A couple of months ago today, I was headed to the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, somewhere on I-74, listening to a Maeve Binchy book and dreaming of my new adventure. That’s when it happened — I got the call. My husband was calling, mid-afternoon — alarming anytime, but more so today. Who died or what couldn’t he find — equally possible — and the dreaded thought — what can I do about it in the middle of Indiana?
I answered the phone and a sinking feeling set in as he said, “ I wasn’t sure if I should bother you…but…”. Nothing prepared me for what he said next. “I think there is a cat in the furnace, listen to this.” The next thing I heard him say was, “Kitty, kitty” and that cat called back with an anxious “MEOW, MEOW”…Holy Catastrophe, we have a cat in the furnace!!!
My first thought was this thing was going to die in our furnace and the smell of a dead animal would permeate our house. My next thought was, oh crap, now we need to buy a new furnace — sorry, I didn’t really think about the poor cat first – just my horror. The thoughts in my head were racing through all of the bad ways this thing could go — and it dawned on me — my husband was looking for me to help him figure out what to do. I was 400 miles away in a car headed to Dayton, Ohio and I felt helpless.
Where do you start? Stunned, I asked, “How do you think it got there?”
This story started a few days earlier when our scruffy, Jack Russell terrier, Ernie who was protecting our house from critters, chased it onto our roof. He was going crazy barking at the roof, but we couldn’t see anything and blew it off, as we often do.
Not until I had left on my trip on Tuesday did the cat drop — literally — my husband had heard some loud clunking noises in the basement which he warily went downstairs to check it out.
Nothing and he couldn’t get our “brave” dog to investigate so he chalked up to our Scandinavian poltergeist, Aven Baineless…
The next afternoon, the noises from the basement started again, thump, bang, and this time a meow. Our cats were accounted for, so what the heck was going on in the basement? Eric and his tools headed down and this time discovered the cat had dropped down into the ductwork going into the furnace. After taking off all the parts he could and still didn’t have the cat out — he called me. He swears he didn’t scream like a little girl when the furnace loudly clunked as he was looking for the offending noise–I’m not buying it.
“Call the furnace guys, they’ll know what to do”, I said. I don’t think Eric wanted to pay for someone to get the cat out, but we were kind of stuck — dead cat aroma when the furnace came on or maybe a new furnace. He called them.
Little did we know that this was not a surprise to the furnace guys, they were sympathetic and nice – one even quipped he kept a kitty kit in his truck — cat treats, catnip, and heavy gloves.
Dan, our furnace guy arrived about 30 minutes later. He immediately identified where the animal was — in the outgoing ductwork attached to the chimney. He had fallen down our chimney some 15-20 ft into the furnace and couldn’t get back out. Dan pulled off some ductwork, but the scared cat scooted out of the way again.
With a small mirror on a telescoping rod and flashlight, Dan could see the cat a few feet away but not reach him. There was no way to get the cat out without hurting it and tearing the chimney apart was not an option. The solution was to leave the ductwork off and hope the cat would come out on his own. Even though it was rather cold, Dan told us not to use the furnace until the cat came out and the ductwork connected again. Carbon monoxide would fill the room and the house — not a good plan.
Dan left and no more than 10 minutes later our cat, Cheena, started acting curiously about something in the basement. She led Eric straight to the stray cat who was loose in our basement. A little scrape on his head, but seemed no worse for the wear after four days trapped in the dark and half-roasted by the furnace.
This was all happening while I was in the middle of Indiana on my way to Erma. Eric had called with a couple of updates and I was relieved it was at least out of the furnace. Dan came back and put the furnace back together and after an hour or so the cat ate some food, drank some water, and started exploring the house. Eventually, when Eric opened the kitchen door the cat darted out and ran for the hills. The cat was gone — as mysteriously as it appeared.
Cat out of the furnace $86.67……
No need for Cat-Kababs….priceless
Your Scandanavian Poltergeist. What a great image. Love that little kitty got out ok.
We were really glad the kitty got out too — visions of cat-kababs were in my mind and it wasn’t pleasant!
Wow did I have resist scrolling to make sure the cat got out! I admire your cool I would have freaked out and helped no one.
Yeah — I was pretty worried about the whole thing too! But I needed to keep my cool for my husbands sake…he is not a farm boy…
My first thought would have been the dead animal smell too! I’ve heard of kitty cats getting hung up in the strangest places and now your story is added to the list. Good to hear it was a happy ending!
Me too — I was just sure it was going to get cooked! It was actually nice to see is around last week looking fat, happy and cared for…
Oh Mary–that would have been Cat-astrophic had the kitty not come out. Glad it all had a happy ending!
Yes — It would not have been pretty! I was glad to see it last week fat, happy and looking cared for…
Oh, no! I’ve never heard of this. So glad the cat is okay, and that THIS is one call I’ve never had to answer!
It was new to me too! I was glad to see it last week fat, happy and looking cared for…
oh gosh, poor cat! Glad it escaped!
Yeah, Scandinavian poltergeist – that’s pretty funny! Any other stories about that on your blog? 😀 I’ll do a search too of course!
No stories about the Scandinavian Poltergeist — but I do have stories so I’d better start writing them!
One of my cats tried to nosedive into the furnace through a vent in the chimney wall that ran through the kitchen. Luckily, saw her and I grabbed her back feet and hauled her out before she landed in the furnace. If she had, I was thinking cat kebobs might not be a bad idea. I thought it again when she repeated the action the next day even though I had blocked off the vent – evidently not well enough. So, I brought out the big guns – duct tape. After that, cat and furnace were no longer on speaking terms.
LOL Duct tape — brilliant!
Oh Gosh, what a stressful day that must have been. Yeah, cats. They’re so mysterious!
It’s even harder from a distance to figure out what to do…Crazy cats…
I worried about the cat through your whole story. I’m crazy enough to have demolished our entire chimney to get it out if need be. My husband wouldn’t have! Happy endings are always nice.
I was pretty worried about what trouble my husband was going to get into trying to get it out myself. Thankfully he did call!
We were quite as fortunate… nor was the possum that wound up being “grilled” against our furnace coils. The smell… I’ll just say the heating guy charged us a lot to clean that up. You and the cat were lucky you caught it intime. Brenda
Ewweee — I’m glad that didn’t happen to the cat!
Poor thing. But cats seem to just take it on the chin (or the top of the head as the case may be) and shrug it off. Sometime, let me tell you about the blackbird in our stove…
Was there pie involved? I can’t remember — how many blackbirds baked in a pie? I would to hear that story!