Lathario

HC decided to go out tonight without permission. He has been gone all night galavanting around the neighborhood. We have been letting him hang out on the deck when we are at the apt. He has been really good, tonight was no different, both him and Ramona were hanging out on the deck while I was making dinner and getting my stuff ready for tomorrow. He kept coming into the house and checking in and whenever I checked in on him he was lounging around doing nothing. Certainly not planning to escape. Then I took a quick shower and he was gone. Of course he disappeared right when Mel called. She was like, YOU lost the cat? Ummmm, he lost himself. I did not launch him off the deck. I walked the neighborhood twice, kept looking for him on the ground around my deck with a flashlight....yeah, nothing. Not even a rustle. I saw every other friggin cat in my 'hood except for him. Of course when I left to look for him the first time Ramona ate all of his food. It was like they were tag teaming me. Fuckers.
My lovely friends offered to come over and help me look, and I was going to get Mel but what could we do? It is not like a dog, where you go out and call their name.
Finally around 11pm I heard rustling below the deck and flashed my light and there was a possum. Gross. Then alas there HC was looking up at me. Thank god the possums were on the other side of the fence. He was stalking them.


So for the next hour I tried to get him to climb up to the porch with no luck. It seemed like he wanted to. Don't cats get stuck up trees, I thought up was easier then down? Finally I went out my front door and tried to get him to climb up the side of the house using the vines. I see cats in the 'hood jumping up and down there all the time. One of them did figure out how to get on my porch. Not HC, he just looked up at me meowing, with no clue. So I tried to figure out what I could lower to him to get him up, blankets, sheets etc. Then I emptied this basket I have and tied my kayak straps around the handles and put a open can of cat food in the middle. I figured I would just lower it and he would get in and I could heave him up.


I was just about to take the basket outside and guess who sauntered in the front door like nothing happened? What the hell? I want to know how he figured out how to get up the side of the house.
After his nightly adventures he is acting like nothing happened, roaming around on the counters like usual,



and is pretty wiped out. How nice for him. He is on my shit list again. He better sleep through the night.