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Subject:
I think I can trust you not to get angry ..
March 11/02
Because this is a funny
episode. I feel I have to pass this on, even if you
decide to repossess Alfie (but you'll have to come with
lawyers and cops)...
First, I have to tell you
that Alfie is the love of our lives. Everyone adores
him. We fight over who gets to sleep with him. I
think we are Burmese-addicted. I apologize to all
those rescue cats who will probably never be adopted by
us.
As you may have surmised
when you saw our house, (although we did not expect it), a
Burmese is smart enough to figure out a dog door. At
first we didn't know he was going out, because he was
sneaky - until we started finding garter snakes in the
house, both dead and alive.
We had to figure out
something to do. First, we don't want our cats
outside. Second, I promised you that he would not go
outside. Third, he was bringing in things that
are better left outside. On the other hand, we don't
want to play doggy-butler for the next x-number of years.
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So, it was man against
cat. My husband put his prodigious brain to the task,
and after some false starts, he developed a way to let the
dog out and keep the cat in.
He got a sensor and a tiny
tag that sets off the sensor. He programmed the
sensor to set off a siren when the tag gets too
close. Then he put the sensor on the dog door, and
the tag on Alfie's collar. The siren goes off for as
long as the tag is too close to the sensor. |
The first time Alfie tried
to go out the newly-sensored door, the siren went
off. He leaped in the air and ran into the
wall. I was not there, although the sadists I
live with tell me that it was very funny.
Over the next few days, he
tried every way to outfox the siren - going slowly, going
fast, trying one side, trying the other side, even trying
to run out with the dog, since the dog was not sirened. He
was never successful.
He started looking at the
door in frustration and howling. He was really pissed
off. He went to my son's room and started hunting
Beany Babies. He would take them off the desktops and
computer monitor, drag his "prey" under my bed,
and kill it. He tried to hunt Ernie too. (More
than usual). Ernie was not amused. He even
started pouncing on Teddy, who ignored him.
He has finally, after some
time, resigned himself to being in the house, although now
he is always on the lookout for new and more interesting
adventures. His latest adventure is attacking the
paper as it comes out of the printer.
Life with him is never
dull.
Debbie
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