Meet the Spitfire. It weighs in at 2 lbs 12 oz. It is pretty much a little mesh pod with a bathtub-floor sporting taped seams. It is light weight, breezy and the perfect solo-hiking tent. I love it. Love Love Love.
I get home from backpacking last weekend, and like the good scout that I am, I set all the tents up in the backyard to air out. The $30 Walmart tent, Laura's 2 person tent and my Spitfire. All in a neat little row taking in the Miami sunshine and ruffling slightly in the cool ocean breeze.
Now: Meet Feral Cat.
Feral Cat crawls into the Spitfire because I left about a 6 inch gap in the door when I threw the stakes in after setting it up. The Spitfire is not free standing, so I figured I'd just put the two end stakes in--so that it would stand--but not fully stake it out, because after all, it was just airing out.
When Feral Cat gets into the Spitfire, she must have decided that it wasn't roomy enough for her and that she would rather be Out of the Spitfire. But Feral Cat is stupid or something because instead of crawling out of the little gap that she came in through, Feral Cat decides to start bouncing back and forth within the Spitfire. From one end to the other with claws out.
I see this going on through the window and run down to let Feral Cat out of the Spitfire. But instead of how I envisioned this rescue mission: open the door, Feral Cat runs out without any further trouble, it actually goes like this: Feral Cat sees me approach and breaks into an all out sprint--still inside the Spitfire--which just rips the stakes loose and collapses the Spitfire. Now Feral Cat is REALLY mad. Feral Cat continues to sprint, wrapped up inside the noseeum netting and nylon, all around the yard before landing on a pile of debris behind the laundry room. On top of an old rusty ironing board. At this point I'm able to grab onto one of the tent poles and slowly reach down and unzip the door. Feral Cat is free. Spitfire is down for the count.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to repair ripped noseeum netting (think dozens of dime to hand sized holes) and torn nylon?
Feral Cat 1, Spitfire 0
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