We’ve had two cats now. The first one took 18mo to figure out that he could get out of the garage we put him in overnight, and this last one has figured out how to get out of the garden shed we have to keep him in. This was after putting him in the laundry for a week or two.
The decision to put him where we do is because of the damage he’s caused to much of the stuff we have in boxes. Many of the boxes were actually shredded from his clawing / stretching / doing what cats do. The laundry here is a little small for him: only room enough for a poo-tray, water, food-bowl, and carry-box.
But after a while I realised that the garden shed, which is lockable, is bigger, despite having more stuff in it (mower, weed-whippers, empty rubbish bins, etc etc). But the shed, along with the rest of the place, hasn’t been kept really well, and the door has started to jam and the lock-hasp didn’t quite make it up to the staple. So I just put the house-brick in front of it and left it at that.
But at 0300 today came a knock at the door. It was the cat. He’d got out. The reason we didn’t let him sleep with us is, well, if you’re a cat-owner, you’d know about the ungodly-hour calls – he had learned that knocking on the wardrobe doors makes a noise which makes us get up and attend to him (even if it was to lock him in the laundry for the next couple of hours).
But this morning, after he came in, he just went to the sofa, and slept there until we got up. I think he knew he’d done the wrong thing. Strange creature.
Other things our strange creature does is refuse to use the cat door to leave the house, or when we’re at home or awake. He will use his door when we’re at home and asleep, and when we’re out and left him out of the house. We’re considering getting a step so the dog can use it as well.
Pets - can't live with them; can't live without them.
Woke up this morning to see the cat at our back door. He had escaped again. This time the staple-and-hasp were secure at one end, and the house-brick at the other. Obviously this is not sufficient and we'll need to look into this for tonight.
ReplyDeleteAnother point is the interrelationship between our 8mo boy and this cat (both the cat and dog, actually). Now the boy is mobile, neither the cat nor the dog know how to handle him, and take discretion as the better part of valour. Cat chose discretion on the other side of the back-door today, but as boy and I were lying there for our first nap today, there came a knock at the door. Cat wanted back in.