The Side Effects of Endorphins

Today we had work done in the crawl space in front of our house. It is a creepy dark space with plenty of older insulation. The only access to the area was through a swinging door that sits a few feet off the ground. Well so we thought. Out cat Sinclair finds space where space simply does not exist. We have been in the house for all of two weeks. She found her way into the crawlspace on one of our first days there. Moving is traumatic for cats I get it. So, we respect her space.

She has settled down since the move is over. One of the related aims of doing the work in the basement was to seal off the area where she sneaks off into the under belly of the basement. For her, it is one big mouse hunting escapade.

I have come to respect the guy who is doing the work for us. He and his partner came in this morning and gutted the old insulation out of the basement. Much to my surprise there was no recent activity from rodents or monsters. The rest of the afternoon consisted of putting in the new insulation.

The final task of the day was to seal the secret gateway to the underbelly of our house. It was a simple fix as our contractor carried 6-foot sheets of plywood in his truck. It was a remarkably simple task using a screw, gun, drywall screws, and a piece of lumber.

So back to real life after the artisans are gone, and I decided to go for a run in the evening. It was later than I expected, but I did take in the sun setting over the Puget town. Those little moments can make or break a day. Those little moments can erase that you were just recently dealing with insulation in the crawlspace.

I got back from my run and realized I had not seen the SkyCat. SkyCat is the name the kids gave her because she used to hide high up in the closet in the house we just moved from. It is a cool name, and I cannot argue with a four-year-old’s magical logic. yes, our cat recently come out of the closet.

I got home from my run and still could not find her. That is a magical thing about running as you figure things out and I some cases we complicate things. But you do think a lot. While I was running, I concluded, the SkyCat was still in her magical hiding space. I also feared that we had sealed her into the place that we were working so hard at keeping her out of.

Even though I was ravenous at the time, I skipped starting dinner and headed straight down to the basement. The SkyCat situation was freaking me out. I opened the swinging door that leads to the freaky crawlspace. I did notice the area much cleaner, and not not as scary. I certainly needed a flashlight. I poked my head into the underbelly of our house and called out to Sinclair. I heard a faint meow out from somewhere. I did not know where exactly the mew was coming from. in situations such as this and sometimes we make up what we hear. I had no idea whether she could escape from the area we sealed off. That was her only exit now. I did not know if there was a connection between the area we sealed off and the area we worked on. This entire scenario only worked if she sat hidden while the contractors did their work. Their work occasionally used loud power tools. This was a very unlikely scenario.

I quickly pur together a homemade spaghetti sauce and some pasta. Yet we all know curiosity killed the cat. With dinner cooking on the stove, and I decided to walk down into the basement and look for the SkyCat. I opened swinging door leading into the underbelly of our house and there was the SkyCat looking at me nonplussed.