A Stranger through the cat flap...

Joy wrote:

Yes, cat flaps make life interesting.

A guy I used to work with told us a story about waking up in the
middle of the night to find his cats, plus 3 or 4 of the neighborhood
cats, all peacefully asleep on his bed. It was like his cats had spread
the word to the neighborhood, "Party at our house tonight!" and they
had all come over, made themselves comfortable, and settled down to
sleep.

Joyce

HRFLTiger wrote:
I have just had the most *INSANE* 1/2 hour. I've just been trying to
catch the local thug tom who came in through my cat flap. I found him
in the bread bin of all places, and I don't know who was more shocked
to see the other, me or him. He predictably freaked out and proceeded
to trash the kitchen in his panic. "His Royal Feline Lordship Tiberius
Maximus Tiger" didn't exactly help matters, by taking exception to the
stranger in his house and trying to beat the holy crap out of him
because he looked at mommy wrong & hissed.

Thank Bast for guantlets, a wealth of experience dealing with wild
cats, and a calm disposition. Eventually the stranger was caught and
turfed out of the kitchen door gently, and everybody was given a
cat-nip party so that things could calm down. All 5 of the Miles
Clowder are now stoned out of their tiny kitty minds in front of the
fire. Me OTOH has got to get in the right frame of mind to clean up
the kitchen. ::sigh::

Helen M

When you said you found him in the bread bin, I imediately thought of Derick
Longden, his mother's cat liked to sleep in the bread bin so when she got
another cat she bought him his own bread bin. Derick Longden has written
some wonderful books about cats, well worth reading.

Purrs for the kitchen clean up, I hope nothing was broken.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy and Bagheera)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart.
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine that used to have 5 cats,
2 of them black brothers - identical to look at - very different in
temperament. She came home one day and saw all the cats, then did a
double take as there were 3 black cats on the sofa, all sleeping
peacefully!

Marcia

wrote:
Joy wrote:

Yes, cat flaps make life interesting.

A guy I used to work with told us a story about waking up in the
middle of the night to find his cats, plus 3 or 4 of the neighborhood
cats, all peacefully asleep on his bed. It was like his cats had spread
the word to the neighborhood, "Party at our house tonight!" and they
had all come over, made themselves comfortable, and settled down to
sleep.

Joyce

"PatM" wrote in news:1146028261.384646.303510
@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com:

When our son was in kindergarden and we still lived in rural
California, I had to go talk to our neighbors down the road because we
found out their little boy was slipping into our place when we left and
making like Goldilocks. He wasn't a bad child...only about 5yrs
old...but his mom and dad let him do pretty much as he pleased and any
blame I put on them and only feel sorry for the kid. By now he must be
a mess. One time he threw rocks at a peacock until he hit it in the
head and killed it. They expressed no concern, no remorse about what
happened, just let it lie in their yard and rot. Another time dad left
his keys in the truck so sonny boy turned it on and managed to drive it
into the ditch. So, anyway, we sure didn't want him crawling through
our kitty door!

Stories like this make me sad. There was a kid two doors down from me a
few years back who was a hooligan, right from toddler-age. The thing
that always made me mad was that in the right parental hands, he could
have been amazing - if his talents had been channelled a little better.
I'm pretty sure he's either dead or in jail by now. Poor kid.

We also had racoons that joined us many mornings for
coffee. The first time they discovered the kitty door we were sitting
at the table reading the paper and wondering why on earth the cats were
messing around with the flap...lifting it up and letting it fall again
and again. Then we noticed a decidedly non-feline pointy nose poking
around the corner, followed by two curious round black eyes..... They
were always very polite, but about this time, between kids and racoons,
we started locking the door!

They are very polite at first - but if they get food once, they can get
real nasty if they don't get it the next time. Good for you for locking
that door.

Chak

--
At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human
malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity:
idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or
political ideas.
--Aldous Huxley

"Jo Firey" wrote in
. com:

We always have to warn each other not to play with the cats when they
are strung out on nip. They will scratch and bite with out realizing
it.


