Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Morning exercise

I have been enjoying my first few days of vacation, trying to accomplish things here and there between missing my "kids" (Molly camping with her boyfriend and his family and Michael living and working on the coast for the summer.) and just taking time to breathe.  I slept in this morning and then spent some time online.  You know -- flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader -- all the usual suspects.  Finally I decided that it was time for a latte and to make a few more gathered clutches.  Just a few.

Zipper Confidence

As I was about to start my cutting at the dining room table, I noticed that my sweet little cat, Samantha, was on the top of the living room couch looking behind it and on full alert.  She was actually quivering a little.  I immediately suspected a mouse.  I stopped, listened, and definitely heard something moving under or behind the couch.  Something much larger than a mouse.  I looked behind the couch and saw the back part of a cat disappearing under the couch.  It obviously wasn't Sammy (who is all white) and obviously wasn't Bonnie (all black), but was orange and gray and kind of mottled in color.  And then Bonnie appeared around the back of the other end of the couch, and I realized that my two sweet girls had trapped this intruder cat under the couch.  Sammy never hisses or growls, but Bonnie sure does, and she growled at the intruder.  The trapped cat started growling too, and both of my cats began "circling" the couch.  

Now Bonnie and Sammy are house cats.  They have never been outside or interacted with other cats (except through the window).  Sammy is 100% sweet, but skittish around anyone but her family. Bonnie, on the other hand, is about 5% sweet and 95% cranky.

Samantha Joy, ready to attack...a string of binding.

Bonnie Elizabeth: "My way or the highway."

Either way, I figured they would not do well in a fight.  I did not want a cat fight in my living room, and I did not want to see my cats hurt!  As they moved restlessly around the couch and the trapped cat growled louder, I started to panic and scream.  I called and called to Samantha and Bonnie to herd them upstairs and lock them safely in a bedroom, but even Sammy would not come.  I ran to the laundry room to grab a broom and noticed that the door from the laundry room into the garage was open and so was the garage door.  So that mystery was solved.  That darn cat walked in through the laundry room, walked around the kitchen, down the hall, and past the dining room to end up in my living room!  I grabbed a broom from the laundry room and a large pizza pan from the kitchen as I ran back to the living room.  I banged and waved the pizza pan at Bonnie (still yelling and screaming) and slowly backed her up the stairs and down the hall.  I shut her up in the office and Sammy in my bedroom and went back downstairs.  

The cat under the couch was pretty quiet, but I cannot believe how hard I was breathing.  I was afraid to look (visions of the squirrel flying out of the Christmas tree onto Chevy Chase in the movie, Christmas Vacation),


so I poked around under the couch with the broom.  Lot of growling -- like a desperate cat that might just be capable of anything.  I opened the front door and thought about how to scare the cat out from under the couch and out the door.  My husband is an elementary school principal, and earlier this summer there was a squirrel in one of the classrooms.  He and a couple of friends made a sort of chute leading to an outside door, so I used furniture and anything I could find to block the stairs and anything past the front door.  I poked around under the couch with the broom past where I thought the cat might be, but got no response. ( Oh -- did I mention that my husband was in a meeting and I was frantically texting him the whole time?)  I finally got braver, moved the broom closer to the area I thought the cat was in, and came up against something.  Two gentle nudges with the broom and the cat came out from under the couch and ran away from me toward the front door.  It almost went past, saw my barrier, and slunk out the front door.  Whew!


The funny thing to me is that after all the excitement was over, I realized that I had been yelling and screaming with most of the downstairs windows open.  A man has been working outside in the yard across the street all morning and didn't even bother to come over and see what the fuss was about!  Good to know!

Bonnie is still guarding the living room, but Sammy is now staying close to me.  I'm wondering if it's too early for a margarita.... 

21 comments:

  1. This had me chuckling, Joan! Glad the excitement is over with no one the worse for wear! Can you believe the chutzpah of that cat to come in and make himself at home? You need to hang a "No Vacancies" sign up!

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  2. LOL! What an exciting morning. I would be beside myself if a strange cat wandered in to our house...

    I think you have earned yourself an early margarita for sure!

    Jennifer :)

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  3. I was thinking of the squirrel idea or any other animal such as a raccoon because something about pissed off kitties scares the crap out of me!! Go pour yourself a margarita sweetie--you deserve it!

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  4. It's never too early for a margarita.

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  5. Haha, I was just going to say exactly what Vicki @Dotty Jane said. You deserve a margarita...or two.

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  6. Yikes, that is a very harrowing morning! Hope you had that margarita!

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  7. Love your recap of what happened, as if I were there too! BUT it sounds frightening! My cats would have freaked too. One would have run away, and the other would have growled and hissed. I just hate those sounds from cats. I certainly hope you've had that margarita by now!

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  8. Oh yes, you deserve a margarita! What an adventure! :-)
    A few years ago we lived in an attic apartment, and when we had the skylights open, a neighbour cat visited us. She climbed onto the garage and then on the roof and came through the window. She did this quite often, stayed for one or two hours and then disappeared. But we had no cats or other pets, so she was very welcome. (Pets were forbidden in our house, and I always liked the thought that she made her way into our flat do unnoticed.)
    Cats can be really fearless in exploring foreign territories!

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  9. Hi Joan - have a great vacation, and good luck with those zippers! looks like to are going into full out production mode. i enjoyed the story about your cats...

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  10. What a story!! I think that if you hadn't been able to get your cats out of the room, a fight definitely would have ensued. That would not have been pretty. But success!! Who cares about the man working outside anyway.... right?

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  11. Better cats than bats...Treasure and I woke up with one of those in the bedroom once!! We screamed too!!!! How was the margarita? Oh, and I hope that one of those clutches is Jennifer Paganelli fabric!!! Been adding to the charms you sent me.

    Blessings,

    KT

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  12. Never too early for a margarita! What an adventure for something first in the morning. I love the pizza pan sheild and broom sword. Hail the conquering hero!

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  13. Joan, I am loving your cat story. Do you have time to come over and teach my cat how to catch moles? I think you'd be good at it! LOL

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  14. Maybe the man in the yard had ear phones in listening to music. Oh poor you, I would have had something to calm the nerves.
    Back to the zips, I like your positive attitude in buying enough to keep going with those lovely pouches.

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  15. Oh my goodness Joan! Totally like Christmas vacation! A cat getting into my house is a huge fear of mine since I loath crazy outdoor cats. I can't believe your neighbor didn't check on you!!

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  16. Oh my - a stowaway cat! Glad that no one was injured in the telling of that story :)

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  17. I'm cracking up over the 'Christmas Vacation' reference! I hope the rest of your day was less exciting... Can't wait to see what you create with all those yummy zippers!

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  18. What clever cats you have! I would like to have been there to see the commotion!

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  19. I so understand what happened to you. Similar thing happened to me last year except the intruder was a lizard. I tell you open plan is not condeucive (apologies if this is spelt wrong) to herding out a lizard. Mega adrelaline rush though eh?

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  20. LOL
    Thank you for sharing, I could 'see' the whole thing happening! Great story! Happy there was a happy ending! i am sure you are so proud of yur kitties!
    :)

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