Hecate's Holiday

Yesterday, because I couldn't wait any longer, I decorated for the upcoming Hecate's Day. Yes, our cat has a holiday dedicated entirely to her. Or at least, that's what you'd think if you saw how we got ready for it in this house. In reality most people call it Halloween and so did we before we got Hecate.

Last year for Christmas, I received an abundance of decorations which either are black cats, or have black cats on them.

This is our Halloween candy bucket for any trick-or-treaters who might come. I hope we get some this year, we never had any in Tinley Park.


I'm thankful this season only lasts a month, otherwise our cat might develop a God Complex.


You may remember this decoration from a post last year, it was gift from Elizabeth. This year, I think Hecate might be bigger than it.


Last Halloween, my mother-in-law bought me this decoration and then realize she liked it so much she went back and bought one for herself, too.

I hope everyone enjoys decorating and getting ready for Halloween in your own way. I just feel bad Hyperion doesn't have a holiday of his own.

Never trust your cat...

...they'll look at you with those big yellow-green eyes of theirs and sit next to you on the couch and you think everything is okay. Yeah, you were mad this morning, but everything is fine this afternoon, as you give them a piece of bread and they recuperate in their favorite hiding spot.

And then...BAM! You leave for an hour or two to see some family and you come home and the cat's in the garage. And before you realize it's your cat, they've run off into the bushes. And of course, it's a black cat, and it's now 9 p.m., so you have to run to your in-laws to borrow their super-bright flashlights.

Yeah, Hecate got out again today...tonight, to be more exact. My uncle was visiting my mom and dad, so I ran over there to say hi and when I got back, I almost ran her over in the garage without realizing it. Then when I saw her, I thought, no, that can't be her...we've done this already today. And then I went inside and she was nowhere to be found.

Nathan and I looked around and found her hiding in the hostas around the back of the house after about an hour. She is such a troublemaker.

We also found out how she was actually getting out. A couple of days ago it was really stuffy in the office, so we opened a window and thought the screen looked okay. Not so much. It flaps badly enough that she was able to slip through it. You can bet we're never opening that window again.

Grrr...

Animal Rescue--Nathan Style

While we were bouncing between Shabbona and Pecatonica Saturday, our landlord and a plumber were redoing the tile in our bathroom. The old tile had come away from the wall and water was dripping behind it to the apartment below us.

Nathan and I drove separately and I got home first. Upon arriving, I found the work wasn't done, with just boards up and a hole around the knob for water. I also found one cat, Hyperion. Hecate was nowhere in sight. If you remember from an earlier post, this is a habit of hers. So, before I panicked, I looked all over the apartment. Literally, all over. I could not find her anywhere. Then, I started panicking.

I went downstairs and knocked on our neighbor's door and she said she hadn't seen a little black kitten, but she would let us know if she did. Nathan got home and called the landlord, who said the cats had been in the apartment the whole time. Then, the downstairs neighbor knocked on the door and told me she never was able to hear the cats, but she could hear one coming from just above her bathroom.

I went into our bathroom and bent down in front of the water knob and called for her. I heard a very small "mew." Hecate had been boarded up in the wall. We called the landlord and he came right over and unscrewed the bottom board. Hecate was sitting on a ledge about three feet below the level of the bathtub.

It took about two hours to lure her with food to a place just underneath the tub where Nathan could reach his hand in and pull her out. We immediately took her out of the bathroom and closed the door, giving her the food we had used to lure her. She ate pretty heartily, then went to use the litter box right away.

Hecate's hiding space was on a ledge just to the left and underneath the white snaking pipe. She was there for quite a while, then she found a ledge and ended up underneath the bathtub.