Thursday around 6/6:30 I was making chicken tenders for me and my oldest daughter Ami. My husband and other 2 kids had already eaten since it was free for all night. My hubby was already asleep, he has to get up at 3am.
No matter what I’m cooking when I start putting food on plates the 4 dogs and 3 cats are there supervising. I realize that one of the cats aren’t there. My oldest daughters cat, Salami, isn’t watching for me to drop food. It’s no big deal she’s usually the last to show anyway but since the cats are almost 5 months old we like to know where they are. Usually all Ami has to do is meow a few times and Salami will meow back and come running. Ami’s meows but nothing no Salami in sight. We check all her favorite places but can’t find her. So I send Ami to check our mud room, it’s basically a large utility room between our sunroom and garage, since that’s where our deep freeze is and I had been in there earlier.
Ami’s goes and comes back and gets me. She had meowed a few time in the mud room and can hear Salami meowing back but can’t figure out where she is. We clear out all the animals so it’s quiet and I listen for meows…I hear them coming from under the step that leads from the sunroom down to the mud room. We grab flashlights and start looking under the step. First thought Salamis to big to fit under here but it was one her favorite places to hide when we used the mud room as a nursery for her mother. Now under the step on the wall is a really small vent, kinda like the ones used around a houses foundation just smaller, and on the other side of the vent is the crawl space under the sunroom. We can hear meowing through the vent.
How the fuck did Salami get under there? Since our dryer vent exit is under the sunroom, I run and check behind the dryer. Alls good. Then I think about the AC/heat vents, the duct work running under there too, check those all’s good. So how the hell.

Ami says she can see movement through the vent under the mud room step. So I decide I’m going to go under the sunroom and see if I can get Salami.
The sunroom has lattice all around the bottom. I find a corner that looks weak and start pulling it back to make room for me to get under there.
Let me take a second to say I am soooo glad that my husband took the time a year or so ago to clean up the crawl space under the sun room
I get Ami and we peer in to the crawl space. Ami meows a few times and we hear meows back but still don’t see Salami. But we do hear movements on the moisture barrier that’s under the duct work. I get Ami to meow a couple more times and out pops this solid black bobtailed kitten.
We are both surprised and confused. We switch our plan of action. I now have the other 2 kids searching for Salami(who was found sleeping with my husband I didn’t think to check in there 🤔) and me and Ami are under the sunroom trying to get the kitten to come to us. Luckily there’s only one and there’s no sign that there are more under there. Since it’s the 4th Tractor Supply closed early but I went first thing the next morning a grab a trap. Most of Friday was spent under the sunroom trying to bond with the kitten.
Saturday morning when I went to check, she was in the trap. We now have her in our mud room. She’s about 2 pounds and probably about 2-3 months old. She does have scars on her legs from old injuries and needs to be dewormed. She is eating, drinking, and has even played with us. She doesn’t have a name yet, I haven’t for the right one for her yet. Got any ideas?

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