By Joseph F. Schuler Jr.. Anna Mavrakis of TNL Design/Build remembers the frantic call: The homeowner could hear her cat meowing but couldn't find the feline anywhere.
Bill Mavrakis, Anna's husband and partner in the Canton, Ohio, firm, pulled up a plywood floor installed that day in a bathroom under renovation, reuniting the kitty with its owner.
"The lady was ecstatic, crying, happy," Anna Mavrakis says. "We continued the job."
Apparently, the cat had slunk between joists while a TNL carpenter lunched off site, and the animal was too scared to scoot back out when the worker returned and hammered down the floor. Luckily the cat got the air it needed, and luckily for the job, the floor had yet to be tiled.
Mavrakis now has a claws -- make that "clause" -- in her contracts: "Household pets must be contained in an area outside of the immediate work area during the duration of your project. Workmen cannot be responsible for your pet's safety while on the job."
And she doesn't pussy-foot around about enforcing it, either.