Thank you for your good wishes, everyone. My nose and temple bruises are in the greenish yellow stage so I'll be glad when that is over.
I never truly believed Jack could make it over the roof and down to the front of the house because I've had several cats who loved to be on the roof and they never got down at the front. I'd see them sitting on the edge of the roof above the garage or front door but that was as far as they got. And, the cats who have visited me over the years for food, no matter how pushy and lithe, have never jumped up from the front.
However, on Saturday I found out that Jack really has been using the roof as a getaway route. Based on my disbelief, I opened the deck doors early on Saturday without shutting him up first. He was gone in a moment. I caught him in the garden in the afternoon and he's been incarcerated in a bedroom ever since, and very unhappy.
I'm going to have to talk to the shelter about what kind of home he should go to. Like most shelters, they ask for indoor homes only for all their tame cats. I think this guy has to go to a home where the guardian is so vigilant he never gets past them at the front door (which means no children), or a home where he can be indoor/outdoor.
Given the way he has behaved I've been wondering if he is one of those cats that simply hitched a ride on something like a movers van. Goodness knows where he really came from (no microchip.)
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