Kepler made quite a splash on Milford Street last week. We let him outdoors for the first time last Saturday. He promptly disappeared, and returned several hours later, looking no worse for wear or alarmed at all. We assumed he stayed close to the house and perhaps slept under the porch. Letting a cat out in the suburbs can be chancy. There are other cats who already think our house is their territory. Cats can get stuck in cars or garages, or get caught in garage doors. There are always cars, and we've also had coyotes in the neighborhood. His first outing
seemed to go well.
That evening, I received a call from my mom, who had been told by her next-door-neighbor Sue that she received a phone call from Jack early Saturday, who lives two doors down from us. (Got all that?) Apparently, Jack awoke Saturday morning to a strange black and white cat
in his bed. I can only assume some swearing and yelling were exchanged by all parties. His dog chased the cat around the house, who jumped up on counters, knocked several things over, and peed on something. The cat was frantic and hissed a lot, which seemed to scare Jack. The cat finally found refuge under his couch, and he couldn't get the cat out. He called Sue, who is the Street Authority on Cats, to see if she knew of a black and white cat that had moved in to the neighborhood. She hadn't met Kepler yet, so he assumed it was a stray and called Animal Control.
Animal Control came, took one look at the cat, and declared that he looked too healthy (let's read fat) to be a stray, and refused to take him. Instead, he told Jack to open his doors and leave the cat alone so the cat could leave once it calmed down. Eventually, the cat walked out.
As it turns out, Jack had left his patio door open. I don't know why. Our assumption is that Kepler walked down a few doors and mistook his patio doors for ours, walked in, and decided to go back to sleep. I think the two houses have a similar layout, so he could have walked into the master bedroom without much fuss. I can't imagine who was more terrified when he jumped into the bed, Jack or Kepler. From what Sue said, all of this happened before I'd thought we let Kepler out for the morning, but I figure it must have been Kepler. There are lots of outdoor cats on the street, but we never see strays. It's too much of a coincidence. I was mortified.
The really awkward thing about all this is that I hadn't met Jack yet. He moved into the neighborhood earlier this year. This is not a great way to make friends. I caught him outside yesterday, and he wasn't angry at all. He had to admit that he did leave his door wide open, and cats don't exactly understand property rights. We're lucky he's an animal person.
While none of the other cats around here wear collars and tags, I'm not letting Kepler out again until I get him one. We're just lucky he was so fat the Animal Control officer didn't take him.
That seems to be ok with Kepler, who has not tried to get out since Saturday.
Other than that little escapade, we're all doing well here. I accomplished the major task of Organizing Our Books and Putting Them On Shelves last weekend, and only had to buy two large bookshelves in order to do it. They're in place, sorted by topic and size. They need a tiny bit of fine-tuning, but I'm generally satisfied. My more valued books are up higher to help keep them safe in months to come. That freed up lots of space in the basement, so I've been re-organizing things down there in my spare time. (Read late at night, gosh there are lots of spiders down there!) It's going slow, but I'm pleased.
Noah is cutting a tooth, and is not pleased at all. In fact, he's rather miserable. What's driving me nuts is that he absolutely will not tolerate having me out of sight, or even out of my arms, even for a second. He turns red, opens his mouth and screams (showing off said tooth). It's not a cry of pain, or even frustration. This is anger. He is MAD. (How mad? See
this.) The minute I return he stops crying and smiles. I've tried playing pee-a-boo around corners with him, which worked when we first moved. He totally gets "peek-a-boo" and plays it with me all the time. It's not helping this time.
My solution yesterday was to let him scream in his crib for the few minutes I switched laundry or went to the bathroom. I don't know what else to do, and although I feel bad, I know he's just mad. He's generally cranky right now anyway, so there aren't too many things he's enjoying right now. I'm hoping this neediness is just a result of the discomfort from his tooth. If it's from the tooth, he'll get over it in the next few days (at least until the next tooth). If it isn't, he's going to have to learn that I can't carry him around on my hip 24/7. If nothing else, a gal has to pee occasionally.
I did go out and buy some Baby Orgel. I have to say, that stuff tastes terrible. Noah thinks so, too, although after the shock wears off it does seem to help. He hasn't shown any interest in any of his teethers, and generally prefers my fingers. He'll be trying frozen washclothes today.
I'm lucky today: he's taking a nice long morning nap. Hopefully, this will help the day move along.
