Update

Remember how we convinced ourselves that the cat left our house? I didn't even mention that as I was finally falling back asleep, I thought I saw a cat sitting on the A/C unit in our bedroom. I sat up and thought I saw it leave, wandered downstairs after it, didn't see it, and assumed that either I had been dreaming as I dozed off, or I saw who-knows-what in the dark without my glasses and jumped to conclusions. So when I heard a crash from downstairs fifteen minutes after that, I resolutely stayed in bed and went back to sleep. Sure, in the morning I saw a metal bowl that had been precariously near the edge of a shelf and was now on the floor, but none of this was worth mentioning a blog post.

Until today.

Bum bum bum.

I bet by now you all can guess what I saw just as BSM was finishing up his dinner yesterday.

Bum bum bum.

The Cat.

Bum bum bum.

Luckily (?), it dashed right back under the stairs as soon as it saw me, so BSM remained unaware of its presence. I called Husbinator home from his office to keep an eye on it (no more not being sure if it's in the house or not!) while I got BSM in bed, and we spent the next two-and-a-half hours clearing out the crawlspace, coaxing, shining lights, waiting patiently, stomping on the stairs, hitting the wall, opening cans of tuna fish, discussing sedatives...

In the end Husbinator did what I refused point-blank to do and climbed into the crawlspace with the pointy wild animal still inside. He worked some magic and eventually the cat came dashing out. There followed a quarter-hour of chasing the cat around the house again (though first we blocked that crawlspace so it couldn't get back in) and wondering why on earth it insisted on clawing up walls and clinging to windows instead of going through the wide-open door that it just dashed right past. Husbinator went outside and opened screens though, and in the end, we saw the cat jump out a window, exiting our abode.

Aannnnd stay oot!