Operation ... Extract Isabelle

Well, Monday night was going to be a night of great success -- a night that Tim would work in the bedrooms in preparation for our little bambino. And he got to ... sort-of. It all started out before he was home from work, actually. I was reading a book (the topic of which was maternity/baby/child-birth ... how shocking!) and I fell asleep. I woke up a bit later and thought that I heard something moving in the walls/ceiling above me -- the "job-site" as I have affectionatly termed the construction project. Now, you will all see, as soon as I get the pictures uploaded, that currently, there is no wall between the master bedroom and the nursery, and there is one hole where the wall used to be. A small hole, like smaller than an envelope. Much too small for something important to fit down, but large enough for whatever Tim was doing. Anyway, it sounded like something fell down in the hole. I heard rustling and dirt falling. In a pretty quick instant I thought, "hmmmm, I wonder where Isabelle is ..."

(For those of you who do not know, Isabelle is our darling little beast. She is a cat of contradiction. If we have people over, she will not come out to see them, but as soon as they leave, she appears from her hiding place (there are a few exceptions, Tim's mom, my parents, and a few close friends like Trevor, who happens to be allergic to cats -- Isabelle, for some reason, loves Trevor!) She hates the vacuum, power tools, the dust-buster and sometimes Tim. She runs away from the slightest noise, but is willing to go and poke around the job-site whenever she can sneak past the barrier that we have set up. She fetches, purrs and sometimes hisses -- mainly at Tim. She cuddles with you when you don't have time to cuddle, and runs from you when you want to cuddle. In short, she is hilarious, and we wouldn't trade her for the world!).

Anyway, I am wondering where our little beast is. I head upstairs and glance at the bed -- the last place I saw her. Nope, not there. At this point, I heard a louder thump coming from the job-site and begin to think that this couldn't be good. As I top the stairs, I hear the most mournful and scared meow ever produced and I am thinking, "CRAP!" I head into the rooms, and start to look for her in her usual places. She, meanwhile, is meowing up a storm. And, frankly, it sounds like the meows are coming from in the walls or under the floor -- I couldn't exactly pinpoint it. I call Tim and tell him that I think Isabelle is in the walls or under the floor ... I couldn't tell. Needless to say, he didn't really believe me. Trust me, it was true. While I couldn't find her, her meows definitely said that she was in a bad place. I just couldn't figure our where ... yet.

So, Tim has been eyeing this tool for the past few years. It is a Ridgid Mini See-Snake. It is pretty cool. It has an optical lens on the end of it that allows you to look in walls, down pipes, basically, many places you couldn't see. And it is small enough to fit in tiny places. We were able to get one on a sweet sale at Home Depot a few months ago -- it has come in pretty handy. I assured Tim that Isabelle was indeed in the floor or wall because that is where her sound was coming from, and I started looking for the Snake to see if I could figure out where. At this point, though, I saw her ... sitting just below the smaller-than-an-envelope hole -- and Operation Extract Isabelle was fully under way. I have no idea how she even fit into the hole, but it was going to be pretty difficult getting her back out. After a few minutes (but it seemed like forever!) Tim got home.

Two hours later, after trying to lure her out with food, the laser pointer (she loves chasing that), trying to pull her out, sawing the hole bigger, squeezing the cat out, cuddling her, taking pictures of her once white, now smoke grey stomach and paws, giving her the second bath she has ever had (oh, she loved that), drying her off, brushing away the hair she was shedding profusely, and leaving her to lick away the night, Operation Extract Isabelle was completed -- successfully.

And Tim was able to work in the bedroom like we planned -- he just didn't get done what he had hoped to. Isabelle is happy, though -- and very soft. She is still trying to get back into the job-site. Now Tim has a baby gate up blocking her way. What a pain.

I guess the night was a success -- just not the kind of success we thought it would be.

That is all for now ...

Love,
Katie (& Tim & Isabelle)

P.S. I got an A+ on my final exam -- yeah!! AND, someone noticed that I was pregnant on their own for the first time last week 'cause I am showing pretty good now. That was fun!