Catch & Release

Raising teens is an adventure, often an adventure in shopping as they outgrow their clothes regularly and inhale all the food in the house.

The latest adventure was one in animal husbandry.  

Jesse has always hated spiders, but being a born environmentalist, he hates killing them more.  With a basement room, many spiders seem to enter every spring and fall.  When this happens Jesse has a policy of catch and release.  Last night was no different.

At about 11:00 Sean & I went to sleep thinking Jesse had done the same.  At 1:00 AM I was awakened by a knocking.  I am very attuned to any unusual noise in the house.  I'll sleep through fire truck sirens, but a cough will wake me every time.

So  was immediately awake from this knocking.  I thought to ignore it, but there it was again, just a little louder.  I stumbled to my bedroom door and called quietly, "Who's knocking?"  In response comes a pleading "Eema..."  

"Where are you?" 
"I'm locked on the porch."

I stumble down the stairs holding the railing and the wall (I do not wake easily), and open the door to the (enclosed) porch.  In comes Jesse in his underwear and a cat.  The other cat was pawing at the door from inside.

It seems Jesse had been up well past any appropriate time, and had seen a spider crawling near his bunk bed.  He caught the spider in a special jar he keeps for the purpose, and had gone to the porch to release it.  As he did so he realized the cats were coming to see what he was doing.  Worried that they might get outside, especially at night (they are indoor and backyard cats), he went to close the internal door, but had neglected to unlock it.  In the end, Nora got through while Gandalf was trapped inside.  Jesse managed to release the spider with Nora on the porch with him, but quickly realized he had a problem.  He was unable to get back in.  He was trapped on the unheated porch (It was about 6 C/ 42F) in his underwear.  Oh, did I mention the porch is almost fully windows?!

There he was, caught and released.