Great Escape, by Mary Pravdin

Best Laid Plans

This is the story about two indoor cats, twins from the same litter and adopted together, who lived “the good life” on warm beds and blankets and laps, until the fateful day that a door to our backyard was accidentally left open. Because both were indoor cats, we had always been very careful to keep that door tightly closed because we knew that DeeDee and her twin brother Ari were super persistent and curious, always waiting for an opportunity to go outside and explore. Don’t get me wrong ─ they loved being with us while we chased them around the house and offered food. That said, they couldn't help but be curious about the outdoors and had spent years hanging out by that door just waiting for someone to leave it ajar and dreaming about the adventures that awaited them. Then one day it happened, and the saga began.

Free At Last

If cats could talk, we would have heard them yelling, “Yippee!” as they ran out the door. But then something interesting happened. Ari wasn’t quite as adventuresome as he thought and decided to stay right there waiting to be carried back in. DeeDee, on the other hand, took off, and from that point on, our primary focus was bringing her back home. As you’ll see, she didn’t make it easy. 

Searching, Sightings, and Near Misses

Our neighbors had several cameras mounted around their property and DeeDee was caught on camera several times, particularly at night, traversing our shared fences and going from yard to yard. We could also hear her and would call to her but she wouldn’t come to us. Even though we saw her at least once every day, she wouldn’t let us catch her. In fact, this seemingly docile, fully domesticated indoor cat seemed to have suddenly transformed into an incredibly wild and stealthy creature. 

Being an OBGYN, I’m used to being up in the middle of the night delivering babies, so I finally decided to sleep downstairs with the door ajar so I could watch for her. Unfortunately, that strategy didn’t work either. One night we saw her in the backyard but when we tried to grab her, she went into hyperdrive, climbing up our screen door, jumping on top of our house, launching herself into the pool, swimming across to the other side, and jumping over the fence ─ all in about 3 seconds. We wouldn’t have believed it if we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes.

Five Days and Counting

At that point, we were very worried. Even though she seemed to still be around our area, five days had passed, and we were told that she would be roaming further and further away if we didn’t catch her soon. 

Researching this a little, we learned that an indoor cat’s feral instincts kick in and they act very differently when they’re suddenly outside. It’s an instinctive switch that turns on and off, and it seems that’s what we were experiencing.

Since we couldn’t catch her, we decided to trap her. My husband went to Home Depot where he bought a small animal trap that we put in the backyard with some cat food and articles of clothing that had our scent on them.

Then we held our breath and were thrilled to see her sitting in the trap by morning.

Home At Last

When we brought her inside and opened the trap, she calmly walked out and jumped onto her favorite chair as if nothing had happened. Where we were worried that she would be wild and unpredictable, in fact everything immediately went back to normal. And now that DeeDee has had her grand adventure, she seems to have lost all interest in running away, instead preferring to stay safe and secure inside with the rest of us. 

As for Ari, he stills hangs out by the backdoor, but we just tell him, “Sorry buddy, you missed your chance.”