Click the image below for the video...

One day, I brought home my car from the car wash and parked it in the garage. The next day, I found cat-sized footprints on it. They weren't there the day before, and I hadn't been in the garage since. The next day, I found more cat prints and cat hair on the convertible top. On a subsequent visit I caught out of the corner of my eye a tail disappearing up into the place where we store our things. Over the next few days, I tried to detect the inhabitant again and again.

This morning, August 18th, I opened the door from my bedroom window, hoping to see a cat dart out after being trapped inside. Instead, I saw a cat suddenly approach the door! Before he could enter, however, I reversed the course of the door and stopped it so that it was about a foot off the ground. The cat hesistated, but then began to creep forward. I resumed the downward travel of the door, and once again the cat hesitated. Upon 2 more repetitions of this game, the cat was startled enough to finally depart. At this point, I theorized that this cat was in fact the one who had been inside before, returning to his new den given they are creatures of habit.

But then this evening, as I was dining on a can of tuna, I elected to place 2 small pieces on a plate and leave them in the garage, door closed of course. At this point, I had no idea if a cat was living in my garage, or had just 'holed up' there for a night or two on his way through the neighborhood. Imagine my shock as only an hour later, as the door creaked open to reveal an absolutely bare, licked-clean plate.

The video tells the story from them on as I repeated this experiment but this time with salmon and a camera.

Thinking back to this morning, I now believe that the cat I saw outside the garage may be the male as, while it resembled the cat seen on the video, it seemed markedly smaller. I now also recollect seeing said feline pad purposefully down my driveway towards the garage in weeks past.

If however it is the same cat, then I can conclude that there is another way in to the garage. In either case, his persistence to absolutely stay in the garage seems to suggest offspring in the works. At this point I am reticent to explore the storage area, where I believe the subject resides, for fear of disturbing the litter. I may, in fact, continue to leave food to help it out.

Of course, if am wrong, and there is no litter, I am creating a cat restaurant (and bathroom, as it turns out) from which he/she will never cease appearing within. Still, the subjects tendancy to hide from me and to not roam suggests the contrary.

UPDATE: Thursday, August 19th:
Doing another video revealed the location of the cat. Using a ladder, I was able to clearly see the cat looking unconcernedly back at me. This was perhaps as he was safely out of my range.

UPDATE: Friday, August 20th:
This morning, I discovered the cat has left the building. Interestingly, we can thank Abby for this. After our flashlight probing, Abby played with the garage remote in the house and opened the door. It remained open for quite a while before we discovered this. We believe it was during this interval that the cat departed.

-- MattWalsh - 19 Aug 2004