Yeah, when I brought in the fresh leaves from the plant outside the door,
I always had to drop them, not hold them out. If I had catnip in my
hand, the paw that reached out to my hand always had claws extended -
they weren't going to let that catnip get away.

Chak

--
At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human
malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity:
idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or
political ideas.
--Aldous Huxley

"Jo Firey" wrote in message
. com...

"Joy" wrote in message
. net...
"HRFLTiger" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have just had the most *INSANE* 1/2 hour. I've just been trying to
catch the local thug tom who came in through my cat flap. I found him
in the bread bin of all places, and I don't know who was more shocked
to see the other, me or him. He predictably freaked out and proceeded
to trash the kitchen in his panic. "His Royal Feline Lordship Tiberius
Maximus Tiger" didn't exactly help matters, by taking exception to the
stranger in his house and trying to beat the holy crap out of him
because he looked at mommy wrong & hissed.

Thank Bast for guantlets, a wealth of experience dealing with wild
cats, and a calm disposition. Eventually the stranger was caught and
turfed out of the kitchen door gently, and everybody was given a
cat-nip party so that things could calm down. All 5 of the Miles
Clowder are now stoned out of their tiny kitty minds in front of the
fire. Me OTOH has got to get in the right frame of mind to clean up the
kitchen. ::sigh::

Helen M

Cat flaps can make life interesting, can't they? I haven't had to deal
with
the type of destruction you describe, but I've had a few interesting
experiences too.

There was a neighbor cat who would come in and beat up on my cats.
Often
he
did it in the middle of the night. We had no idea what his name was,
but
I
named him after one incident when we were wakened out of a sound sleep
to
find him going around with one of our cats, both of them yowling at the
top
of their lungs. I said, "Macbeth hath murdered sleep!" After that, we
called him Macbeth.

I've also had to deal with various critters brought inside (usually
alive)
by one of my mighty hunters. These included a baby rabbit (unharmed), a
frog (ditto), a lizard and numerous birds, rats, mice and the occasional
gopher. A couple of times a possum decided to come in on his (her?)
own.

Yes, cat flaps make life interesting.

Joy



There really isn't a lot that compares to waking up from a sound sleep to
find you are sharing your bed with a couple of excited cats and a very
annoyed Blue Jay.

Jo

I guess! That's one of those things that's very humorous to other people,
and maybe to you after the fact, but it sure wouldn't be funny at the time.

Joy

wrote in message
...
Joy wrote:

Yes, cat flaps make life interesting.

A guy I used to work with told us a story about waking up in the
middle of the night to find his cats, plus 3 or 4 of the neighborhood
cats, all peacefully asleep on his bed. It was like his cats had spread
the word to the neighborhood, "Party at our house tonight!" and they
had all come over, made themselves comfortable, and settled down to
sleep.

Joyce

LOL!

Joy

HRFLTiger wrote in message
oups.com...
I have just had the most *INSANE* 1/2 hour. I've just been trying to
catch the local thug tom who came in through my cat flap. I found him
in the bread bin of all places, and I don't know who was more shocked
to see the other, me or him. He predictably freaked out and proceeded
to trash the kitchen in his panic. "His Royal Feline Lordship Tiberius
Maximus Tiger" didn't exactly help matters, by taking exception to the
stranger in his house and trying to beat the holy crap out of him
because he looked at mommy wrong & hissed.

Thank Bast for guantlets, a wealth of experience dealing with wild
cats, and a calm disposition. Eventually the stranger was caught and
turfed out of the kitchen door gently, and everybody was given a
cat-nip party so that things could calm down. All 5 of the Miles
Clowder are now stoned out of their tiny kitty minds in front of the
fire. Me OTOH has got to get in the right frame of mind to clean up the
kitchen. ::sigh::

Helen M


They don't half make a mess don't they? We had a similar experience long ago
when we lived in London, and the tom cat must have ****ed on every surface
in the kitchen as he tried to escape, as well as smashing anything that
wasn't tied down. Purrs for a peaceful night On the positive side, he's
had such a bad time that he's unlikely to return.

Jeanette