how did you ever manage to get hold of Dibbetje? It is so divine that you brought her in from the cold....
Most of the words below are copypasted from a message, I'm too lazy to type the whole story again.
Friday morning when I left the house I saw that the food bowl was empty. A good sign, but there was no way for me to tell if Dibbetje had some of it, or if Hamster ate it all (that dude has a big appetite).
So I went to work, and got home a bit early. Just as I walked into my garden, I saw Dibbetje. She was searching for food, so that kinda answered the question of which cat ate the food earlier, evidently Hamster did a hit and run.
Dibbetje being super hungry, I knew that this was sort of a now or never shot. Luckily the day before I've been working on a trap, using my little hallway as the trap box. She only goes into the hallway like 10 inches in, basically her butt touching the exit, in order to run out if things get too scary for her. That's exactly where I put the food bowl, maybe a few more inches further from the door. She was hungry enough to go those extra few inches. On the door handle I've mounted some rope, with me at the next door, standing around the corner. When I pull the role, the door closed behind her. But there is a VERY narrow margin of error, this kitty is lightning fast.
The right moment was there... I pull the cord. Her spidey senses already knew that something was up because the reaction time was practically non existent, like 0.05 seconds for real. She bumped her head to the door, but I managed to close it JUST in time. Then the rampage was to begin. Lemme tell you, this kitty can RUN ON WALLS. She went through coats and a backpack that were hanging on some hooks, things fell. Then she rushed inside to get away from me. I already prepared for this by closing the living room door and the door to the bathroom, where I temporary put my cats in order to give Dibbetje space.
Only the door to my bedroom was open, where I already had set up a litter box, food and water, and a makeshift bed made out of a box and an old pillow. The idea was to funnel her into that room, but before she went there she first decided to parkour half the walls of the kitchen, going from shelf to shelf, where there were pots and pans. These things fell, which made a hell of a lot of noise, which frightened Dibbetje even more. I swear everything that happened was like it came straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
After a minute or two of non stop rampage she finally went into the bedroom and I could close the door behind her. For the remainder of the evening I will let her be by herself because her little heart was probably hitting triple of what a normal heartbeat for a cat is.
But by God I finally got her, and I am so relieved. Because the weather is COLD. Snow and night temperatures of -12Β°C.
Dibbetje may be scared out of her little mind right now, but it will get better, and even though the heater in my bedroom isn't working right now (lately I've been sleeping in the living room for this reason), it's still a heck of a lot warmer than outside. She doesn't have to be in the snowstorm that's coming anymore.
had a rescue once, the most scared cat I have ever seen, no way could I touch him, he lived in hiding for weeks, here at home, hiding behind bookshelves.
He would only come out to eat/drink, visit the litterbox, and back into his hidey hole. I was beside myself. But I let him be. When he eventually came out and let me touch him, oh it felt like a miracle. I loved him so. Timi was his name
Thank you for sharing this story. This gives me hope, because Dibbetje is super scared. She poops and pees everywhere, except for in the litterbox. And she cries at night, being confused about where she is. It's heartbreaking.
Timi was lucky to have you.
% true. Bubba, great name btw! 
Great to see her safe now.
