Karnak Street Kats

Last night, as I sat in my bedroom I heard a strange, muffled scratching sound. I looked around but could see nothing unusual. I decided that the sound must be some critter under the house scratching on an outside wall. My bedroom was made by enclosing an old porch. There is not as much insulation as in the rest of the house and the floor boards are not as thick. The sound stopped, so I went to bed.

The next morning, I heard a small, muffled mew. I could not tell its location, but I knew that it was a cat. I called “kitty, kitty, kitty” and the mewing continued. It was coming from my closet.

I opened my closet door. There is a small, blue cardboard chest of drawers in one corner of my closet. Most of the drawers are empty at the moment. I use it to store seasonal clothing. All the drawers were closed. The mews were coming from the cardboard dresser. I began opening drawers.

I pulled open the bottom drawer. Curled up and filling the drawer was Irene, my gray and white cat. The inside of the drawer had been shredded. She had made the strange noise I had heard the night before as she tried to get out. She cried and let me pick her up. I held her a minute, then released her. She went to the water bowl immediately and drank and drank.

I don’t know how long she was in that drawer because she had come in during the afternoon. I don’t even know how she got in the closet, let alone in a closed drawer. A greater mystery is why she did not cry out the night before instead of just scratching. I guess I’m going to have to start a head count before bed each night.

Labels: cat, closet, drawer, hidden, Irene, mew, scratching