Okay, you make the call. Where was the cat? Did he fall down the laundry chute? (We don't have a laundry chute.) Did he learn how to open doors? Was he locked in the freezer?

Use what you know of feline and human psychology to solve the mystery, or else just make up something good. I'll tell you the answer in tomorrow's entry.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Answers

Was it inside a wall? or do you have an attic?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

We do have an attic. I will not tell you whether this information is relevant to the resolution of this mystery.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I'm guessing he fell off the top of the monitor, behind the computer desk, and was stuck behind the vanity panel with all the cables, dust bunnies, and diskette labels.

Nice rug, by the way.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Behind a major appliance - stove, fridge, washer, or dryer. Went in head first, couldn't turn around, couldn't back out, sat there until he heard someone calling for him.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Obviously, Beth accidentally threw Rudy out with the remains of the feather pillow.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I think that Rudy was in the window when Jeremy shut it, and he was trapped between the screen and the glass all night.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Stuck behind the computer? Happened to my cat once. I thought it was hilarious. She wasn't amused.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

In the wall! In the wall! That's where I always find my lost cats. I believe there is even a book titled "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls." Maybe they do.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Oh, blast. Nancey took my guess. That would explain why you could hear him both inside and out.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

In the chimney? Do you have a chimney?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Yeah, but then how would he be dusty? I guess screens can get dusty... but... *Shrug*

I have to second (or third, I think two people said this) the behind the fridge (or other major appliance) theory.

Only because I don't remember if you have a fireplace or not. If you had a fireplace (and I knew this for sure) that would be my guess.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Taking the major appliance thing one step further...

I think Rudy was behind the NEW STAINLESS STEEL FRIDGE. :)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

We do not have a fireplace, nor do we have a chimney.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Do you have ceiling tiles? I used to have a cat who'd push open the ceiling tiles in the basement, jump in, walk along the ceiling, then slip out in another room...

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Ian, Robert Heinlein wrote The Cat who Walks Through Walls. The Cat Who Walks INTO walls and Gets Stuck Between Them would be a different story.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Stuck behind a radiator. Happens to our large cat all the damn time.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

He was stuck in the trash can that's positioned outside immediately below the window you knocked him out of when you closed the sash. He was too bloated after eating the icky stuff in the can to get out again.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Do you have drop ceilings at all? My mom's cat got up on top of the drop ceiling in our old house, and we could hear him, but couldn't find him. Once we figured out where he was, we had to chase him out by poking the ceiling tiles all around him with a broom handle. Oh, for a videocamera...

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Let's see ... no ceiling tiles or dropped ceiling.

One person here was very, very close.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

My guess would be that Rudy somehow managed to work his way into one of the floor grates. One of our cats has managed the same trick at our house a few times. All I can figure is that he puts enough weight on one corner that the grate sort of levers upward and lets him in.

Luckily, in our case at least, the floor grates are only used for air return these days.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

sick thought, but what did you use to clean up the feathers with? was it a really really big vaccuum cleaner? you don't want to know the number of times i've found my sister's hamsters in the vaccuum. some were actually alive when we found them.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Was David's trash can answer close?

Maybe Rudy fell in to a laundry hamper?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I just realized some potential confusion. When I said I knocked Rudy "out of the window," I meant I knocked him off of the window sill into the bathroom, not outside. It's a deep window sill and the screen sits very far out, so it makes a little alcove. It was dark and he's a black cat, so I didn't see him against the screen -- I sort of hit him with the sash, and he fell or jumped out onto the bathroom floor. The first I knew he was there was when he landed at my feet and yelled at me for disturbing him.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

In a vent / behind a grate, like for a floor vent for heat or a wall vent (the return air vent for a central a/c)?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Central AC?? If Beth has central AC, I'd say we meet there for lemonade and a bbq.

The suspense is killing me.. i'm dying to know where Rudy was..

ok.. ok.. i'll wait till tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

My guess would be inside the computer desk, behind the computer tower. Wrapped up into the corner where the warm side is against the belly and the fan blows on the backside. Or the head.

At least that's where my cat usually ends up, anyway. Now I CHECK every time I close the door to the tower-containing side of the desk.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Let's see if I can vulture this one now that someone's winged it.
Was Rudy stuck behind the old refrigerator? I don't recall hearing any stories about you disposing of it. Was Rudy stuck in the trash inside the bathroom?
I feel cheapened.
I'll tell you, though... if I were a cat, I'd've been all over that hollowed-out pillowcase. If Rudy's anything like Feline Vic, that was his first priority.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Got any holes in any walls? One of my cats got BENEATH the bathtub once through an incredibly small hole in a wall of the closet behind it.

