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I'm actually not sure if "stuck" is the proper word. She can leave of her own free will, so she seems to have done it entirely for fun and it's driving me and my boyfriend crazy. She's actually a rescue cat that a friend of a friend found wandering around outside of her apartment last month and lured her inside because she felt sorry for her. I hate to say it, but I have to wonder whether she really wants to be a house cat because she goes from being really playful and cuddly to being distant/scratchy in seconds. But now, I'm rather concerned. We put her in her room one night last week (I believe it was last Monday) with her bed, litter box and food (it's like a spare bedroom kinda that has a TV with an Xbox hooked up) and woke up to find her gone. We were utterly perplexed and scoured the house inside and out (it's a small ranch house in the suburbs) and found literally zero trace of her. So, we kind of scratched our heads, filled up her food bowl and hoped she'd come home. Fast forward to last night. I was going to the bathroom when I heard a "meow" coming from the vent. I lifted the covering up and sure enough, Katniss comes crawling out meowing like crazy. I go to pet/grab her, she hisses, and dives back into the vent before I can place the covering back. We've placed food in bowls near two of the vents, but our other cat is a bit of a fatty and we're worried that she's the one who is eating it up instead of vent-cat. Is there any way we can maybe lure her out more effectively? I hate to sound morbid, but I'm terrified of her starving to death somewhere in the vents and we won't be able to reach her. And I feel like poo poo because I thought we were doing a good deed and now the poor thing is hiding scared and hungry :-/ SlenderWhore fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2013 around 19:27 |
| # ? Mar 3, 2013 19:23 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 22:21 |
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SlenderWhore posted:I'm actually not sure if "stuck" is the proper word. She can leave of her own free will... So then she's not stuck. If that is the case I wouldn't be too worried. She'll come out when she's hungry. But honestly, it would bug the hell out of me too, so what I would do in that case is shake a toy outside the open vent. It can be a jingle bell, a rattle ball, a crinkle toy, something that makes noise. Another path to take is using tuna, wet or some food for her that smells. Once she's lured leave her alone(let her come to you) and put some grates on your vents. 
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:36 |
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SlenderWhore posted:because she goes from being really playful and cuddly to being distant/scratchy in seconds. Katniss Well you named her properly. Her being in the vent doesn't sound like a particularly safe place. If she's eating, though, could you get a cat trap to bait her into, catch her, then seal up however she got in?
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:40 |
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It made a conscious decision to go in. It chose to be in there, it wants to be in your wall. But whatever you do, don't try to get it out with catnip . That's gonna irritate the cat. And then its gonna dig itself down further and you may never get to it, ok? Let's start thinking like a cat here alright. You know what? You need another cat. That's what you need. Here's what you're gonna do: You're gonna crack a little hole in your wall, a tiny one, it'll be cool. And then You're gonna slip a second cat with a string tied around it. Those two will become co-dependent, then you'll rip the second cat out, and the first one hopefully, hopefully will follow. Tasty_Crayon fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2013 around 21:25 |
| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:52 |
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Well you named her properly. I'm thinking that's what we will have to do- doubly so because we are thinking the vent might somehow lead outside and that's where she's been using the bathroom/hunting for food (she definitely hasn't been using her litter box and it doesn't smell bad in the house). Another friend of mine suggested we seal off all of the vents except for one so she will be forced to exit via the one vent, but i'm worried about this making her even more stuck/stranded 
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 21:27 |
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If the cover(s) are open the cat will come out in due time when her stomach starts to complain, you mentioned she hissed when you tried to grab her, apparantly she'll want to come out on her own terms soon enough, just not on yours.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 22:31 |
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SlenderWhore posted:doubly so because we are thinking the vent might somehow lead outside and that's where she's been using the bathroom/hunting for food What kind of terrible house do you live in, with all of your uncovered vents that lead directly to the backyard? What kind of awful architecture *is* this?
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 13:38 |
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So you don't so much have "vents" but gaping holes in your wall to lead to the outdoors? Get you cat out and finish your god drat house.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 18:02 |
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Castaign posted:What kind of terrible house do you live in, with all of your uncovered vents that lead directly to the backyard? What kind of awful architecture *is* this? Baronjutter posted:So you don't so much have "vents" but gaping holes in your wall to lead to the outdoors? Get you cat out and finish your god drat house. I don't know for sure that they lead outside. It was just conjecture. I'm as puzzled as you are if they do. Also, the vents were actually covered but are the easily removable kind. It takes almost zero effort to lift them up. I agree with you, however, that we are certainly going to need to look into new vents. It's a fairly old house & we just moved in a few months ago. Until then, we're planning on taping them down with duct tape so she can't go on anymore unexpected adventures. We purchased a small trapping cage at the pet store with some sort of spray that the person at Petco suggested makes them feel comfortable. We're going to try it out tonight- I'm hoping it works. SlenderWhore fucked around with this message at Mar 4, 2013 around 18:51 |
| # ? Mar 4, 2013 18:42 |
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your cat is making GBS threads in the vents.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 19:17 |
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Might want to take the cat to the vet too once you get it out. The sudden mood changes and the instinct to hide away for long periods often points to poor health or injury.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 19:24 |
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SlenderWhore posted:I'm thinking that's what we will have to do- doubly so because we are thinking the vent might somehow lead outside. Good news! It does! Bad news! It goes through the furnace first! Best news! You will literally NEVER have a better chance to use an industrial blower to shoot a cat out of your ventillation system!
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 04:22 |
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This happened to me when I moved into my new apartment 3 months ago. The previous tenents cat got into the vents and would not come out. She would sneak out in the middle of the night or while we were out to grab food from our dogs bowl. The previous occupants said she was in the basement. We eventually figured out that this was not the case. The smell of cat feces and stale urine was terrible. After five days, our maintenance person came over, isolated it to a specific portion of the ventilation system and scared it out with fire crackers. Hope this helps. davey4283 fucked around with this message at Mar 6, 2013 around 07:22 |
| # ? Mar 6, 2013 07:19 |
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Get the cat out yet?
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 14:26 |
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Yeah I'm oddly curious for an update to ventcat
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 16:31 |
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"brb guys heading to the catvent" *never posts again* It's like Ted the Caver all over again
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 17:07 |
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"My friend and my friends cat are stuck in a vent"
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 17:17 |
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Suspect Bucket posted:Get the cat out yet? Yepp, she's out. We had to get some Feliway (?) to spray around the area of the trap and some tuna to lure her out and it took about two hours but we got her. She seems to be doing fine enough. She doesn't really look hungry/starved at all (though she is eating like a bandit). Only thing is, now she's hiding in the kitchen sink. Oh well. Better the sink than the vents I suppose.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 17:48 |
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Alpha Kenny Juan posted:Once she's lured leave her alone(let her come to you) and put some real grates on your vents. Added a word, but I still stand by what I said.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 18:17 |
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Fewd posted:"brb guys heading to the catvent" Well, we got a good end rather then some fakey creepypasta about the devil and huberis. In case someone has not read Ted The Caver: http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 18:29 |
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Suspect Bucket posted:Well, we got a good end rather then some fakey creepypasta about the devil and huberis. I'd totally have done this, but it would like awful suspicious if I continued to post elsewhere on the forms.
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 21:51 |
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Is this new behavior for your cat or does it just hate moving? If it's a change in behavior you might want to vet that poo poo. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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| # ? Mar 6, 2013 22:34 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 22:21 |
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Baronjutter posted:Is this new behavior for your cat or does it just hate moving? If it's a change in behavior you might want to vet that poo poo. We've only had her for a few weeks. She's a rescue/ex-stray cat.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2013 02:13 |
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