Spent Most of Day Under a House

I was all set to head out to some lake somewhere today. Then I get a call. Old acquaintence, moving to Portland, and their cat is howling under their house somewhere, they think in a heating vent or wall or the floor. So I went over. They were very worried about her. First they'd hear her one place, then another, very faintly and she sounded like she was doing well.

Turned out, finally, after we searched vents and all other places she could be, that she was behind a cement slab, in an area under their house. I could access the cement slab, by crawling under a tight space under the porch.

To get to her, I had to dig a ditch I could fit through beneath the edge of the narrow slab, while in the crawlspace under the porch. Wasn't easy. I finally got an area dug out enough so that I slither under the bottom edge of the cement slab, feet first, and get to her. I handed her out then to the wife, who was on her stomach in the crawlspace under the porch waiting. Took three or four hours, in total. I was filthy, head to foot, when done.

The cat is old and they don't know why she went under there somehow, but they heard fighting last night, near the creek, they said, and likely she ran under there to get away from a predator and was too scared to try to find a way out. I told them they should keep her confined now until they move.

I was glad to help them. I've known him for decades. Long story as to why I know him. He was once state mental health director.