How to catch a Snitch!

I have been trying to catch him ALL morning. First of all, I didn't even REALIZE he was loose. It was about 5:00 this morning, I think, when I had seen John off to work, and I had just poured my first cup of coffee and hit the glider boards, as I usually do, when I am up that early. Sprout was being a grumpy butt, but she was trying to go back to sleep, when I THOUGHT I saw a blurry fuzzy thing run across the living room floor.

I got up (not an easy thing to do, because I was really sick yesterday from having worked on my basement), and I went to investigate. I was pretty sure that Smokey (a little gray kitten we ended up with) had once again snuck into the house. I dropped to my knees and looked under my writing desk, and that's when I saw the tail!

GLIDER ALERT! This was not a kitty, it was a loose glider. I prepared myself for some Olympic-level physical activity (and for those of you who know me, I am more of a "Garfield the Cat" than I am a gymnast).

What to do? STOP. Think. Take a deep breath. I inspected all of my glider cages, and finally, I found the cage with an open door. That little Snitch! His previous momma told me he was a Houdini, and sure enough he was!

Now, last night, I was really sick, and I was dizzy, too, so I went to bed early. John, like the trooper he is, took care of my gliders. What happened is that he put the zip tie back on the door, but he didn't get it through to the actual cage, so the door had a zip on it, all right, but it didn't go all the way to the cage. BINGO! Snitch saw his opportunity, and he took it! He liberated his little self. That means that he was loose in my bedroom all night. When I woke up this morning he just snuck out without me seeing him, and I didn't until I poured my coffee. That little sneak!

So, I've had a busy little morning. I've tended to board business, I've dealt with a cranky little grump-butt (Miss Sprout), and I've made the nicest breakfast for my sassy little teen. How, might you ask, did I manage to finally catch a Snitch?

Place baby in the high-chair. Bribe her with cookies and distract her with CNN. Enlist teen to act as back-up. Close all doors to the living room and remove as many obstacles (baby floor toys) as possible, and go at it. I have a long-handled purple duster, and we used that as a TEASER to get him to "fight" with it. You should have seen Andrea, she had a baby blankie in one hand, like a kinda shield/net, and the feather duster in the other... finally, after hours of us asking "where is he" - we finally caught him. He had his fun. He zipped into Andrea's bedroom, too. Her room door wasn't shut, afterall. Grrr.

Anyway, Snitch is finally safe and sound, and he is happy to be back in his cage. We are too.

As soon as I placed him back in there, what's the first thing he did? Take a goooooood lonnnnnng drink. Why not? He was tired, too.

Whew.

Now, I think I have some housecleaning to do. I'm feeling better today, and things need to get taken care of.