Biscuit the Escape Artist

Biscuit is an indoor cat. It was really by default, since when I got her I didn't have a backyard. When I moved to Denton, she became a balcony cat. She really loved that balcony. I loved that she was able to "get outside" but wasn't in any fear of running away/getting lost/getting hit by a car.

My place now is on a busy street with a huge, fenced backyard. I kept thinking that I'd let Biscuit become, at the very least, a backyard cat. She started showing some interest in the outside when I'd open the door to leave or take the garbage out. Last week she actually went out the side door for a brief moment when I had it open. She scurried back indoors pretty quickly, but I knew that I couldn't be unprepared.

So I bought her a collar engraved with her name, my name and my phone number. And later that day I took her out to the backyard. At first she stayed on the bricks, just sniffing around. She finally got brave and ventured out to different placed in the backyard. She ended up in the corner with a bunch of trees and shrubs. I was concerned she'd never come back in. Or worse, there would be an opening in the fence somewhere and she'd crawl under, being curious and all, and she'd be lost forever. I finally captured her after luring her with wet cat food.

I took the collar off because it seemed unnecessary to wear when she was indoors.

This evening she escaped out the front door in a daring move. She was showing interest when I opened the door to fix some flowers on my door wreath. Seeing that interest, I shut the door and stood outside as I fixed the flowers. When I opened the door to go back in she darted out!

She stayed close to the side of the house, and proved difficult to catch. She must have been running on adrenaline and the excitement of being outside. I was racked with fear that she'd run faster than I could keep up with her and she'd dart out to the street and get hit or be lost forever as she didn't have her collar on.

I herded over towards the front door and she scurried in on her own. I quickly closed the door behind us and promptly put her collar on. Which she will now wear all the time.