night, we left the trap and returned home.
Now, I know this story started off scary, but it actually does have a happy ending. Early the next morning, I ventured off to check on the trap with my mom, and lo and behold Binx was there! He wasn’t happy about being stuck in a cage, yet I was so relieved I practically burst into tears. We quickly loaded Binx into the car and took him home. He was a little grumpy (again, being stuck in the trap), but otherwise just fine. I’m also happy to say that after that excursion, he’s never tried to run out the front door again.
As I write this, Binx is sitting on the couch next to me looking over my shoulder – probably, wanting to make sure that I do justice to his story. Frankly, I’m just glad that he’s here to dictate his story and to celebrate another Halloween with us!
Play Hard, Bark Often 