I Spent 5 Months Trying to Coax a Cat From My Ceiling

On April 30, 2021, after four months in the ceiling, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, a cat, spent what I thought would be her last night among the dust bunnies. At first, it had been strange to be haunted by a small, hairy ghost who loved to yowl right into the heating ducts. But soon it became almost routine. Some people have mice in their walls. I had a cat in my ceiling.

Now I had laid a trap. I would wait patiently until she emerged to investigate the meows of my other cat, then slam closed her access to the ceiling using a cleverly rigged pulley system. She’d be truly stuck.

Eliza cautiously poked out her head. Then one paw. Giving me a wide berth, she began trotting up the stairs. I pounced.

The cat came shooting back, hopped onto a window ledge, and wriggled up into a three-inch gap between the window and a drop-ceiling tile.