It all started a couple of years ago when Terry Brentlinger, John Seifert and I (Farris Ellinger a.k.a. JR)went  together and had an airplane hangar built.  Things were going fine until we began to notice several field mice in our hangar.  I mean they were  everywhere, and you know where they have been by their little calling cards. (mouse turds).  They were even in our ULs. I was a little concerned about this when hearing stories about the little varmints eating insulation off of electrical wiring.    Well, this year I  thought I had an opportunity to solve the problem.  A school teacher friend had a problem with too many cats. He lives out in the country  and these cats are very independent( a.k.a. wild) but not mean or destructive. They were fixed and everything, shots and stuff.  Well, I wanted to help my buddy out with his cat problem, as he had another litter of kittens on the way,  I took ownership of 3 highly independent  4 month old brown, gray and black spotted male adolescent cats. My teacher buddy and I  caged these little critters and took them out to my hangar.  Once the cage was in the hangar and we open the cage door,  boom they were gone , I mean disappeared in a heart beat. One went one way and the others went their way.  But that's  all right,,  that's what I wanted,  low maintenance critters that could take care of themselves.  

         Things were going fine.  I mean the mouse population was decreasing, based on the number of calling cards (mouse turds) left behind. Also an occasional bird would be found , which lessened the slimy spotting on our UL 's  wings.  I would check in on my phantom critters, noticing the food and water bowls needed to be resupplied.  I would not see them, but I would notice their calling cards. Since the hangar floor is  a crushed white rock this didn't seem to be a problem. But, I would notice where they had been, since their paws would make little white prints every where they went.

         I noticed they went everywhere in the hangar.  On tables, chairs, cabinets, work benches, and on  our UL's .  They had been in the cockpits of our planes, even on the elevator and wings.  But,, that's all right,  I mean they didn't seem to bother or destroy anything.  However,  it did seem that they liked my black GT 400 Quicksilver more so than the other ULs.  

         One day, I decided to try to locate my little critters.  I found them under my work bench.  But,  that's all right, I had noticed my workbench was  pretty much rodent free the last few weeks.  So days went by and I continued  the routine of checking on and feeding my boys (cats). I would check on their location, and every thing was fine until one day, I must have scared them because  the gray cat streaked out of the hangar and disappeared forever.  After that,  I was unable to find  were the other two cats were hiding.  I knew they were in the hangar because of the evidence they left behind,  but I could never see them.

        Until one beautiful evening, I decided to go for a sight seeing tour in the sky.  Now, I try to do a thorough pre- flight check and every thing seemed normal, electrical, gas, flaps, ailerons, rudder, elevator, cables, etc.  I did a normal walk around. Everything, looked good to go.  I pulled my  little GT 400  out of the hangar, started it up, and proceeded to taxi down our grass runway to let the engine warm up.  Now, this takes about 4 minutes of bumping up and down to my take off position.   I gave the engine one last run up of rpms, and away  I go off into the wild blue yonder.  As I increased my speed, I began to rise into the air I noticed my right wing began to dip.  I quickly corrected, thinking that was odd, there didn't seem to be any wind.  I continued to climb and began to make a steep left  bank  when I began to hear some  meeooow's.  You got it,  I found my little buddies.  Some how they had climbed up inside my doubled surfaced wing and I suppose they had been sleeping there.  Well then, I began to get  a little busy.  During all this meooowing and howling. I leveled out turned back to our runway and slipped my little GT 400  onto the runway.  As I was taxing down the runway back to the hangar, a powered parachute buddy was pulling his trailer into position along side the runway. I motioned to him to come over, and about that time he noticed a black spotted cat jumping out from behind the cockpit just missing the propellor.  I stopped the plane, got out listening to the moaning and meowing.  I began looking in the direction of the sound, unzipped my inspection  ports and there was a big brown cat about 2 feet from my head. I hadn't realized how big they had  grown in 2 months.  Did you know,  a cat doesn't  come when you call it, and it moves away when you try to get it, and it will claw and bite if you grab it?  That's it. I was grounded after about 5 minutes of flying.  I didn't know what to call this situation, flying felines or grounded because of cats.

       P.S.
 PROBLEM -- I kept my battery on a trickle charger and would leave the compartment unzipped.
SOLUTION--- Keep compartment zipped up and  pound the heck out of the wings and hope not to hear any unwanted riders.