Fun among the Roses

My cute little Chico Suave has realized that he is a male cat and therefore he must make sure that everyone is aware of HIS territory. You know how cats do that right? So after making sure that the messes were completely unrelated to the condition of the litter pan, I decided that he either needed a new address or he was going to become an outdoor cat at the barn where all reject cats go. This plan was implemented immediately after he marked my church bag with his special brand of cat cologne. First, we put him in the garage and barricaded the cat door with laundry detergent. This didn't work, he was back in the house in seconds. Next, we piled heavy stuff on the laundry detergent container and on the other side of the door, we put the kitty litter container. He was back in the house in a few minutes. We needed a new plan.

Not trusting him to hold "it" until I could take him to the barn, I made the decision to put him in the backyard. Ah, he was in heaven. He stayed out there for several hours, perfectly content and not even leaving the back yard. We had found a compromise that worked for both of us. He could have the back yard anytime he wanted and my church bag will feel safer once it has recovered from the multiple washings. The only snag is that my sweet, loveable puppy thinks that it is lots of fun to chase cats when he is outside with them. Maybe it's because he can get better traction out on the grass than in the house with the hardwood floors. For whatever reason, he really likes to send them up the nearest tree or fence post and we've had to be extra careful to not turn Max out with his new furry chew toy that makes fun noises and runs really fast. I learned the hard way.

The other night I assured the girls that it would be fine, and I turned Max out with the cat. Max ran after the cat and the cat ran straight into the rose bush in the back yard. The dog thought this was great and he started racing around the yard. I hollered and yelled at him to get in the house, and he loved it, thinking we were playing a great game! He barked and jumped at me several times before tearing off again.

I was getting pretty worked up at my inability to get the dog in the house so the cat could come in. I was barefoot, so I decided to put my husband's yard shoes on and go get the cat out of the rose bush. And I admit, I was hoping that dog would get close enough to me and bark, just one more time. I got the cat in my arms and the dog came up behind me, I knew curiosity would get him close enough. I spun around to give him one good kick, and the over-sized shoe flew off my foot. I lost my balance, putting my now bare foot onto the rose branches on the ground to keep from falling. I gasped a time or two, and was able to put the shoe back on and somehow hold onto the cat. I did manage to scare the dog away while I was putting new holes into my foot and I was somehow able to impress upon him that I wasn't playing a game and he needed to get into the house. I think my voice had a new tone, one born of pain and something else, something that made a deep impression on him to stay out of the way. We all made it inside, the cat, the dog and I. I sat down and pulled my punctured foot up, removing one thorn that hadn't quite made it back out. That was fun. I love my animals.