Bad Kitty Quinn Tricked Into Custody
Another Garage As Trap Recovery for the Win!
Lesa couldn’t have needed lost pet help at a worst time. She messaged me right at the start of fireworks week, which happens to be the busiest time of year for pet detectives like me. Lesa found me on Facebook and said that her indoor-only cat, Quinn, had slipped outside, undetected, on June 19, when the family dog was let outside for late-night business.
But on that day in June, Quinn’s escape wasn’t discovered until 30-minutes later:
“My daughter arrived home about 11:30 p.m. Typically, when she comes in the door, the cats all run to meet her. But this time, there was no Quinn. She looked around and thought he must be upstairs. She changed into PJs but couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Why hadn’t Quinn popped out? So, she went back downstairs, and there she saw our orange cat, Chunk, by our glass slider door, looking at something outside. It was Quinn. Gabby went to slide the door open, and Quinn ran to hide.”
I’ve run into this exact scenario on at least two other escaped indoor-only cat cases. In the first case, Scout, an indoor-only tuxedo cat, was snitched on by the family’s second cat, who saw Scout outside through the patio glass sliding door and started yowling. This woke the husband up, who rushed out of the bedroom. As he went downstairs, he flipped on the living room light. The moment the light went on, Scout bolted. In another case, the escaped cat kept appearing on the back patio, but every time, the photosensor automatic patio lights came on and scared him off. In both cases, I was able to coach the homeowner to turn off the lights, crack open their door, and “trap” their cat inside their home.
In the case of Quinn, he had been spotted several times during the two weeks that he was on the lam. Lesa, her husband, and her daughter had been unable to catch him. On one occasion, Lesa came close:
“On the third day, we spotted Quinn. He was basically across the street, 50 to 75 feet from my house. He ducked into some shrubs, and as I quietly talked, he stayed put. My hopes soared! However, the neighbor who lives in that house opened her door right then to let her cat outside, and Quinn ran off!”
Lesa continued to see her cat over the next several days. Each time her sleek black shorthaired cat ran off in fear. Lesa tried many methods to capture Quinn that she read about on the internet.
We read about how to try to come at him from front and back sides and toss a blanket; use a laser pointer to attract him; use his favorite food; put out his litter box [Kat’s Note: something we do NOT recommend!] or our clothes with our smells; and lure him with tuna in socks draped over trees in areas we have seen him near. But the more we did, the further he ran!
To make matters worse, Quinn got into a catfight while hiding in another neighbor’s yard. It’s common for escaped, indoor-only cats to end up in a catfight because they’ve unintentionally invaded another cat’s territory, an act that will be defended with loud yowling, sharp claws, and teeth! In many cases, when a catfight happens, it will push the escaped cat further away from home, at which point many cats with skittish temperaments are just too afraid to go back toward their home for fear that they’ll be attacked again.
Lesa messaged, “We have motion sensors and cameras all around our house, our garage door is open, our back gate is open, and our sliding door is open. I just don’t know what else to do.” When I read that, I knew that Lesa had a great chance of recovering Quinn by being coached in how to trap him inside of her house. I referred Lesa to Lost & Hound Lost Pet Tracking and Recovery, LLC with Wilma “Shep” Shepherd, one of our experienced MAR Graduates, who coached Lesa in the House-As-Trap method.
I had recently published a detailed story titled Use a Garage to Trap a Cat about another case where a cat named Betty was recovered using the Garage-As-Trap recovery method. I sent that story to Lesa for her to read while she waited to connect with Shep. Here’s what happened next:
“Shep said that Quinn might let me trap him, but not yet. She said that he was not to the end of his ‘threshold’ period [Kat’s Note: something that we teach about in our online lost pet recovery course]. She said Quinn was hungry, but he was more terrified then hungry, and that we needed to lure him into our house and close him in from the outside.
So, I did exactly what Shep said. Our sliding glass door had been open every night for days. Shep said to close that door, close the electric garage door, and only leave ONE door open: our side door, which is attached to our garage and right by our front porch. Shep told me to set up a rope pulley system so that I could pull that door closed while I was still inside my living room. She told me to conduct a stakeout where I would have all of my lights out. She also advised me to place cameras in my garage that faced the side door and sensors to alert me when Quinn had breached the door and entered the garage to activate cameras. One camera had to be set up just before my door, facing into the house, another one at our kitchen step (where he’d have to step), and a third camera facing down our front hall to the upstairs.
Shep said to practice all day with the pulley system so that we could pull that door closed as smoothly and flawlessly as possible. I was instructed that at dusk that night, all of my other pets should be kept in a room so they could not get outside. I needed to put rotisserie chicken in a warmed dish as far from the side door as possible, and everyone needed to go upstairs and remain quiet.
So, at 9:30 p.m., our lights went out. Everything was set in place and we waited. I was the only one downstairs, with the pulley next to me and my sensor transmitter by me. At 1:32 a.m., the sensor went off. I tried to look at the camera feed, but my daughter upstairs beat me to it. She said, “Quinn is in the garage. He’s heading to the food bowl! I pulled my rope, the door slammed shut, and Quinn was trapped in our garage, after just short of 18 days!”
Here’s the video of Quinn’s capture. You’ll notice him slip into the garage area by entering through the side door which had a very long rope attached to the door handle. Lesa, who was in her living room, was holding the end of that rope and her daughter, Gabrielle, was upstairs monitoring the door with video. She messaged Lesa the moment Quinn entered the garage. When Quinn got near his food bowl, watch that door that he came through and you’ll see (and then hear) as Lesa pulled the door closed. Quinn races to that door but it was closed and his access to being outdoors now cut off.
Ba da boom, Ba da bang, Ba da Bing!
How many indoor-only cats go missing every year are NEVER recovered because their owner/guardian never received this type of instruction? How many of these cats end up living in feral cat colonies, as homeless “community” cats, or even trapped by neighbors and transported to animal shelters where they are euthanized? WAY TOO MANY!
If you know someone whose lost a cat, please refer them TO OUR WEBSITE (NOT TO ME…I no longer have time to consult on cases. However, others like Shep are trained to help cat guardians like Lesa and Gabrielle).
Here’s how Lesa described Quinn’s behavior over the next hour:
My daughter Gabrielle came running downstairs as I held the rope until she went out into the garage to make sure that the door was tightly closed. While she did that, Quinn zipped into the house, into our front room, and right behind the couch that I was sitting on. About an hour later, he was talking to us. Thirty minutes after that, he slowly walked out, ate a Churu, and climbed right up into my lap and began purring and rubbing all over me, then to my daughter.
Here’s the reunion video of Quinn laying on Gabrielle, kneading his appreciation with his claws while purring. I just love this video!
Here’s Lesa’s parting thoughts about her experience:
“Quinn was a bit worse for wear, and he certainly lost weight. But, within three days of my messaging you, with Shep’s spot-on instructions, Quinn was home inside and safe! I have passed your information to anyone I had any contact with: all my friends who have pets and even those that don’t. What a wonderful service you provide! We have our little cat back, and we have new rules: cat signs at every exit, and Harley the dog has to knock to come inside now!”
Sweet story!!
This is so smart and such important advice for those of us with indoor kitties. Thank you!