In which Lilly attempts to be a public menace.: seanan

In which Lilly attempts to be a public menace.

Lilly has managed to get out -- accidentally, but out is still out -- twice in the past few months. Being blazingly intelligent and essentially fearless, she really doesn't understand that the world outside the house would be happy to cause her extreme bodily harm. Sadly, I understand this all too well, and basically age five years every time she gets out.

Since I'd like to live long enough to finish all the books I'm writing, I decided it was time to Take Certain Steps towards securing Lilly's safety. Step one was a collar (tragically with bell). She tolerated the collar with astonishingly good grace, and so tonight, while I was out running errands, I instigated step two.

I bought her a tag.

The front of it says 'Lilly'* and gives my phone number; the back says, in large, friendly letters, 'INDOOR CAT.' Hopefully, this means that if she gets out, anyone who finds her will realize that she doesn't belong there, and contact me. My address isn't on the tag, simply because that would require it either be very large (which she wouldn't tolerate), or that the text be very small (which makes it less likely that people will actually read it).

She has her tag and her cursed bell now, and has discovered that the two of them together can be used to make a hideous cacophony as she trots around the house. On the plus side, this means I always know where my cat is. And that's...soothing.

(*Her full name is Lillian Kane Moskowitz Munster Cavanaugh-Sawyer McGuire. That definitely wasn't going to fit on a tag.)

spiritdance

December 11 2008, 03:28:51 UTC 8 years ago

New comment

Y'know, most cats figure out how to walk about _without_ letting the bells ring, when they want to be sneaky :-) (just in case it gets suddenly quiet around the house...)

seanan_mcguire

December 11 2008, 04:03:57 UTC 8 years ago

She likes having my attention. The ringing is her new delight.

mariadkins

December 11 2008, 16:02:00 UTC 8 years ago

Grey Lady loved her bell! We made the mistake *once* of getting her a collar without a bell, and she pouted until the next payday. LOL She'd sit and scratch the collar to get it to spin around her neck so her tags and bell would rattle. Talk about a racket!

palmer_kun

December 11 2008, 03:29:02 UTC 8 years ago

Much like our house, with our outdoor cat. We belled her anyways because she likes to come in at night so we need to be able to find her.

We now call her Jingle Cat.

Look on the bright side... Lilly is now both seasonal, and good at scaring off spooks for you! (I realize the latter is both a positive and negative)

December 11 2008, 04:04:09 UTC 8 years ago

I'm gonna miss my spooks...

December 11 2008, 04:14:05 UTC 8 years ago

You're really going to miss those pesky spying CIA operatives?

I doubt anything could keep ghosts away from you...

8 years ago

lisa_marli

December 11 2008, 03:37:48 UTC 8 years ago

Siamese are way too cleaver for their owner's sense of sanity.
Have you gotten her microchipped? The vet sets it up and all the various manufacturers have a registration system. You give them your information and if Lilly gets picked up, even by the dog catcher, even if she has lost her collar, they will scan for a chip and get in contact with you.
They still say put a collar on the animal, as us dumb people don't have the scanners, but if we see a collar with a phone # we will call it.
May you have Lilly for a long and happy cat life. She is an adorable little pest. :D

December 11 2008, 04:04:57 UTC 8 years ago

That's the next step in the master 'don't lose Lilly' plan. I wanted to get her used to the idea of the collar before I tried to get her used to the idea of the giant needle.

We're going to the Pet Food Express for PHOTO WITH SANTA next weekend.

December 11 2008, 04:15:12 UTC 8 years ago

YOU MUST SHARE THIS PHOTO WITH US.

Once it's taken, of course.

Because yes!

netpositive

emberleo

vaspider

December 11 2008, 04:51:11 UTC 8 years ago

Beat me to it. Microchipping the dogs makes me feel much more secure.

Deleted comment

December 13 2008, 04:47:26 UTC 8 years ago

That's awesome.

arib

December 11 2008, 04:18:09 UTC 8 years ago

That's a whole lot of surnames.

December 13 2008, 04:47:40 UTC 8 years ago

And when she breaks something, they all get used.

December 11 2008, 09:04:02 UTC 8 years ago

You could always have her full name embroidered onto the collar band...

--Ember--

December 13 2008, 04:47:49 UTC 8 years ago

Hee!

December 11 2008, 15:57:58 UTC 8 years ago

Is she microchipped? We adopted Kitty, but Fayette County Humane Society chips all its adoptees. Even so, she has her rabies tag and her license on her collar. And a bell. She's terrified of outside, though. I took her out to see the snow the other day, and she climbed over me to get back inside the house.

December 13 2008, 04:47:58 UTC 8 years ago

Not yet, but she will be.

droewyn

December 11 2008, 18:12:07 UTC 8 years ago

Hurray for substantial cat names!

My girlfriend's cat is named Miss Aloysius Huffenstein the First, and while my Folderol (Folly) doesn't have any official middle names, I tend to make up a string of them on the spot so that I can yell at her properly when she's trying to kill me on the stairs.