Operation Feline Rescue -- by Cassidy

Sunday 8-31-08, 5 a.m.

This was the moment we had been waiting for. After years of dreaming, months of planning, and some very stressful final weeks, we were about to embark on the beginning of our trip. But the cats had other plans.

Alerted by feline intuition that we would be leaving them for months (albeit in the capable hands of our new housemate Erica), they apparently planned an escapade to foil our departure. As I opened the front door to begin loading luggage into the car, they both bolted outside. In what appeared to be a well-planned maneuver, Maggie broke to the left and Melvin darted to the right. Thinking that Maggie likes to hide under cars and is often difficult to retrieve, while Melvin usually freaks out halfway down the street and runs back home, I pursued Maggie. Flawless though my logic was, this time it was the wrong decision.

I scooped up Maggie and returned her to the house, then headed after Melvin. However, he had just discovered that his head fit underneath the picket gate of the house next door. ¨No, Melvin, don´t even think about it,¨ I muttered, while thinking that surely his abdomen was too fat to follow. To my horror it was not, and he slipped under the gate and ran off to explore this new Garden of Feline Wonder.

I stood there paralyzed. What to do? Ring the doorbell, put out a treat, or break into my neighbor´s yard? Waking someone up at 5 a.m. was surely a poor idea and the cat was already not responding to my gentle entreaties to return at once and stop this nonsense. Thus Operation Feline Rescue was born.

I enlisted Erica and her flashlights and returned to the yard. She stood sentinel at the gate while I hoisted myself onto the brick wall that separates the yard from our compound. There, looking at me curiously, were Melvin´s luminescent eyes. I lowered myself into the yard and slowly advanced. Suddenly bright lights corsucated around the yard! It was Erica´s flashlight, searching for the cat. Thinking that now we really looked like burglars, I motioned for her to stop, but it was too late -- I had lost track of Melvin.

Erica said something and then left the gate, but I was too focused on the hunt and on not making any noise. I kept looking for Melvin, with no success. Great, I thought, we´re going to spend hours looking for him, miss our flight and get arrested for trespassing. Then Erica returned and informed me that Melvin had been captured and safely returned to his residence.

Apparently, her flashlight had startled him, causing him to run back out underneath the gate and back towards the house. Erica simply opened the door and he bolted back inside, content to leave me prowling about in our neighbor´s yard with no alibi.

So, the cats´ elaborate plan to disrupt our trip failed; thankfully, Melvin could not sustain his courage to face the Great Outdoors any longer. With both pets back in the house, we departed for BWI airport and the beginning of our tip.