“He had no home to go to. It was winter and terribly cold outside.”
When April Fiet heard a skittering in her attic, she assumed the noises were coming from a small rodent or even raccoon. It was winter, after all, and the attic seemed like a cozy place to hide from the cold.
But the sounds that echoed from above weren’t anything a mouse might make.
“In the middle of the night, my husband heard meowing,” Fiet told The Dodo. “You’re not going to believe this, but I think there’s a cat in our attic,” he remarked when I woke up the next morning.
Fiet contacted animal control, who provided a humane trap and cat food to aid in luring the animal out into the open. Meanwhile, she documented the strange events on social media, prompting her to install a security camera.
“We got security camera footage of this gorgeous cat devouring the food we had supplied an hour later,” Fiet remarked.
Fiet discovered the cat, whose she called Atticus, in the trap in the morning and took him to the doctor for a thorough examination.
“He was a gorgeous black cat with enormous eyes who was very little,” Fiet said. “[The vet] said we could take him home and hope that with time and with affection, Atticus would come to trust us.”
Everything seemed fantastic, except Fiet’s son is allergic to cats, which are his favourite animals. Furthermore, Atticus did not appear to trust anyone.
“But Atticus was in a dire situation,” Fiet explained. “He had nowhere to go. It was winter, and it was really cold outdoors. So we decided to look after him and see what happened.”
They put Atticus in their laundry room, which was big enough for him to run about in and feel safe. He immediately located a cubbyhole beneath the washing machine and made it his preferred hiding spot.
“He lived back there for more than two months,” Fiet explained. “He only came out while we weren’t in the room, but the security camera we had in there captured photographs and recordings of his movements.” He’d flee the moment he heard us enter the room.”
Fiet came to the room three times a day with goodies to gain the cat’s trust. She even used a back scratcher to pet him until he warmed up to human contact.
“He eventually trusted me enough to consume a squeeze treat as I held it,” Fiet explained. “And he came and sat in my lap over two months after we found him in our attic!”
The “playful and curious” cat is now about a year old and likes “grabbing objects from around the house and returning them to his cubbyhole,” but he also gets frequent pet attention from his new owners.
“Finding him has brought us so much more love and joy,” Fiet said. “We were ecstatic to learn that my son is not allergic to Atticus at all.” Both of my children enjoy spending time with and playing with Atticus. Every day, we make small steps forward.”
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