Catch a Tiger by the Toe....

The Clymer household had quite the little adventure today. Tiger escaped through the back door about 11:30 this morning. Normally we chase him down, but this time we decided to let him wander off and we figured he would wander back after a few hours when he started to get hungry or tired.

After four hours of not seeing him, we started getting worried. We walked around the block calling, "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!", but still no Tiger.

We talked to someone down the street who told us they had seen a little dog chasing an orange cat up the street several hours earlier. So we went in the direction they had pointed and called out to him, but still no Tiger.

We started getting worried as each hour passed by because it was getting cooler, the sun was setting, and Tiger had not eaten since he left (normally at this point he's had a couple of feedings). Nor had he napped. I mean, all cats start getting tired after being awake for six hours straight. That's right. Six hours. Six hours and still no Tiger.

Finally we decided to start knocking on people's doors in the direction of his last sighting. As we approached the third house down from us, we could hear large dogs barking incessantly in the backyard. We talked to the owners and they said they had in fact seen an orange cat on their fence earlier in the day and their dogs had been barking at it. As the woman checked to see if the cat was still there, we waited on the front porch. During her absence, we could hear the non stop barking of the dogs escalate into a much more aggressive, attack-style barking and it seemed obvious to us that there was definitely something in the backyard that they were barking at. The woman came back and said, "Yes, he's back there on the fence. You can come and get him." While the woman and Daniel held their two large German Shepherds by the collars, I slowly and calmly approached a completely terrified and terrorized Tiger sitting paralyzed on the top of the fence.... puffed fur,.... puffed tail,.... ears back,..... with a constant low growl in his voice. The poor thing. He seemed very relieved to see me and stood up just as I got to him. I took him in my arms and walked quickly past the dogs.... who mind you were still barking their heads off.

Poor Tiger. He had probably been sitting paralyzed with fear on that fence top for 5 hours straight. We're so glad he's home now. Hopefully after such a terrifying ordeal, he will be a little less inclined to try and get outside.