Now there's a thread topic for you - what horrible places have your pets gotten themselves stuck in/on/under?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I'm betting he was in the remains of the pillow, which you really DID mean to throw away but never got around to...

My cat's favorite place to be is inside a bag. Any bag - duffel, laptop case, LUNCH BOX (he hasn't caught on that he no longer fits), plastic bags if we aren't very careful, backpacks, suitcases... I dunno how he knows they are are bags and therefore his territory, but he does. He won't touch boxes or his purchased cat bed.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Um... trapped under a stack of computer cases? Between the fridge and the counter? Under the dog? Liverpool?

Sheesh, here the answer is almost always either a) in the closet under the stairs, or b) in the garage. Neither of which apply here. Oh, and Hampton always got shut in the bathroom. so... inside the bathroom of doom?

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Two possibilities:

1. Alien abduction. Rudy just went for a short ride on a UFO with some friendly cat-shaped ETs. 2. Changeling. Rudy has in fact been abducted and a demon cat returned in his place to cause havoc. Or possibly it was always a demon cat and now you've actually got the real Rudy back. Hell, I don't know.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I think Rudy got cold and decided it would be nice to curl up behind the computer case where it's nice and toasty warm. He was so happy back there that he stayed instead of searching for his food, and perhaps the sound of the fan drowned out any sounds of people looking for him. That would explan the dust because it's often quite dusty behind a computer.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Did Rudy get into the bathroom fixtures through a closet? My cats have done that, just knocked away the board blocking the entrance to the tub workings.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

In the matress box springs? My pet chinchilla used to hide there all the time.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I believe it is summertime everywhere in the united states, so i don't think the cat is going to curl up somewhere warm. the cat will seek someplace cool, like the basement! he was definitely in the basement,, and he got there by falling through some hole in the floor (aren't you guys working on the bathroom...i don't think you have fixed it up yet, right?) and since he fell into the basement, he couldn't verywell climb out could he? since the door was closed, he had to wait for you to come get him after you heard him.....hey, this is fun!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Have you got a dryer vent to the outside? I'm not sure I understood all the ins and outs of the story, but that would be cool or warm, depending when the machine was last used, dusty, and definitely interstitial.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Inside a closed box, with a single radioactive atom that, if it decayed, would kill him.... oops.. wrong cat.

Either that; or behind the keyboard on the pull-out keyboard tray.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Was he closed up in a closet or a drawer? I once closed one of my cats in a desk drawer in the study when she was young (she'd climbed into the open drawer and curled up behind behind the envelopes) where she spent *all day* until we finally heard her crying. Poor squashed little thing.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Question; does your basement have little windows? If so stuck in one. If not in an empty book box that got knocked over on top of him, oh yes in a dusty place. Closed into a cupboard maybe under the sink...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I just want to know where he was! The suspense is killing me !! heheh

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Alright. Now we all know where he was. We'll need to talk about something else.
Well, they found Rudy this time. Where would you hide a surly cat so that nobody, not even the hyper-intuitive, extra-cat-sensitive Beth and Jeremy can find them?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Oh, that's easy: behind the vacuum cleaner, in the closet with the cleaning products, or maybe with the financial planning software.

We'd NEVER find him there.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Okay -- so we know where Rudy was. (I was out at training all week, with no 'net access, poor me, so I missed the sleuthing)

But I thought I'd add my cat Pearl's favorite hiding spot.

Since we moved to our new place, an older home with lots of built-ins, Pearl has disappeared a number of times. She usually hides when Shara beats her up too much.

This is where she goes:

We have a double sink, one side is a deep utility sink that reaches almost to the floor and the other is a more standard-sized sink. Both sinks are enclosed in a wooden frame that makes up the shelf-and-drawer built-in in the kitchen.

Beneath the utility sink is a small enclosed space that is closed off by two cabinet doors with a curving carved bottom that leaves a 4 inch gap between the base of the doors and the floor. Beneath the regular sink, are three deep wooden drawers where we will be putting various kitchen implements.

Pearl crawls under the cabinet doors and then wriggles her way through the space behind the drawers and the wall where the pipes tumble together for both sinks. She then pulls herself up into the top drawer and curls up for an undisturbed nap.

The first time she got in there, she couldn't figure out how to get back out. I'd noticed she was gone and was terrified that she'd gotten out of the house. Sabs pulled the drawer open to see if she'd gotten in behind the drawers and was quite surprised to find her yawning up at him from the bottom of the drawer.

I've avoided storing sharp knifes or forks in that drawer, so that she won't hurt herself when she hides in there. Short of blocking off the cabinet doors with a board, I can't keep her from crawling in there.

It's absolutely adorable though, when you open that drawer and find a little white kitty cat curled up asleep.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000