Oh sweet Great Pumpkin cats are hard on the heart.: seanan

Oh sweet Great Pumpkin cats are hard on the heart.

Thomas can open doors.

Thomas has been able to open doors for a while now.

Thomas has never previously opened the front door. So this was new.

I got up to get ready for bed and discovered the front door of the house standing open, and an utter absence of cats. This, naturally, triggered INSTANT HYSTERIA, and lots of frenzied cat-calling, which probably frightened the neighbors.

Lilly came immediately, looking faintly ashamed of herself, and limping slightly. Thomas was in the yard, sniffing things, and came when called. I closed the door and turned to inspect Lilly's paw...during which pause Thomas OPENED THE DOOR again and let himself back outside.

I retrieved Thomas, called my mother, put on trousers, went outside, locked the door, and began searching the neighborhood for Alice. I found her halfway down the block, investigating someone's garden. I got her to come by clanging a can of wet food with a fork. She's mad now because she didn't get treats. I'm mad because, well. ESCAPING ISN'T COOL. Poor Vixy got me calling her in hysterics, wailing about how they got out.

All three cats are fine and uninjured. I cannot sleep. I have notified work that I'm going to be in late tomorrow, because there's no way I'm sleeping in the next hour. And from now on, the front door is locked even when I'm in the house.

Stupid cats.

mel_redcap

June 23 2011, 06:10:43 UTC 6 years ago

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My aunt's friend used to breed Siamese cats, and one time I got to visit and watch as her tom took the latest litter around the house, teaching them how to open all the doors. She'd long since changed the front and back door locks (on very old, old-fashioned, MASSIVELY THICK HARDWOOD doors, that was a production) so he couldn't actually get out, but had resigned herself to the fact that shutting the cats in or out of a room never worked. :P

*hugs* So glad your kitties are all fine, I hope Lilly's paw is nothing serious. Locking doors is good!

hoppytoad79

June 23 2011, 08:06:02 UTC 6 years ago

one time I got to visit and watch as her tom took the latest litter around the house, teaching them how to open all the doors.

*falls over laughing* The mental image is hysterical. Wish I could've seen it.

June 23 2011, 09:06:41 UTC 6 years ago

It was indeed hilarious! She had all old-fashioned round china doorknobs (with flowers painted on them even, it was a very old house) that are hard even for humans to open if you've got damp hands etc, but it didn't stop him! He'd jump up, wrap both front paws around the knob, and sort of shuffle them to get it to turn, then kick off with his back paws and use his body weight to bump the door open. The kittens picked it up fairly fast, too, so she had to warn everyone who bought a furbaby from her. XD

netpositive

June 23 2011, 11:41:52 UTC 6 years ago

Oh man, I really could use this cat in our current house, where we have a glass doorknob for one bedroom which can lock people inside the room. We even replaced the knob with a similar one, and the same thing has gone wrong with it. *rolls eyes*

June 23 2011, 09:10:14 UTC 6 years ago

I forgot to mention that I also once had a cat that couldn't open latched doors but could and did open any door that wasn't quite shut properly, even if it was wedged. This included opening the back door multiple times when the power cord for the woodchipper was jamming it - not to go out herself, but in the apparent hope that my housemate's Loon Cat would go out and "investigate" the funny noisy thing. It nearly worked. :P

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Oh sweet Great Pumpkin cats are hard on the heart.

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