Right after we moved into the new house, I did a patrol of the back yard
with an eye to kitty-proofing it. I found some gaps under the wooden fence
that needed closing, so I took care of that. I did not look closely along
the exterior of the house for kitty-attracting nuisances.

Turns out there's a small gap between the rear porch and the house itself.
This morning Harri decided to explore that little gap, and found that it
was just big enough for her to squeeze through. Once she got inside, she
learned that the gap was a little too small for her to get her
semi-rotund form back through. Uh-oh! Scared kitty.

When Harri gets scared, she wants nothing to do with any humans but her
Paw. Nancy talked to her, pleaded with her, tried to bribe her with food -
no luck, Harri is convinced that she's stuck, and won't put in the effort
to pull her fluffy form out from under the porch.

Nancy called to let me know about kitty's predicament. I ran home at lunch
time (it's wonderful to be able to do so, after working 2 hours from
home!) and checked out the situation. Yep, trapped kitty. I talked to
Harri through the gap, and she gave me a full rundown of the awful scary
things hiding down there just waiting to eat little tiny baby kittens. I
found where she had wormed her way in, past a chunk of concrete the
previous owners had placed (I guess to keep their kitty out) and a flap of
wood. I moved the concrete, pulled off the wood, shined a flashlight into
the hole, and called to Harri. She finally started squeezing her tiny yet
bulky body through the gap, and with a little help from outside she
managed to get out. She immediately climbed on to my shoulders and told me
in even more detail how scary it was being trapped in the dark.

So with an orange roadcat riding my shoulders I closed up that gap as best
I could with the materials at hand. We'll have to watch the kids closely
if they start to get anywhere near that gap, and this weekend I'll have to
get some tools and close up the gap properly.