Oscar
Oscar Meyer Madison
Sweetheart
We knew Oscar most of his life, although
he was only one of "ours" for about seven of his fourteen or so
years. He had belonged to a neighbor, and when the neighbor moved
away, Oscar stayed. We were in France at the time, but only a few
months from our return, so we knew we'd have to do something for the
ol' guy if he was still around when we returned. He was - so we
began putting food out on our porch, trying to win him over so we
could get him in for neutering. This was more difficult than
initially thought, as we'd been known to chase him off prior to our
move, when we felt he was bullying Luke too
much. Perhaps he remembered that, or perhaps he was just used to
being cautious; whichever the case, he ran as soon as we came out our
door, so we could never get close enough to catch him.
About a year after our return, we were
cat-sitting for my parents during a camp they were attending. Their
cat, Panzer, was one of Kalice's
kittens; we had him stashed in our upstairs room (securely, we
thought) with a window ever so slightly open. You guessed it; he
managed to get out and disappeared down the street. My brother saw
him one night, and followed him to the house he was hiding under. So
now, how to get him out of there? Hmmm ... we rented a humane trap
from the local Humane Society and, after blocking the other possible
exits, placed the baited trap at the remaining exit. Sure enough,
next morning a rather disgruntled Panzer was waiting for his rescue
from the wire enclosure. After delivering him to my relieved
parents, I got the idea to use the trap to catch Oscar. After all,
it was "mine" until I returned it to the Society... they didn't have
to know I'd already caught my "prey". So I set it up on our porch,
with some very tempting tuna inside, and waited. Not long after, I
heard it clunk. Going to the door, I looked out, expecting to see
Oscar's white and brown/grey self in there... nope! I'd caught our
own Arielle! Lured by the tuna, she had snuck in to nibble and been
caught! "Hmmm, this may not be as simple as I thought..." Resetting
the trap, I got all the furry residents of the house inside and
closed their access to outdoors, then waited again. Another clunk!
This time it was Oscar! I made a quick trip to our vet, delivering
him in the cage and warning them I had no idea of his temperament, as
he wasn't techically "ours". When I came to pick him up, I was
surprised to hear the report that he was a real sweetheart, and had
given them no trouble at all.
