Escape Artist

Friday we had a LOT of progress!
There was much petting, and brushing - oh boy does Zazi love to be brushed - and we worked through of lot of the little tangles on her back.
Also got her ears all cleaned up; she had had some sort of tar on her little ears and inside a bit, too. Zazi was SO good throughout all this ! I was so proud of her.
And, for the first time, she let me put her on my lap. At first, she wasn't sure, and was looking up at me as if to say, "what fresh hell is this?!?" but with some soothing words and lots and lots of calming pets, she relaxed and stretched out for a short bit.
And when she'd had enough of that, I put her into her pink pink bed, and she stretched out allllll the way....I think she's grown an inch just this week! She had a little nap in her bed, until I moved of course, and then she watched me as I left the room.

 

She didn't eat much at all, but she will take small kibble bits out of my hand, if I put it on the tips of my fingers. She has had no problem at all accepting food from me, and this morning (Saturday) she ate an entire plateful of her wet food. About 3 tbsp worth - I was worried she'd chug it down and throw it up, ( Jay reminded me she used to guzzle down an entire cat tin's worth)but there were no accidents and she even chowed down on some more dry kibble.

Saturday morning was a fun adventure. Jay and Zazi played String (her favourite game) for quite some time. She gets so excited about chasing the string she comes right out into the middle of the floor.
Later on, after she'd had her breakfast and a bit of a pet, we were heading out to work on trapping the last two ferals still in the colony. We were already out in the car when I remembered I hadn't closed the window all the way....so I ran back inside to close it.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd that's when it happened. I opened the door, and a little grey streak ZOOMED past me. GAH!!!!  She must have been right beside the door watching underneath it, or ...who knows. But she was out. Thank goodness, she ducked into the first open door she came to and did NOT head down the stairs. She dove into the sewing room and under the desk. Then the ironing board. Then behind the folded up table. I dashed around trying to catch her, but I realized that it was probably futile and scaring her even more. So I stopped, grabbed her toys, bed, litterbox and food from the bathroom, and put them in the sewing room. I saw her scoot under the bed, and knew that she would be safe and nothing could hurt her in the sewing room (even though, okay, so it's not the tidyest room in the house), and we headed out to trap.
We had only a few hours to go try and trap, and I won't bore you with the details, but our day was not fruitful. (We almost caught an overly curious seagull, but nope. In the nick of time he changed his mind and did NOT go in the trap. Laugh.)
Coming home, we went up into the sewing room. Zazi was still under the bed - and we didn't want to leave her in that big room, as hiding under things is counter productive to our end goal. After a lot of moving things around and taking the mattress off the bed, we eventually caught her under my sewing machine. She was fine, and I think relieved to be back in 'her' room. I had held her closely under my chin and there was not a peep or a claw in sight. She snuggled right in and was perfectly calm. I put her back into her pink bed and pet and calmed her for a few minutes. I left her half asleep in her bed, to have some quiet time after her ordeal.