Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

So we just heard Sparkle, my cat, crying from down the hall. She doesn't make much noise at all unless something's wrong, so I went looking for her. The cries were coming from my brother's room, which she never goes in, so I figured maybe she was stuck in his closet or something. We searched all over his room, and were wondering if she'd maybe crawled inside his box springs - my other brother's box springs has a hole in the bottom cover and she occasionally hides inside it.

But then she meowed some more and finally we found her -- down inside the covered air vent in the floor.

It turned out that the cover had somehow been pried off the vent in my bedroom, and apparently she'd crawled down in that one. But how??? I mean, it's flush with the floor, so it would take some prying to get loose and out of the floor. We have had company - my aunt and uncle, two young cousins, and my aunt's childhood friend and her husband from Washington state...but I really don't think any of them would randomly mess with an air vent. Even the kids - for one thing, the vent in my room is on a very dusty part of the floor behind my bed where even I seldom go. For another, my cousins are veteran cat owners, obsessed with kitties, and very good at cat-proofing things (they've just gotten an indoor kitten) - so I'm fairly sure they'd realize the danger of Sparkle going in an open vent.

I'm contemplating whether it's possible that Bella, the puppy, did it (she's a very big puppy, probably close to 35 or 40 pounds now). I'm not sure if she'd have been able to do it or not. I really don't want to be like my dad who blames everything on the cat, but Bella does get into everything and I am biased against her because she has ruined several pairs of shoes and various other possessions. I don't have much patience with her, cute or not. My main concern was, if it was her, it could happen again.

So. Completely baffled. As my brother says, we need the Hardy Boys.