Lost & Found

Last Sunday night when I got home from work I was assaulted with the smell of cat pee/spray. I cleaned the boxes, and they were both really empty. So we figured Garlic was spraying again (he has yet to be declawed and neutered, our little Humpy One).

So last Monday I was realizing that I hadn't see Garlic since I was home. Then I realized I hadn't seen him the night before either, when I got home from work late. So I asked Don when the last time he saw Garlic was. He couldn't remember.

I started the hunt, panicked, remember poor Squishy's fate. You have to know, too, that Garlic is fairly shy and we think a little "off", and goes off by himself a lot (all my cats are house cats, so I'm referring to off in the house). I go downstairs and call his name and I hear him meowing plaintivly. I scream for Don to come down with me, cause I can't handle the thought of what I might find alone. I go by the washer/dryer/water softener/furnace area and hear him really clearly. I look behind the washer and dryer, I look IN the washer (the lid was up), I'm trying to figure out if he got in the furnace duct thingy, when I decide to open the dryer.

Pouring out of the bright light is the smell of poop and pee and a scared little kitty. He was up on one of those bar thingys...you know those things every foot or so in the dryer? The bottom was covered with fur, poop and pee. He wouldn't come to us for a couple hours, the poor guy was walking funny, and SMELLED bad! I cleaned up the dryer while bawling (Don's like, "Why are you crying? He's okay!") and then made a special treat for him so he'd come to me and I could try to pet, comfort and clean him. (All I did was mix a can of soft food with their dry food and gave some to each kitty-but they love it!) I wiped him down with baby wipes and he cleaned himself a lot, too.

A week later (almost) he still smells faintly of pee, the dryer is still holding on to a faint scent......

Oh, and we figure he was in there since Saturday, maybe Friday when Don finished washing the rats rags. I'm asuming that Garlic jumped in while Don was standing up with the basket and Don closed the door, thinking it was empty. I feel like an awful human being and an awful mama. It's just hard cause like I said, he'll go off into another place and be by himself a lot, whereas the other two tend to come see what we're up to.

He's doing fine now. Back to his normal self. But yeah, I need to figure out how to get that smell completely out of him!