Speaking of snow experiances... LOOOOOOOOOOOONg & rambling

This happened about 8 years ago, when Tennessee was still fairly active. He
was always trying to get OUT (I swear he used to say "meOUT" instead of
'meow"), but since we live on a busy street, that ain't gonna happen (I see
too many other dead critters) for any of our cats (now he's happy just
sleeping the day(s) away, occasionally playing with the multitude of cat
toys that get in his way when he goes to the food dish or litterbox)

We have a d*g that spends the nights in our utility room, he has access to
outside from there via d*ggy-doors. There's a door to the utility room that
we can close to keep the cats away from the d*ggy-doors (it's a screen door,
one of the wooden ones that's all screen, except we replaced the bottom 1/3
with a decorative wooden panel to keep cats and/or d*g from busting through
the screen down there). A couple of times, a few years back, DH (and, I'll
admit, sometimes myself) wouldn't close that screen door all the way and
Tennessee or Smokey would end up in the utility room (screen door now has a
stronger latch on it, so we are SURE to close it all the way now). Wasn't
long before they figured out the d*ggy-doors (Ivy RB never did). there are
2 d*ggy-doors: on the door that leads to the landing for the (dank, musty,
full of spiders & I-hate-going-down-to) basement, then another that leads
from there to the 'dog run' (small portion of our yard that is fenced in).
Smokey preferred going to the basement to catch meeces (our house was built
in 1925, and Smokey is an ECXELLENT mouser, so was Ivy RB for that matter),
but Tennessee would go OUT. One time he was out all night, we stayed out
past midnight looking for him, but there's very little light in our yard,
and lotsa hiding places for a BLACK cat, so we got 3 hours of sleep, when it
got light outside, we went out to look for him, and as soon as we opened the
back door (I barely got his name out to call for him), he made a beeline
from the bush he spent the night hiding under to his food dish!

Once that happened during the day, but we watched Tennessee do it since we
were home, and it was winter, and there was 6-12 inches of snow on the
ground. He zipped outside when he thought we weren't looking, made it about
10 feet, realized that all that white stuff was not only COLD, but made his
paws wet, and then dashed (at 3x the speed that he dashed OUT) back inside
to warmth. The expression on his face when the realization struck him was
priceless.

Another funny time he got out was through the FRONT door when a pizza
deliver guy was there - it was raining and he made it as far as the first
step before the rain hit him and he about rear-ended himself trying to stop
& reverse direction to get out of the wet stuff!
--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
http://www.geocities.com/the_magic_mood_jeep/
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 19:25:25 GMT, "Magic Mood Jeep©"
wrote:

Another funny time he got out was through the FRONT door when a pizza
deliver guy was there - it was raining and he made it as far as the first
step before the rain hit him and he about rear-ended himself trying to stop
& reverse direction to get out of the wet stuff!

Don't I wish - many of mine delight in going out in the rain until
they are sufficiently wet, then coming in and walking and brushing all
over me and the furniture. If possible they also find a muddy spot
close enough to the door that much of the mud will still be stuck to
their feet.



T.E.D. )
SPAM filter: Messages to this address *must* contain "T.E.D."
somewhere in the body or they will be automatically rejected.

Don't I wish - many of mine delight in going out in the rain until
they are sufficiently wet, then coming in and walking and brushing all
over me and the furniture. If possible they also find a muddy spot
close enough to the door that much of the mud will still be stuck to
their feet.

3 of my 4 try to avoid going out in wet weather. They'll sneak along
under the eaves as best they can, then come back in a couple of minutes
later.

Amelia, though, handles wet weather differently. She'll initially
hesitate to go out, then will stroll out to the back fence, sit in her
favorite clump of weeds, and GLARE at me as I stand in the door
watching. She seems to think that it's MY fault the rain is falling, and
does her best to make me feel guilty for not shutting off that nasty
kitty-soaking rain machine.

If I feel sorry her and go out to talk to her, she'll ask me to pick her
up. When I do she makes sure to plant her muddy, ice-cold paws squarely
in my chest and rub as much mud over my short as she can.

Other than not grasping that rain is a natural phenomonon, she's a very
bright cat. But that rain thing sure has her confused.

Dan

"Ted Davis" wrote

Don't I wish - many of mine delight in going out in the rain until
they are sufficiently wet, then coming in and walking and brushing all
over me and the furniture. If possible they also find a muddy spot
close enough to the door that much of the mud will still be stuck to
their feet.

That's what Nikki does out on the island, too. Preferably in the middle of
the night when I am in bed, and she can come and dry herself off on the
blankets. When she's dry, she rushes back out to get wet again.

--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi