Cat drama

Well, Sanghyun's dream finally came true... three times in one week. Yes, that dream. The dream when a CAT actually FALLS INTO OUR HOUSE. (He figured it would be the only way I'd ever let him have a pet cat, but even still, I wouldn't allow it.)

How does a cat fall into one's house? Well, let me try to explain. If you don't know already, we live in a hanok (traditional Korean home), and our house is surrounded by other traditional Korean homes. Between our house and another house there is an alleyway that is technically part of our house because it's blocked off by a door and only we have access to it.

One night as I was trying to fall asleep, I heard a noise which sounded to me like that door opening and I got scared. I called Sanghyun to be manly and investigate. When he opened the door he gasped and started to sound excited. He whispered 'It's a kitten!' But, it wasn't just any kitten. It was an extremely cute kitten... it kind of looked like Puss in Boots (without the boots, hat and sword) and it also had a terrible attitude. We tried to catch it, but as feral cats tend to be, it was not too happy about us trying to catch it. Every time we put our hands near it it would hiss and spit at us. It took us a long time to catch it as it was very good at hiding and burrowing under things, but in the end we succeeded and put her in a tall shopping bag and brought her into our courtyard.

Sanghyun was sure that this was finally his chance to have his own cat. He rushed to the kitchen to find food and water for the kitten. I yelled and screamed that we couldn't keep the kitten... it's too young, too feral, too furry, but, as usual, he didn't listen. He wanted that cat. So, I conceded to letting him keep the cat in the courtyard for the night. Part of me expected the mother cat to come down into our courtyard and try to rescue her kitten over the night, or at least that's what I hoped would happen.

The next morning I left the house at 6:30am to head to work, but I couldn't see the cat anywhere. 6:30 in the morning was not the time of day I wanted to be dealing with lost kittens. When I called at 9am, he informed me that the kitten had somehow gotten itself stuck between our house and the other house which connects to ours. I had never noticed it before, but there is a very small space between our laundry room (which has stairs that go up to the roof) and the neighbor's house. The kitten had fallen between there and was stuck without any way out.

Rescuing the cat would not be an easy task, and it had to wait until we were both home from work that evening. Sanghyun had to jump down into that tiny crevice between the two houses (It was really just wide enough at the widest point for a thin person to get down there. I had no idea how he was going to get out again.) It took nearly an hour to catch the cat and bring it back out and our neighbors must have thought we were crazy.

The mother cat had been watching and waiting on our rooftop the whole day and she watched as we pulled her kitten out from the crevice. Sanghyun finally agreed that it was time to give the kitten back to her mother. We brought the kitten up to the roof where the mother was waiting and gingerly handed it over. The mother cat picked up the kitten with a 'get-to-your-room-you-pain-in-my-ass' kind of attitude and dragged the kitten off, as mother cats do.

And about five minutes later, we heard another crash-bang-clang in the alleyway to find the kitten there again. This time, we immediately returned the kitten to her mother and we thought the drama had ended....

Fast-forward to one week later. We were peacefully watching TV in the living room when we heard a series of scraping on the roof, the sound of something sliding and a thud at the window. Looking through the frosted glass we saw a dark shadow of something moving on our window sill. We thought it could be a rat or something vile, and we were a bit scared to open the window and see what was there.... but we should not have been surprised to see our kitten siting on the window sill looking rather traumatized.

It was then I finally grabbed the camera to document this ridiculous drama. First at the window. 

Now, despite already saving this cat's life three times already, it didn't make it any more friendly toward us. Just approaching it we though it would back its way off the windowsill and down to a new crevice between houses.

We brought it to the courtyard again and fed it and let it run around while we expected the mother to come over and search for her baby. We waited and waited... but the mother was no where to be found.

So, as we had to leave the house, and we were NOT going to leave it in the courtyard again to get stuck between the houses, we realized that the only safe place to leave her was in the bathroom. Which was fine, however, our Airbnb guest was not too pleased to find a very nasty, people hating cat in the bathroom several hours later...

When we came home, we let the kitten out in the courtyard again and FINALLY the mother cat arrived.

We brought her up to the roof to give her back. And, just as before, the mother cat grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and dragged it off again.

It's been two three since we have seen or heard the kitten.... but we keep wondering where it will appear next....