How We Almost Lost Ansel

Ansel in 2007

We had the furnace ducts cleaned Monday, which meant a lot of noise and upheaval in the house.  Herding our five cats during the process was pretty complicated as we tried to keep them from getting into the open furnace vents.  Ansel was shut in the front bedroom during the process and didn't like it very much.  He hates being trapped.

We adopted him in 2007--he had appeared in our yard about eighteen months before, hiding in the shrubbery and eating food we put out for him.  He was ragged and unkempt and very, very shy--he would bolt if anyone got too near him.  We thought he was feral.

We named him Ansel after our favorite black-and-white photographer.

Ansel At Home

We didn't see him for several months and we thought the coyotes in the canyon had gotten him.  Then on Labor Day 2007, he turned up again, skinnier than ever and with a big wound on his forehead over his right eye.  We had been talking about trapping him, and with help from our friend Val, we decided to do it.  We put a plate of food in the Tomahawk cat trap and set it, but Ansel had trouble figuring out how to get at the food, so we had to push it closer to the door; once he figured out where the door was and began to follow the food, we pushed it back toward the back of the trap so we could get the door closed.  He wasn't happy about being trapped, but we took the opportunity to get the wound cleaned out and get him "fixed", too.

Because of the wound we had to keep him in a cage in the house for several days.  When we opened the cage to clean it out, he strolled out, came over to me, jumped up on my lap, and settled in.  Not feral after all.

But he evidently still remembers those days of being trapped.  Monday, after the duct cleaner left with his huge, noisy vacuum, Ansel bolted out the back door, hopped over the driveway wall, and disappeared into the thick shrubbery before I could catch him.  Just a little further and he would have been down into the canyon.

Fortunately, Cindy remembered Ansel's weakness for kitty treats and grabbed the can of treats before she went out; when she shook the treats can, he hesitated long enough for her to grab him.

If we hadn't put in all that work cutting back the shrubbery behind the fence last year, she wouldn't have been able to get close enough to get him.   So that was a garden project that has paid a huge dividend.  Anyway, we're glad he's back home--and he's been cashing in on kitty treats ever since.