Just last week we were on the verge of adopting a new animal.
We decided it was time to go ahead and get a new pet in our house because it was feeling rather empty and sad for the past several weeks.
We didn’t want the kids to be in mourning forever, after we had clearly lost our family pets. You see, for many years we have owned the single cat who enjoyed going indoors and out. We never had a problem with letting her wander around the neighborhood for the afternoon, so it was rather shocking on the day that she didn’t return back home. Finally, last week we decided that it was time to adopt a new kitten so we could all move on. That’s right about when my cat reappeared, clearly having emerged from the open air vent behind our dryer. At first, it seems like she materialized out of nowhere until I took a closer look and realized that the central heating and cooling system was to blame. Specifically, our extensive ductwork was the reason for our missing cat. She had popped out of the laundry room where we rely on an overhead exhaust fan to remove the steaming air from our space. We plugged up the ductwork that went to this room many years ago, because it was a waste of our expensive treated indoor air. I began investigating the walls and moved the dryer out of the way at some point. When I moved the clothing appliance out of the way, there was a gaping hole in the wall where our air vent cover should have been. I found chunks of hair stuff to the open ventilation hole and inside of the ductwork. Clearly, our wily cat had been escaping from the ice cold central cooling system by hiding in the warm ductwork created by the dryer. Man, I’m so glad that we didn’t get another cat.