I discovered a flaw in Frankie’s harness. I know it is a little big for him and not the most secure harness in the world, but it is very easy to put on him, and it has worked so far.

Walking a cat is not like walking a dog. You go where they want to go. On a recent walk, Frankie took me behind our house and across the next street. The roads get very hot in the summertime around here, and I saw that Frankie was being affected by it. He seemed to hurry across the street and stand in the grass where it was cooler. After inspecting the bushes for a while, we headed back to the street. A few seconds later, Frankie found refuge in the shadow of a car.

I normally try to keep him away from cars because I don’t want him under them, but in this case, I knew his feet were hot, so I thought I would give him a minute or two to cool down. Before I knew it, he was under the car, pulling at the leash. In an instant, I was holding a leash and an empty harness. It seems that the trick to escaping this harness is backing up.

I was not thinking like a news reporter, so I put my phone in my pocket and stopped taking pictures at that point. I tried to coax Frankie out from under the car, but he wasn’t having any of it. Eventually, I walked home and came back with a pool noodle that was in my shed. I thought I could intimidate him with the noodle, but that didn’t work. Instead, he growled, hissed, and attacked the noodle.

I gave up on the noodle ideas and brought it back to the house. I looked for something else that might work and found a water bottle. I thought a little water might encourage him to get out from under the car, but he wasn’t there when I returned.

I looked around for a minute, thinking he would be very difficult to find, but I found him hiding in the bushes next to the car. I picked him up and carried him home while he hissed at me all the way.