The Cat in the Window
Our apartment is a three-story loft apartment. The first floor is a garage, the second floor is the main living room/kitchen area, and then the top floor is a loft, bathroom, and our bedroom. With our bedroom being at the highest point of the apartment, it tends to be the warmest. Being that we live in the Southeastern United States, that means it's rarely comfortable in there, so I have a portable air conditioner I keep plugged in year-round.
The first night after we adopted Jupiter, she spent a good portion of it climbing and playing with the air conditioner hose. At first, I thought she was cold, so I bought her a heating pad, but no, she just liked to play. We dealt with this for a few days before applying double sided tape over the hose, which didn't do much to deter her. Finally, my wife suggested we buy some of those little plastic spikes to keep cats off counters and wrap it around the hose. So, I turned my portable A/C into something that looks like it belongs in a Hellraiser movie, but hey, problem solved!
My biggest concern was that the hose connects to the window. And while it snaps in and the screen is still in the window, I guess there is like a one in million chance she could pull it loose and maybe knock the screen out. It seems near impossible, but you never know with kittens.
So, we had Jupiter a little over a week and at one AM my wife and I bolted out of bed after hearing loud cat cries. I mean, horrible, distressed cries unlike anything we've heard before. I looked under the bed to see what could possibly be the matter, while my wife rushed towards the air conditioner. Panic sat in, so I rushed over too. The hose was intact, but my wife pulled the blinds up and on the other side of the glass are two cat eyes gleaming in the moon light.
The panic and confusion that set in at that moment was unheralded. With sleep in my eyes, I struggled to process how this happened. How did our new kitten get outside the window when the hose was still intact? The windows are taped and locked, and I just don't understand.
As I'm squinting, and my brain is trying to process this, my wife finally says, "It's a different cat!"
I leaned closer to take a look and sure enough, this is an adult cat. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I still couldn't find our kitten. We eventually found her cuddled up at the base of her cat tree, apparently unphased by the loud screaming this poor cat was doing outside the window.
My wife noticed someone outside looking up and laughing, and we assumed it was the owners. What was their cat doing on our third story roof at 1 AM on a Sunday night? I'm not really sure, but she went out to verify it was their cat, while I began the process of removing the tape and panels for the portal air conditioner and eventually the window screen.
This poor cat was just standing there, but at least it quieted down once it saw me trying to get to it. Of course, in hilarious fashion, once the screen was open, the cat walked over, looked inside and realizing it wasn't his house began to back up. I reached out and grabbed him, carried him down two flights of stairs, and took him outside to his owners.
Being that we've lived in this apartment for over a year and nothing like this has ever happened, we immediately blamed Jupiter for arranging a booty call, because what other answer is there to this cat suddenly showing up at our window? 🤣
Jupiter Health Update:
Yesterday was our recheck for her potential mass in her leg. The mass has gone down, maybe 50% over the past ten days. The vet is still worried about it, but due to some sneezing and eye discharge, we're trying out some antibiotics and some anti-inflammatory pills to see how she responds before proceeding. Should the mass not go away completely, we're going to have it removed and sent off for testing.
