Janell reminded me that I never shared the story about the intruder we had a couple of weeks ago. I have really been trying to supress the memory, but since she asked I dredged it back up :)
At night & sometimes during the day, we put the cats in the basement. At night b/c they annoy you to the point you can’t sleep and they get Kya-Lou all riled up. During the day b/c the devils have figured out how to open cabinets, and make big messes when left to their own devices…. In retrospect, it probably isn’t a good idea, but we have opened the window in the basement so they can sit in the sill and sun themselves & get fresh air. They love it. We have been doing this for like 4 years, and never any incident.
Bobby had class this particular week, so he was going to leave @ 7:00 to figure out where he needed to go at West GA, and to get a parking spot. He left, but came back in. He asked me if I had been in the basement b/c the screen was out of the window and lying in the flower bed. He said he didn’t see the cats, but he was going to walk down there & look. I just said if they were missing, we couldn’t tell J yet. I would come home at lunch & look, we could pay the kids on spring break to look; etc. When he opened the door a big, longhair black cat ran across the room and into the now closed window (Bobby had pushed it down from the outside). Apparently the thing was going ballistic, b/c Bobby flew back up the stairs & slammed the door. He went back outside, raised the window, and then back down into the basement.
No sign of our 2 cats, and the intruder had gotten so scared that he buried himself under the treadmill in the junk room. I’m thinking how on earth is this going to work…..our cats are MIA (we are assuming outside, which they never go), and a rogue, stray cat is our house!!!!! Bobby opens the door to the outside and goes back in to scare the cat out. I decide to iron my shirt for work b/c I already have 10 minutes invested in this that I didn’t account for, and I needed to get back on track.
While I am ironing, I hear a big “PLOP”, and I recognize it as a cat falling out of the ceiling onto the washer lid. Sadly, it is a regular occurrence at our house, as our kitties love to sit on the rafters. There is one part of the laundry room that they can get up there on them b/c the ceiling was removed (and never been replaced by slacker husband!) It just happens to be over the washing machine…..I have digressed. Anyway, it is Cleo – J’s cat. Whew, if one had to be missing, it did NOT need to be her. So I walked over to her, and she just had a glazed stare on her face, and I could tell she was nervous. I patted her, and asked Bobby what to do with her (he was in the other room slamming stuff around trying to get the other one out of there). He told me to put her in the main part of the house and shut the door. Cleo was so nervous, that when I went to scoop her up, she jumped back onto the rafter. UGH!
I finally sweet talked her, and she came down. I took her upstairs, and came back down. As I was coming down the steps, a black blur ran across in front of me, and out the door. I ran to the door and caught a glimpse, and it was a fairly good size cat.
So Bobby goes to work, and I start back ironing. I’m thinking the scenario thru…. we are down to missing one cat and the bandit is out. I’m feeling pretty confident that I can handle this. Buzz is a chow hound and a home body. I’m thinking it won’t be long before she shows back up. Of the 2, she is the bad butt, so we knew she was taking advantage of the freedom. About this time, who do you think comes slinking out of the space where the hot water tank is? Yep, BBB (Bad Butt Buzz), only now she is WTB (Whooped Tail Buzz). I swear that cat was so loooowwwww to the ground, and she was slinking like a snake. She also had that glazed look on her face. I spoke to her, and she never acknowledged me. She got to the steps, could see the door cracked from where Bobby had left, and took off like a rocket up those steps. She slammed the door open, and ran into the wall upstairs and about 4 feet up it before she hit the floor – it was crazy!
I ran upstairs to check on her, and poor thing was literally panting! It takes a lot to get a cat to pant! Anyway, they were both mentally fried that morning. I had decided to leave the basement door opened so they could roam the house today, but I went down to the basement to leave them some food so they would not go on scavenger hunt thru my cabinets. They wouldn’t even go down there to eat, so it must have been a freakish experience. These cats are usually at your feet at the first crinkle of the bag.
I can only figure that they were lounging in the window sill, psychotic black cat walks by, my girls hiss/growl at it b/c there is a screen b/w them, psycho cat jumps on the ledge, he pulls the screen out, and the rest is a nightmare for my cats! The curtains had been pulled down, so there must have been some sort of altercation. They are balloon valances, and they only hang half way down the window – so there must have been some air action in the altercation.
I mean – what kind of Monday are you set up for when you wake up and a strange cat has broken into your house?!
Here are our 2 spoiled rotten cats at better moments in their lives :)
Have a good one!
~MM
