First of all, an update on how COVID 19 has affected us. Tara is not working in a hospital and is not around virus patients...in theory. She works in the vein and vascular area of the Christie Clinic (above) in downtown Champaign, and while there was one patient who possibly had been infected, most of the procedures they do are necessary but not emergent. Because of that, some of Tara’s hours have been cut, as the clinic is seeing fewer patients. Thank goodness for guaranteed contracts.
But the main subject of today’s blog entry is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while: two cats and a ferret.
If you ever decide to live full-time in a motorhome, like we’ve done, I strongly recommend doing so without pets. Okay, I’m sure it’s fine to have a dog in your RV with you. Many, if not most RV-ers have dogs. But when you’ve never owned a RV before and are now living in one full time, there are going to be quite a few frustrations due to the learning curve. Those frustrations have been multiplied by 10 thanks to the aforementioned two cats and a ferret.
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| Munchkin |
First, let’s meet the culprits. The two cats are supposedly sisters who came from the same litter. Munchkin (“Munchie”; aka Chica) is the most low-maintenance of the pets. Although she can occasionally be a bully toward the other cat, she generally has a good disposition until one of the other pets gets in her space. She’s also the only one of the three that hasn’t gotten “lost” in the motorhome.
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| Spazz |
Spazz (“Spazzycat”, aka Nannycat, aka Nanners) is aptly named. She has spent the majority of her life freaked out. She is the textbook definition of “skittish”. That said, she'll sometimes sit in my lap while I’m watching TV/napping, and she’ll lie on Tara’s chest while she’s reclined on the sofa or sleeping in the bed, then put her face less than an inch from Tara’s.
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| Coco |
The ferret, and queen of the house, is named Coco. Almost four years ago, our oldest daughter,, Kristen, dropped off Coco at our house so we could ferret sit while she and her family were at Disneyland. We’re still waiting for them to pick her up. Normally, you’d keep a ferret in a cage, but in a motorhome there’s not room for a big enough cage. So, the motorhome is her cage.
Both cats are indoor cats, so in order to accommodate their litter box and keep it out of the way, we cut and installed a cat door into one of the bench seats under the dining room table. (Thanks, JC!) Thankfully, they always get everything completely inside the litter box and never make a mess, otherwise a meltdown by certain humans in the motorhome might ensue.
As I mentioned, two of the three pets have gotten themselves “lost” in our motorhome. When we were shopping for our rig, we looked for crevices they -- especially the ferret -- could get into. We didn’t account for the cab area of the motorhome. Spazz and Coco have both managed to climb into the dash and get themselves behind the a/c and stereo console. It was likely an adventure for them, but it was definitely beyond stressful for Tara and me.
Then there was the one time Coco managed to push her way outside. The screen door was closed,, but the main door wasn’t. I momentarily went to the rear of our RV to talk to Tara. During that time, Coco managed to push the screen door open. Tara found her a few minutes later on the ground on the other side of the motorhome. She actually came when Tara called her, which indicated she might’ve been at least a little regretful of her decision. Coco is nothing if not durable, though. She’s been accidentally stepped on countless times and keeps bouncing back.
But the latest incident happened just a couple weeks ago and involved Spazz. It was 11 PM, we were about to go to bed, and Spazz was nowhere to be found. We thought she was in her usual spot under the sofa, but she wasn’t. We knew there was no way she could’ve gone out the door. After looking every place she could possibly be inside the RV, we checked to see if she had gotten into the dash again. Believe it or not, we have an endoscopic camera we purchased just for that purpose. There was no cat in the dash, so we came to the only logical conclusion possible: she had gotten into the dash, crawled up into a vent or some other crevice, and managed to worm her way out of the RV. (To be clear, we have no idea if it’s at all possible for a cat -- or even a spider, for that matter -- to do this, but since we couldn’t find her, we figured that must’ve been what happened.) I combed the premises and inspected the underside of the motorhome, but couldn’t find Spazz. We went to bed hoping she was somewhere within the bowels of the RV and would emerge sometime in the middle of the night. After turning off the lights, we soon heard something in the walls.
All cabinet doors and drawers in a RV automatically latch when you close them. This is to keep them from coming open while driving. (This includes the refrigerator. If you ever have a RV, be sure and latch the refrigerator before driving anywhere. Trust me on this one.) After hearing some movement and a “meow” -- at least Tara thought she heard a “meow” -- coming from the walls behind our bedroom dresser, we were pretty sure Spazz had somehow gotten in there. Tara removed a couple drawers. There was some plumbing along with a duct that runs the heat from the back of the RV to the front, but no cat. And we hadn’t heard any more cat noises.
So now the only plausible explanation is Spazz has gotten between the interior and exterior of the RV. (Again, we don’t know if this is actually possible.) This time it’s Tara that goes outside. She ends up on a blanket on the ground under the RV trying to locate the cat, to no avail. At this point we’re at a complete loss for what to do, especially since it’s so late. We try to go to bed again. As soon as it got quiet, we heard the cat incessantly scratching from behind the wall. Tara removed the drawers again, and, voila, there’s Spazz! So the nightmare was over. As I mentioned, this all started at 11 PM. The time now: 2:26 AM
What exactly happened? The area behind the drawers is one common space. Spazz has been known to jump upon a drawer if one of them is left even slightly open. We deduced that she jumped upon a partially open drawer on my side. Her wedging her way toward the back of the drawer caused it to close, and she was stuck. We didn’t see Spazz the first time we took the drawers out, because she hadn’t yet made her way over to Tara’s side of the dresser.
Since that night/morning, it’s been pretty obvious that Spazz was not at all freaked out by this. She still occasionally goes into the bedroom and puts her paws on the drawers just to see if one of them might happen to be ajar. At least now we know where to look for her next time she disappears.
