A Cat Named Sphynx,,,

Around two weeks ago, we had a surprise visitor, in the form of a little black cat. It was unusually warm out, so we had the back door open. I was cooking, when I suddenly heared the distinct sound of a cat meowing. I looked out, and sure enough, there was a little cat sitting on our back porch, looking expectantly at me.

After some coaxing and a little bit of food, she came over and allowed us to pet her. She was very friendly, if a bit on the skittish side. Given her beautiful black coat, and her decidedly Egyptian look, we decided to name her Sphynx.

Over the last few weeks, she's become very comfortable around us. She now comes inside every so often, and is always sitting on our porch looking for her daily meal. We're guessing she's about a year old, and is very well behaved. It makes me wonder if she was someone's cat, who was left here. I really don't understand why anyone would do that though, since she's one of the sweetest cats I've ever encountered.

...And The Trouble She Caused

About a week ago, Sphynx was inside visiting, happily curled up on the living room floor. At some point, Amy's phone rang, which must have startled her. Before we could blink, she had bolted up the stairs and into the back bedroom. Yep, that's right; the one we've been working on for months. By the time I got upstairs, she had crawled into the hole in the closet, and disappeared under the floorboards. I could hear her crying, and tried desperately to coax her out with no luck. Then without warning, her meowing suddenly vanished.

Needless to say, we were both rather concerned, since there are plenty of places for a cat to get hurt crawling around in an old house. This feeling grew even stronger as we pulled up a few of the floorboards in the hall, and found lots of old knob and tube wiring. Not a safe place for a kitty! We tried calling and shining lights everywhere we could, but we never even caught a glimpse of her. Eventually, we gave up and went to bed, thinking we would find her when daylight came.

No sooner had we gotten into bed when the crying began anew. They were just muffled enough for it to be impossible to locate her, but loud enough to put us in a terrible state of mind. Then, to our frustration, her cries became softer and softer, until they vanished entirely.

Over the course of the next 6 hours, this process repeated itself three times over. We even tried putting out food in an attempt to lure her out. It worked perfectly, except that she always managed to run back into the wall before we could grab her. Finally, at around 5:45 in the morning, I managed to snatch her up as she poked her head out of the floorboards. I quickly handed her off to Amy, then proceeded to seal up every hole in sight with wood and screws. Our neighbors must have wondered about the sound of power tools at 6 in the morning!

Ever since then she's stayed outside for the most part, lest we suffer a repeat experience. She's now had all her shots and a clean bill of health from the vet, which I suppose makes her officially "our cat." Here's to hoping that's the last bit of mischief she gets herself into!