I deliberately did not let Lady out this morning, knowing that there was a lot of rain in the forecast. Yet there she was, perched on the railing of the part of the porch that isn't screened. And the door to outside was locked. (Once I unlock it it stays unlocked until I leave the house or go to bed.) I double-checked all the screens and they were all solid. How did she get out?

As I drove in to work the tentative answer came to me. When we bought the trailer we had them install an opening through the floor under some built-in drawers. At that time our cats were all in-and-out. After we moved to Florida we were required to keep our cats contained, so we closed off that area, replacing a swinging door with a sliding door. (At this point, I can't remember why, unless it was because we thought we might want to make it a cat door some time in the future.) Before doing away with the swinging door, Pete put a piece of wood in to close off the exit.

Fabian discovered this hideaway early on, and when it thunders you can often find him there. My guess is that somehow Lady has moved that cover enough so she can slither out. I now have an almost-full bleach bottle and a detergent bottle blocking the sliding door.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get down on my belly and see if I can see anything using a flashlight. If BadCat gets out again, I'll nail the thing shut. If that doesn't work I'll return to the teleporting theory.