ESCAPING CATS

I have one room in the house that is cat free. The bedroom. In order to get proper air flow through the house Phil installed a latch. It worked for years until Pika realized that she only looks big, she's actually tiny under all that fur and she could slip through a door that is open less than three inches. We have found her in the bedroom several times and as soon as she sees us she zips under the bed. So we leave the door open, hoping she will come out. This invites Minkey in. He knows he's not supposed to be in there either and as soon as he sees us he zips under the bed too. Now there are two zippy cats in my cat-free room.

The other day we couldn't get them out and we had to leave. When we came home we could see they had had a nice cat-nap in my cat-free room on my cat-free bed.

I have been drying tomatoes. Every time I take a tray to the garage to put in the dehydrator Pika escapes to the garage, even though she knows she's not supposed to be there.

Here she is saying, "Ha ha. I'm out here,

looking at all the stuff you worry about me getting into." I don't actually think she'll eat plant food but how would it look if you had to take a cat to the vet with an overdose of Miracle Gro?She won't come when called. If I walk toward her, her usual pokey attitude changes into a Zippidy-do-da one and she zips away. The next time I go to take a tray to the garage she's waiting by the door. "I'll come in now but you can't walk toward me or I'll do my zippy thing again." I have to wait in the kitchen,while she sniffs the door jam and takes her time. Then when she gets inside she stops to grooms herself, as if she were bored with all the zippy behavior.But, she knows I've been going to the garden for more tomatoes so she...plants herself by the slider, waiting for her chance to escape to another forbidden place. The door is open but she's ignoring it, hoping I will leave it open and walk away but I want to see what she'll do."Oh, is that an open door? I had no idea.""I'm sure she meant for me to come outside. I'll just sniff the door jam first."And then she gets serious.In her "serious getting," she sends some kind of inaudible signal to Minkey, who was sound asleep, downstairs. He wakes up with a jerk and races upstairs to find Pika's open door.The both sniff things to make sure they are not going to be stepping on a camouflaged dog.Pilka looks all around for dogs. There hasn't been a dog in the back yard for years and she got along great with Sebastian when he was alive anyway. But she checks, just to make sure.Minkey watches her make her leap to freedom. I caught her and scooted both of them back inside. They don't have claws and I can't take chances that they will get hurt.But, they were not happy. This is what I found later.How does a cat with no claws do this? They must have been really angry at me. Tomorrow they are plotting how to open the bedroom door by themselves and sleep on my pillow. I just know it.