Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: scared
  • Music: Counting Crows, "Murder of One."

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.
Tags: alice, cats, freaking out, lilly, thomas
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  • 220 comments

archangelbeth

June 23 2011, 14:28:18 UTC 6 years ago

For a while, a bunch of my cats were confined in the (fairly large) kitchen/dining nook/washer-dryer-room area. (Long story why that includes O:p faces.) One of the doors was a swinging-either-way door that went into the Formal Dining Room. Obviously, they could push, and it would swing out and they could get into the rest of the house, so that got a weight put on it so one had to reach up or down and pull on the door, or just push hard and put the weight back after going through.

Then one of the cats learned how to slip a paw under and pull the door towards him. I'm not sure which cat originated it, but at least a few of the others picked it up, including my Good Ol' Boy of the time, who was definitely not stupid even though he acted it. (Unlike the Ditz of the time, who really was as stupid as she acted. Sweet and loving, but the brains of a rock.) So we had to weight the door at night on both sides to keep them from getting loose.

And then there was the tiny bathroom, which had a lever-handle. Confining one cat in there, even temporarily, quickly became infeasible. They'd either climb on the sink and then try to stand on the lever-handle to yell, thus getting out, or they'd learn how to reach up and pull down the handle.

Handle doors + cats = not such a good idea, sometimes. (I don't know why the current lot haven't figured that out, since we have a handle door on our bedroom, where they are not usually allowed... But they don't reach up to pull it. They only rely on the door not fitting right and try to bump it down open. THUD.)

I'm glad you got the lot of them back relatively easily!

seanan_mcguire

June 23 2011, 15:49:12 UTC 6 years ago

Once I hit Seattle, all indoor doors EXCEPT the guest room will have handles.

digitaleopard

June 23 2011, 16:51:30 UTC 6 years ago

Now I'm picturing you locked in the guest room, with them sitting outside, having pushed the door shut on you. "So how do *you* like it?"