We were going away for the weekend and made the serious error of not checking on Jake's whereabouts before we left. Since it was only a brief trip, we'd just put out plenty of food, water and kitty litter and counted on Jake's resourcefulness. Wrong.
When we arrived home Sunday afternoon, there was no Jake-in-the-window, watching for squirrels. When we opened the door, there was no Jake rolling over on command, just to show us how much he missed us. In fact, there was no Jake at all--which was pretty alarming. Then we heard the faint meow of Jake-trapped-somewhere--a sound I'd heard before that had signified the total destruction of my leather jacket that had the misfortune of being trapped WITH Jake in the hall closet.
This time it was the bedroom closet-- fortunately the closet that holds all the things on hangers we don't use much, along with spare sheets and towels and blankets. Needless to say, it was a wreck. All hanging clothes had been separated from their hangers. All shelved items had been de-shelved. All hangers were bent and broken. And Jake was perched on the shelf, hoarsely meowing for all he was worth. Two days without food, drink, or kitty litter fortunately had had little effect on him, or at least, so it appeared.
On the other hand, we had the unwelcome task of removing all items from the closet, disentangling them from fallen hangers and shredded shoeboxes, and always, always, being on the lookout for anything that had been used as a litter substitute. Fortunately, this was not too difficult. The old blanket that had landed on top of the fallen clothing had borne the brunt of Jake's 'accidents', sparing JC's tux and my silk jacket (among other things) from everything but a heavy layer of cat hair and a lot of wrinkles. To be on the safe side, everything washable got washed; everything dry-cleanable went to the drycleaners. The closet was wiped clean and Febreze-d to a fare-thee-well. We're back to normal.
I'd like to say that Jake learned his lesson and now avoids closets like the plague. Not so. Within hours of our return, he had once again strolled into the same closet and had the door shut upon him by mistake. Mea culpa.
Now on the checklist for departures: say 'goodbye' to Jake--face-to-face!
2 comments:
The McElveen cats... There must be a book worth of stories from a lifetime of cats to give us all many laughs.
POOR KITTY! Sadly, my own feline has suffered a ghastly similar fate!
Last night upon arriving home from dinner with the spouse I closed and locked my vehicle. Unknown to me 12 year old Sammy black as the night, had secreted himself inside the car.
Who would have thought that a CAT, of all people,would voluntarily get into the Pontiac?
Fortunately,he has a big mouth and mighty lungs. The MEOWLING caused the dog to bark until I went out, flashlight in hand, to see what was afoot.
There in the anemic beam of light was Sammy, little nose and whiskers pressed against the back window, watching 8 of his 9 lives passing him by!
I opened the door to the tune of the dog barking, "I told you so!"
They both made a beeling for the front door.
He seemed to recover well, but beware! Retaliation will be swift and probably smelly!
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