We escaped a potential sad ending story yesterday. We have 4 cats, and we feed them in assorted locations around the house so the one "vacuum cleaner" cat doesn't snarf down everyone else's food - he eats like a dog, so fast I'm not sure he even tastes it.
Our tuxie female is usually the last one finished, and she eats in the laundry room, which is off the kitchen on one side, and opens into the garage on the other side. She usually leaves a few morsels, and Mr. Vacuum Cleaner is accustomed to going into the laundry room to clean up after her. When I went to let him in there yesterday afternoon, it was hot as hell in there, and I saw that the door into the garage was slightly open, AND the garage door to the OUTSIDE was also open.
Fortunately, Ms. Tuxie was happily curled up on our shoe organizer boxes, one of her favorite spots, and had not ventured outside, at least as far as I know. My husband had gone into the garage a couple of times while she was eating, so I'm pretty sure he's the one who didn't shut the door tightly.
Well over 30 years ago, one of our cats got out of the house without our knowing, and was picked off by a car. It was devastating. We never did figure out how she had never shown any interest in escaping. To this day, if I cannot find one of our cats in about 5 seconds, instant panic sets in. They all have TILE beeper devices on their collars, and I always make sure to locate them by sight or by sound before I leave the house.
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